Special Delivery

I blogged earlier about the reborn doll that I had commissioned to be be created.  Well, reborn Gunner is home. He is going to be a mission piece as we proudly represent the March of Dimes as the 2011 Ambassador Family. I can't believe my 4 lb preemie is now over 22lbs. No one else would either, which is why Terra created this amazing baby to demonstrate what he was when he was born. The resembelence is uncanny. Thank you Terra (who is a Preemie Mom herself!)

To hold him, you actually think he feels heavy.  This is because you pick it up as a doll.  A doll traditionally weighs ounces, not pounds.  When you imagine it as a baby, newly born, it becomes light...as you imagine it being less than half the weight of most newborns. 

His length is the size of most little girls' baby dolls.  I know as a child that I had dolls this size.  But that length is also the length of Gunner when he was born. 

The doll is so small that he swims in a preemie sleeper.  Just like Gunner did when he was born. 

For all intents and purposes, it serves as a beautiful piece of art and a symbol of what my son, born too soon, was.  I was especially moved when I found out the artist and creator is the mother of beautiful twin girls, who were also born at 33 weeks like Gunner.  It touched my heart when she said "when I hold his head in my hand, it feels like I was holding one of my babies" I am not sure you would get this if you didn't have a baby whose head was about the size of a baseball.  I have since changed his clothing to one of Gunner's first outfits that Daddy bought him, but here is little Gunner.  Thank you, Terra.