Getting to Know LC

My LC, is the sunshine to my stormy days. He will look at me with his sweet little smile and run to me from across the room to give me a kiss and a hug. I melt as if I am seeing the look of love for the first time. The times where my house is a mess, i am mess, the kids are mess, and i am feeling fairly crappy about the mother I was to my kiddos for the day, LC just looks at me with such admiration that imminently I am pushed to do better before the day ends. He is one of the gentlest souls I have ever met, maybe because since conception he has shared his space with 2 pretty bossy girls that have made him the easy going, laid-back little boy he is.
LC was born my smallest weighing in at 2lbs 12oz. He was tucked under my right rib for most of my pregnancy and starting at about 25 weeks the girls started pushing hard on him causing his placenta to not get as much nutrition as them (see i told you they were bossy!) which caused him to weigh so little. I think he learned how to please women starting in the womb because he has since day one been a little charmer. Since he was an infant if he saw anyone (though mostly women) he would bat his long lashes and show those dimples as if he was trying to win homecoming king. I remember one night that i was sleeping in the babies NICU room overnight when they were about 4 weeks old, LC would not stop crying. It was about 3am and he had just finished eating, i had changed his diaper, and his nurse and I ran down a list of maybe this or that trying to figure out what was up with him. Finally I decided to move one of the recliners in the room over to his isolette and I picked him up, he was still crying, and I unbuttoned my shirt a little and laid him directly on my chest skin to skin, then all of a sudden.....silence! That was all he wanted, he knew his momma was there and he wanted some snuggle time. As I sat there in the recliner I talked to him about our family, smelling his hair, and crying to myself as I thought how I just wanted to pack him up from there and show him our house, his room, the dogs and his big brother that I was telling him about. This is the time that Luke and my special little bond began. Luke and I have something very special. I have 4 very different special relationships with my kids. They are 4 very different special people and the 4 of them need a different kind of mother. I try and give that to them but the thing that is different with Luke is that the mother he needs is the mother that I always thought I would be. M needs a mother who is a little sterner at times than i like to be or else he would survive on a diet of cupcakes and bacon. AG needs a mother who talks to her in full detail of what i am doing and what i would like her to do. AC needs a mother who gives her space and allows her to be our free spirit child and will not push her to give hugs to everyone. Now LC needs a mother that he can look at, run to and give a big hug and kiss to when he is in the middle of playing and allow him to go back to playing. He needs a mother that will give him pans and spoons to play with happily on the kitchen floor as she makes dinner. He needs dicispline with a soft touch. He needs a reminder that he cannot play in the toilet, he needs someone to remind his sister to not to beat him in the head with toys, he needs MY love and for me to be happy because he shines even brighter on days where his mommy smiles all day.
LC just has this charm that makes women dote on him. I don't know how many people have told me "boy, he is going to get away with anything with those dimples." I will never forget the day Nick and I came to NICU get LC and bring him home! Our wonderful, amazing, sweet (and so many other great synonyms for kind) nurse Chelle was cradling Luke in her arms as she typed on the computer. She didn't see Mr. and I walking down the hall but we saw her as she brushed his cheek and spoke sweetly to him. That's when I think he learned the power he had with women....and Chelle if you are reading this know that image of you holding my little boy with such love as you did that day will never leave me. I am so thankful for you and Stephanie and so so so many other amazing nurses at St. John's (or Mercy as it is now called). I hope you girls know how thankful we past, present, or future NICU moms are of you all, you give our babies love when their mommies are not there, you bathe them when we can't get out of our hospital bed, you wish them goodnight when we are crying in our selves to sleep, so once again thank you!!
LC teaches me how to smile more. He reminds me too that a smile to someone who is having a bad is mood altering and trust me he does this to me throughout my day.

Tiny LC
coming home day
             Jan 2012