Christmas/New Year miracle

 Stan (Melissa's dad) was able to play Santa and scrubbed and scrubbed his hands and was able to give 8 NICU babies their first picture with Santa!

 

Two days after my birthday in December my best friend scared the crap out of me!  She texted me to tell me she was going in labor.  Scary part? She wasn't due until mid March!  SAAAAYYY WHHHHAAAATTTT?!?!?!?  She was having a few stomach pains but thought it was just gas and she had gone to the ER over the weekend to just check it out, and they checked her over and sent her home to sleep it off.  Crisis averted, or so I thought!  I texted her to see how she was feeling and I got a calm "I'm going into labor"....well it came off as calm, I doubt she was too calm on the other end!

What was even worse is that her husband travels for work so she was all alone. And in the middle of the day, while everyone else was at work.  Nikki lives in NC and I was in CA, so neither of us could be there for her and we felt helpless. Her mom lives in Florida and hopped the first flight to VA.  Thankfully our other best friend Erika was able to leave work in the middle of the day, even though she's a teacher so I'm not sure how she pulled that off!  

Mckinley Anne was born a few hours later (daddy was able to high tail it back in time for delivery I think) at a robust 3.5 pounds. I thought Nikki's babies were small at 5 pounds, Mckinley must have been TINY in comparison!  Thankfully I was flying home to DC and made my way down to Virginia to visit her. I dropped B man off at the bar with his friends and ran straight to the NICU.

Introducing Mckinley.....

She doesn't look too small until you see this comparison to her mom's hand...

She always had a death grip on mommy's hand...

Thankfully she pulled miracles off and was able to quickly get out her oxygen tube and eventually was able to feed from a bottle shortly afterwards.  And I'm happy to announce that after 49 days in the NICU, Mckinley met all of her milestones and was able to go home this week!!!!  She was born 3 months early but this girl is a fighter!  When she was born the hospital said she would go home around her original due date in mid March, but she pulled through and was sent home a month before expected!

Happy family ready to go home!  Melissa I am so happy she has excelled and is on the healthy right track! Here's to many more scares throughout her life, but rest assured she is a fighter and will prove everyone wrong every day! I can't wait to finally be able to hold you Mckinley!