kangaroo care

Tonight, e and i were watching a video my mom sent us about animals. When she saw the joey jumping out of it's mom's pouch, she said, "i need to see a kngaroo being born." thanks to youtube, i was able to find such a scene for her. we have watched it at least three times now. now, if i can just recall how to post a link to it for you all to see!



who knew that kangaroos essentially are born twice? once as tiny babes who then crawl into the pouch and nurse, nurse, nurse to grow strong on milk that changes for their stage of development (just like human milk does!). Then, around five month, they are born out of the pouch. pretty fabulous!

interestingly enough, there is a term "kangaroo care" used to refer to lots of skin to skin contact, breastfeeding and touch that helps babies born "early" to thrive outside of the womb. some of these babes would be sent to the machines of the NICU when they may just need some kangaroo care. we used this type of love for ez when she was born at 37 weeks (which is exactly how far along i am in my pregnancy right now!). she was born at home, weighing in at 5 pounds. She never needed a supplement beyond my milk, thankfully and we did not need to transfer to a hospital for any sort of care. we are eternally grateful to all the people that believed she would grow strong. she clearly has! those first few weeks were a shaky time for me as a new mom trusting my body to continue to grow my babe strong.

now, i am in that place of my pregnancy, again...and i am just so thankful to still be pregnant tonight! woo hoo! bring on more weeks of pregnancy...at least one or two for me. and, then bring on the sweetest lil newborn. i will continue to trust my body, my baby and my jesus to grow stronger and stronger the life force within me until it's birthday into the world outside of the womb. we look forward, so very forward to that day but wait patiently.