Hello Stoked--
I am up in the middle of the night after pumping milk and cried when I wrote my post to you all. You all have been so supportive. I went back and read the messages and "listened" to your prayers and concern. Thank you.

Obed Warren Groggett was born on 1-29-2011 at 4 pounds, 9 ounces which is a good size for being 32 weeks and 5 days or so. He is blond! and he looks like a lanky surfer-dude (LOL) with an adorable receded chin (I don't have a receded chin so this is cute) and he sounds like a little baby bird when he cries.

He can grasp our fingers and the nurses let me have "kangeroo time" with him, when they take him out of the incubator and put him on my bare chest. He is not sucking or swallowing yet (?) but he moves around and he is calmed when he is doing "kangeroo time". My husband got to hold him for the first time last night for Kangeroo time.

My mom is here and she is off work from her job until further notice-- for the long haul-- whatever that means. She lives in Maryland, but traveled to Massachusetts to help me.

The church where I pastor has been great-- they collected money for breast feeding stuff and one woman made me a quilted cover with Obed's name and birth for the incubator (a cover). They will let us use it when his treatment for jaundice is completed.

All the docs say that I did the right thing and that this is also a bit of a mystery, 'cause I had such a normal and healthy pregnancy, plus I have been very diligent about following restrictions (even self-imposed ones...).

I am trying to be thankful for the little things right now-- when Obed holds my finger or when he breathes calmly, or when the tests are within normal range. I have no doubt that he would have been a possible stillbirth had I not gone to the hospital when I did and I work hard not to blame myself.

But I still cry each day.