A Prayer and a Snug

Our next sweet story and fabric swatch comes to us from Swirl @ Girl in a Swirl

LY Swirl!

Thanks for making the magic happen.

I've been wanting to contribute to this quilt for a while, but finding a magical piece of fabric is hard.

Then I was putting some sheets away in my linen closet and saw this blanket.

All my children were born early.

I had one son who was only 2 weeks early, then two others were born 1 month early and my last baby was 2 months early.

This last one had me worried. To me, he was so small. I spent as much time as I could holding him--kangaroo style. (That is what they called it in the NICU when you hold them flesh-to-flesh, bare chest and have them bare and then cover up the both of you to keep them warm.) Premies thrive when they have lots of human touch and can hear your heart beat--which only makes sense because that is what they are use to hearing-- your heart beat.

I was so scared to bring him home. He was still so small and sometimes would stop breathing, but the nurses assured me that was normal--premies sometimes forget to breath so you have to "jump start" them. I was scared that would happen when I brought him home so I snuggled him lots just so he could hear my heartbeat, feel my warmth and hopefully the rising and falling of my chest would remind him to keep breathing.

Whenever I had to put him down to take a shower, or for a car ride to the doctor, I had a ritual of wrapping him up in a blanket. Criss crossing the blanket and tucking it tightly around him so he would be snug and I would always say a quiet prayer that he would be okay and feel loved until I could hold him again.

That's what makes this baby blanket magical. It has so many prayers already infused in the fabric. I hope that the person who recieves this magic quilt will wrap themselves snuggly up and feel the love.