"Kangaroo Care"

A baby kangaroo is called a joey.  It's gestation period is quite short, usually around 4 or 5 weeks.  When a joey is born, it is essentially in a fetal state, weighing less than 2 grams.  The baby kangaroo, blind, tiny, and hairless, crawls across it's mother's thick fur and latches to a teat located inside the her pouch, where the infant will remain for the next six months.

In the NICU, kangaroo care is a way of life.  Momma spends a minimum of three hours a day "kangarooing" Oliver Moses.  Kangaroo care is when momma lays down on a collapsible lawn chair in the NICU, and Oliver is placed directly against her chest in skin-to-skin contact.  During this period of time each day, he falls into his deepest of sleeps, which, as we are learning, is essential for good brain development.  As he continues to increase in stability, so will his allotment of kangaroo time each day.  The goal would be that in the next week or two, momma is able to hold him twice a day for 2-4 hours.  Now that is a lot of love!

As a special Father's Day treat, Daddy Book, even though he was quite nervous to do so, decided that it might be time to give Oliver a few hours of "man time".  I didn't realize it until I had him in my arms, but it was a pretty amazing feeling to hold my son for the first time.  He behaved himself pretty well that night, and we were able to lay there together for a couple of hours.  It was a Father's Day moment I will remember forever.