It felt odd coming home from the hospital without a baby. Vital survival reflexes were not appearing, so we brought the children to see him, knowing it might be their first and only chance to meet their baby brother. The next day, Bob and I went to the hospital to prepare for the emergency baptism. We walked over to the corner isolette where they were keeping James. The isolette was empty.
Life is so fragile over so quickly.
Cautiously, we asked the nurse about James. We didn't see him. We saw a nurse rocking a baby, but there were no oxygen tubes attached to it, no IVs, no monitors. No, the prayers were being answered. The day of his baptism the sucking reflex began in James, as well as reflex response in his upper torso.