Ruby Thompson Ruby: Little But Fierce

First post: Jan 28, 2021 Latest post: Jan 28, 2022
Welcome to our CaringBridge website for our daughter, Ruby James Thompson. We created this site to keep our closest family members and friends updated along her journey and ours. We cannot tell you how much we appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting and keeping our family in your thoughts and prayers and for cheering on our little Ruby.

Ruby was born on Sunday, January 24th at 3:19pm three months too early. I'd been noticing some lower abdominal cramping for a few hours and Ben and I went in to get me checked out just in case. Soon after our arrival, I started having contractions and Ruby was born within an hour. I was in and out of consciousness and the on-call doctor was having a hard time tracing Ruby's heartbeat, so she was delivered via emergency C-section. There are theories about the cause of the preterm labor, but no way to confirm. Ruby and I (Momma Jess) were transported to St. Luke's Hospital on The Plaza, which has a stellar NICU. One of the nurses told us they received a call when I was in labor and their team immediately started getting ready for her. It was very dangerous for her to be transported across town due to the risk of brain bleeds, but she was handled carefully.

I spent a few days recovering down the hall from Ruby in the Mother and Baby Unit. Daddy Ben rarely left my bedside. He became a pro at navigating the units and at assembling my breast pump components. We wheeled down to see Ruby a few times a day in those first few days, interfacing with doctors and participating in little ways in her care. We let her hear our voices and have been doing what they call hand containment, which is a way of swaddling her with our hands. While Ruby is stabilizing in this first 2-4 weeks with the help of her NICU team, she mostly needs quiet, sleep, and the humidity of her incubator that mimics the conditions of my womb, her cozy home she had to leave too soon. 

Ben and I are settling into our new life as NICU parents and are feeling very hopeful that our tiny Ruby will be a fierce and thriving little (but not quite so little) girl here in no time.

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