The One Month Milestone

Today Kimber turned one month old.  I woke up chipper and ready to do another day.  I got dressed and skipped my way across the parking lot and road the elevator up to see my Bean!  I softly sung happy birthday to her while I changed her diaper.  I explained to her that she had been in our family for a whole month now, a 12th of a year!  I wrapped her up in her Great Grandma's hand made blanket and plopped down in the rocking chair to celebrate this moment with some serious Kimber snuggling.

You think I'd be used to it by now but that dang NICU roller coaster decided to take my emotions for another little spin as we sat and just watched baby after baby be discharged.  Excited moms brought in new carseats with incredibly cute carseat covers.  Babies were unplugged from monitors and dressed in bright colored, brand new clothing and buckled in tight and then they walked out.  Just like that.  They had ridden this roller coaster to the end and were disembarking and heading off to ride some other ride at this parental amusement park we have apparently bought ourselves a ticket for.

NICU advice from Nurse Suzie Tip #2:

"At some point in this whole experience you are going to mourn the Gerber Baby delivery you had imagined your whole pregnancy.  When that time comes allow yourself to do just that for a moment."

So I did.  I quietly pulled the curtain around our little corner of the room to block out the busy nurses and slightly more developed babies.  I kissed my little girl on her forehead and I just let myself be sad for just a minuet.

Then there was a little squeak and a little bit of squirming in my arms and I looked down. 

Yes, it has been a long hard month and no, this is nothing like I had imagined it but she's still here! And despite all odds she is improving slowly and surely!  I wiped my tears, cracked open Little Brown Koko stories and became determined to enjoy this milestone.

If that wasn't enough to pull myself out of a funk, my wonderful husband hurried "home" from work and excitedly told me he had a surprise.

We enjoyed our first date night in over a month and boy did we ENJOY it!  Ruby River is one of our favorite steak houses. Honestly, I don't know what they do to that meat but it is like candy and just melts in your mouth... It was awesome!  We had a great waiter from Brooklyn who had the best accent and had us laughing and smiling through the whole dinner. 

On our way home from dinner my mom sent me this very timely picture.  This is taken from her yard and my house is LITERALLY at the end of the rainbow.

We reached a milestone today. But the journey isn't over yet! Our discharge day will come but in the meantime we will do our best to enjoy Little Brown Koko stories from the corner of the NICU and Shawn and I will enjoy our nights out with the help of the most expensive babysitting we will ever pay for :)

Life is good here at the NICU!  Happy one month everyone! Thanks for riding this crazy ride with us!