Day 24: Nursing Success

Last night I went up to be with Liviana and nurse her. Prior to this time she had nursed for 7 minutes at the longest and that was on and off, not seven consecutive minutes. I was pretty anxious all day waiting to see here after Brad returned from work in Lincoln. She seemed happy to see me and to my amazement and joy, latched on and began nursing like it was something she had done from her very first moments of life. I can't even begin to express the love and joy I felt, looking down at my little girl. Her beautiful little eyes would look up at me from the side and then roll back with content as you often see breastfeeding babies do. She ended up nursing for 25 minutes and then fell asleep peacefully with a full belly and heart full of love from her momma. I returned this morning and she did the same thing, like a nursing pro.

Brad and I are going today to give her her first REAL bath. I will take pictures and post them later. It is Brad's birthday so I know that giving his little girl her first real bath will be a special gift.

As I held Liviana last night, looking at her sleeping peacefully, I felt her breath. I was so struck by the miracle of it all. Four months ago when I was carrying her I worried every day about her survival, about that first breath she would take, about her surgery and about her lung development and function. Something as simple as a breath is taken for granted but these little ones fought hard for theirs. Her breath means survival, her breath means fighting and her breath means life. All of these little ones, whether they lived 10 minutes, 10 days or 90 years are all survivors and all fighters. CDH is a devastating and frightening birth defect. So many babies don't make it after fighting hard for their breath. The mortality rate is said to be around 60%. Liviana is one of the lucky ones and each one of those babies who have become heavenly angels before her and after her look down upon her, smile and wish for her to go on and increase awareness about Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernias.

Thank you to everyone who follows Livianas journey and offer their care and support. You don't know how much it does for us to read your comments and know that you are thinking and praying for Liviana. Please take time to visit the other pages at the right and additional links on their pages and leave them comments as well if you would like.