May 31 - first weekend down

Dear Baby,

We have survived our first weekend of being in the hospital. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We had a lot of visitors this weekend so that really helped time go by much faster. Also, your daddy was able to spend the night from Friday night til today. Unfortunately, your daddy had to go back home because he has some things he has to do to get prepared for this week at work. I was really sad to see him go, but understand that he had to get home for a little while. Hopefully he will be able to come back this week as often as I would like. I would also like to thank all my friends who have stopped by to see us this weekend. It is out of the way to get here and every visit was truly appreciated.

Everything is still looking good for us. Our stay in paradise just needs to continue on. All lab work and monitoring shows that we are still in good condition. Last night, the charge nurse from the NICU came by and took us on a tour of the NICU since most likely, you will be spending some time in there. I know that since I will be giving birth prematurely, a stay in the NICU is unavoidable. The nurse showed us one of the suites where babies are brought to. She showed us the different types of beds and we were able to see some of the current residents of the NICU. The babies there seem to be very well taken care of. It was shocking to see how tiny these babies were. There was one baby that was 2.5 pounds and was 35 days old. The nurse was optimistic when we told her that the doctor estimated your weight to already be at 3 pounds 12 ounces. I am hoping that you have grown some more over this past week. The bigger you are when you are born, the better your chances.

Today marks day 5 and a half and so far so good. There are moments when I start to lose it and get emotional. Ok, there are lots of moments when that happens. Its so saddening to know that I am sitting here waiting for things to get worse. I just have to keep telling myself that this is where I need to be for my health and for my baby's health and hope that I do not get any worse and I make it to the 34 week mark.

Another happy note. We have decided on a full name for you. Your daddy and I wanted you to have a lao middle name so that part of your heritage was included in your name. After much thinking, we have decided on Alexander Khamdy Garner. Khamdy is my grandpa's name on my mom's side of the family. He was a strong leader that was liked by many people and I hope that continues on with you. Well, I suppose this is all for now. Until next time.

I will always love you,
Your Mommy