Skin-to-skin contact between baby and parents is extremely important. It’s also something I craved but was told we wouldn’t be able to have until the babies were stable enough. I don’t know if someone misspoke or if it was all of the pain killers from the hospital, but they had told me it wouldn’t be for 3-4 weeks. I’d been hoping we would be able to hold the babies for Christmas.

Well, Christmas came early.

Because Aubrey has been doing so well and they had taken him off humidity, the nurses were switching him to a new plastic castle (also known as an isolette). While they made the change, they let me hold him. It was so amazing. Transitioning was a bit upsetting for him and he was definitely a bit bewildered. At eight days old, he had never been cuddled. He got the hiccups for a while and then just fell asleep. He fell asleep and I fell asleep and it was the best 45 minutes of my life.

Today, Brise was able to hold Lydia.

Lydia, still weighing less than 1.5 lbs, could only be held for a little while. She did get covered with a blanket, but her temperature still dropped pretty quickly.