Loving You Through the Glass

Loving You Through the Glass
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

This photo is me and Dave by Marcus' incubator the day after he was born.

Journalling reads ~
On the walls of the long NICU corridor at National Womens’ Hospital, there were lots of posters. You were in the furthest room of the unit, which was the most intensive care level, so I walked past those posters a whole lot of times. They were all uplifting and special because they were the stories of other babies who had passed through the NICU, many starting out as small and fragile as you – some were even smaller and earlier than you.

There were two that spoke to me most.

One was about a little girl who was almost exactly the same size as you were and just as premature. I loved that one because she had made the poster herself. She was perhaps seven by then (I don't remember exactly) and she had written all the words herself, which seemed to me to be a great testament to her survival and growth, more so than any of the photos of big, happy healthy children on the other posters.

But that was only my second favourite poster. My very favourite was a poem written by a premmie baby's mother. It never occurred to me to write it down - I had a lot of other things on my mind at the time - but I remember the title and the essence what it was about.

It was called “Loving You Through the Glass” and in it she poured her heart out about how hard it was to be on the other side of incubator walls from her precious, tiny, fragile new baby. That just spoke to my heart, especially the title. That's what your daddy and I were doing, I realised. We were loving you through the glass. Maybe we couldn’t hold you unless the nurses thought it was a safe time. Maybe I couldn't hold you to my heart and have you suckle at my breast. Maybe we couldn’t pick you up whenever we chose. Or just hand you to your grandparents and aunts and uncles for a cuddle.

But we could love you. Gently, fiercely, continually, sometimes even desperately. Through the glass.

Credits ~
Alpha is by Kellie Mize; Love word art is from Love Me Tender by Dani Mogstad; frame is from Deckle Frames by Katie Pertiet; everything else is from Chelsey's Dream by Michelle Coleman; font is FG Lova