BORN: August 7, 1988 2lbs. 11 ozs. DUE: November 24-27th
Here she is, 2 or 3 weeks old, perhaps 4? Her four long skinny fingers wrapped over my first digit only. Her arms were the same circumference as my pointer finger; her legs like my pinkie…and I have long thin fingers. A long straight nose, it looks like mine! Not her birth hair, no nipples or nails..a struggle for survival for the next 3 or more months!!! The chances she'd be blind, have lung problems, developmental disabilities and/or, Cerebral Palsy, Retardation; or, perhaps dead. A roller coaster--"it will be a ride" the doctors tell us; prayer on our side.
(African-American girls the strongest for survival…and last, Caucasian boys)
Four weeks for sure by now or 5, she's permitted out of bed and I can hold her! Her fingers appear to cover a larger area? Other children are there but the curtain is drawn; their struggle is over, the parents just begun.
They try her on some breast milk around 7 or 8 weeks but she cannot tolerate it. It was not even a drop; if it were continued her intestine would develop necrosis-more complications.
She grows to 5lbs. 1 oz. but is still on a machine; insurance forces her home and the doctors fought to keep her. So home on machines and stuffed in a stocking; her family really loves her and cares around the clock.
By ONE: she's become a MIRACLE: all systems seem GO! But mommy's a therapist so we work head to toe. Tactile and visual, auditory too, is this why God had be become an Occupational Therapist after all this time? Of course having 3 siblings helped welcome her to the world of activity, NOISE!
(to be continued)
Here she is, 2 or 3 weeks old, perhaps 4? Her four long skinny fingers wrapped over my first digit only. Her arms were the same circumference as my pointer finger; her legs like my pinkie…and I have long thin fingers. A long straight nose, it looks like mine! Not her birth hair, no nipples or nails..a struggle for survival for the next 3 or more months!!! The chances she'd be blind, have lung problems, developmental disabilities and/or, Cerebral Palsy, Retardation; or, perhaps dead. A roller coaster--"it will be a ride" the doctors tell us; prayer on our side.
(African-American girls the strongest for survival…and last, Caucasian boys)
Four weeks for sure by now or 5, she's permitted out of bed and I can hold her! Her fingers appear to cover a larger area? Other children are there but the curtain is drawn; their struggle is over, the parents just begun.
They try her on some breast milk around 7 or 8 weeks but she cannot tolerate it. It was not even a drop; if it were continued her intestine would develop necrosis-more complications.
She grows to 5lbs. 1 oz. but is still on a machine; insurance forces her home and the doctors fought to keep her. So home on machines and stuffed in a stocking; her family really loves her and cares around the clock.
By ONE: she's become a MIRACLE: all systems seem GO! But mommy's a therapist so we work head to toe. Tactile and visual, auditory too, is this why God had be become an Occupational Therapist after all this time? Of course having 3 siblings helped welcome her to the world of activity, NOISE!
(to be continued)
