Preemie Awareness Day

I'm writing this post the night before, due to work schedules being hectic.

Earlier this evening, Acorn was sitting cross legged on his bed in his jammies, watching a favorite video. I was sitting immediately behind him, my arms around him, my legs making a circle for him to sit in, and with a hint of a slouch, my chin resting on the top of his head, the little curls at the ends of his hair trying to tickle my nose. He used to sit under my chin like that during kangaroo care...

It seems so strange to me that time flies so quickly - it seems like only a few weeks ago that he was just home from the NICU - as of last week, he's had his trach 2 years, and it can't possibly have been that long.

It can't possibly have been almost 2 1/2 years since he was so tiny that his whole body fit easily between my chin the top of my bra, since he was small enough to fit entirely in my cupped hands.

 And when did he get so big? I carried him for about an hour this weekend, after he fell asleep on our way to a powwow; between sleeping and him being uncomfortable walking in crowds of adults, my arms were killing me, but this used to be my favorite way to hold him for an hour: 

At any rate...

Acorn has a few issues, and while they're minor, they will likely always be a risk factor for other things - asthma and scoliosis are our big worries right now, but we don't know how things will continue to unfold. We have a mostly healthy, really pretty normal toddler, in spite of everything he's been through, and that's the important thing.

But getting here....that's been a long road. Too many babies, and too many families, travel the same road, and I'm glad the March of Dimes is working on figuring out ways to reduce the number of families at risk for the things we've had to experience.