My husband

helping store milk in the NICU

lighting sparklers on New Year's Eve

I think I have mentioned that I can't say enough wonderful things about my husband these days. He has been a great help ever since Nathan was born. It was he who first received the news of Nathan's hernia while I was in post c-section recovery. He spent the first four hours with Nathan and the doctors as they tried to stabilize Nathan and figure out a plan of action. I admire his strength to be able to have done that. I'm not sure I would have been able to do so.

And from there, Santi hasn't stopped. While I was in the hospital, he helped me in so many ways. He gave me back massages. He brought me snacks and special things from home to eat to keep my appetite up. He cut my toenails for me (my long toe-nails were driving me nuts but I couldn't reach them). He made many trips back and forth from the hospital to our home to bring various items. He ran other errands. He accompanied me on my trips to NICU to pump milk and kept me company during the long 20 minutes of pumping. He helped store the pumped milk in the freezer, writing out the labels for me and putting the milk in the syringes for storage. He made sure my laptop was working properly in the hospital so that I could keep up with the blog and emails. He stayed at night at the hospital on an uncomfortable sofa bed in my room so that I wouldn't be alone and then helped me get up numerous times in the night. And he helped dry many tears.

And now that we're home, he hasn't stopped - he prepares and warms the baby bottles that we feed Nathan every three hours. He helps give Nathan various drops (drops for gas, vitamins and children's tylenol). He burps and changes Nathan. He runs up and down the stairs for me (we live in a four-level house), so that I don't have to do so much climbing. He washes the dishes. He bathes Nathan. He runs errands. He brings the meals that various ladies have graciously made for us. He massages my back. He keeps me smiling!

I could continue the list and probably many of these things are what any new father and husband would normally do. I guess I just wanted to thank him and brag about him a bit - for all his help during these past two weeks and for his eternal patience with me.

Above are a couple of photos of Santiago. One is from when we 'were in the hospital and he was helping store the milk. And the other photo is from New Year's Eve - he brought me sparklers so that we could celebrate New Year's Eve out on the patio of my room in the hospital! Thankfully, we didn't get in trouble for lighting sparklers and it did bring a memorial moment for ringing in 2008!