Remembering/Thanks

Greetings,

It seems this past week has flown by. We are still adoring having Elsa home and we raised a shout of joy when she finally stooled for the first time tonight since being home--six days is way too long to be storing it up! She also went for her first walk outside yesterday in the beautiful sunshine. Several neighbors said hi and although she was excited to meet them, she slept right through it. Although I wouldn't change a thing, having Elsa home has made it hard for me to go see Jonas. I have only seen him twice since she has been home and it breaks my heart a little, but I am happy Dan can go and give him some love.

The three of us made the trek to see Jonas on Sunday and for a little while I got to hold both of my babies at the same time. How wonderful! It was just perfect, except that we forgot the camera. Next time. It was surprising to me after holding Elsa so much how big Jonas feels. He is about a pound and a half bigger than she is and he just feels solid. Jonas had the pressure on his nasal cannula turned down today--a good step for him. He continues to do well on his full feeds of breast milk and I was told today that he got in some good snuggling time with one of the nurses last night.

This morning as Elsa was waking up for her first feed in the daylight I started singing a song: "Good morning to you, good morning to you. We're all in our places with bright shining faces. This is the way to start a new day...." As I was singing I remembered this song being sung by my parents, aunts, uncles, and most boisterously by my grandpa Morgan as his eight grand kids finally came upstairs for breakfast during our summer family reunions. It brought tears to my eyes remembering how he loved having us around, how he would give us rides on his tractor, how he would let us help around the garden, how he always called me his girlfriend. Grandpa had a great life and he will be missed. I pray that my grandma Mabel will be able to feel some comfort. His memorial service is tomorrow and I am sad I will not be there, but I know that my family will wrap each other in love as they remember this special man.

On a different note of remembering. I keep forgetting to put this information on our blog, so while I am thinking of it, here goes. The nurses from the NICU and ICN are walking this Saturday in the March of Dimes March for Babies (the babies' auntie Alison is also walking!). I bought some cookies from their bake sale and one of the nurses suggested that I could put their link on our blog. The mission of the March of Dimes is that one day all babies will be born healthy. The money raised goes to support research and programs that help moms have full-term pregnancies and babies begin healthy lives. It has been amazing to me time and time again how even though our babies were so small these professionals knew what to do to help them grow. If you are at all interested in giving to this cause, the direct link to the NICU team who took care of our babies is: www.marchforbabies.org/teams/577564

Thanks God for our babies, for the life of Morgan Hoseth, and for the caring of so many people.

Mari, Dan, Elsa and Jonas