Don't believe the hype

Sometimes she looks so serious.

And other times she's plain old goofy.

Whatever her demeanor, it's clear that she's got spunk. She's got style and charisma. There's a certain magnetism about her. 

There's something about Arabella 😉

She's seasoned. She's been around. Although she's still very tiny, she looks grown and mature, and perhaps that adds to her allure. 

She's roughly the size of a newborn, but she's a lot more primed. After all, she's had a long jump-start to life outside the womb. 

She's a little big girl 💗

She's done extremely well considering the odds against her, but she's had to sacrifice a lot, too. Arabella's learned early on that life isn't always fair. 

Instead of being born into a nurturing and calm experience, where you immediately bond both physically and emotionally with your parents, she was born into a traumatic environment. Arabella's first diagnosis was for respiratory distress syndrome. That was her welcome into the world. She took her first few breaths and began to struggle soon after.

Calm and nurturing? Far from it.

All of her past experiences make up her personality, and whether she's aware of it or not, those experiences will follow her into the future.

The studies out there will tell you that former preemies (especially those of low birth weight) are linked to a ton of health issues and withdrawn personality traits. As children and young adults they're more likely to be introverted, neurotic, and anxious. 

Huh.

Concerned parents of premature infants tend to be over-protective of their children throughout childhood, contributing to the child's tendency to avoid risk, and worry more. 

It goes on and on. 

Study after study is a harsh reminder that prematurity won't just go away with time. It tells us that we'll always be affected by this experience. 

But for some reason, we don't buy into it. We just don't believe the hype. 

Arabella's proven to us over and over that she's not your typical preemie. She doesn't appear withdrawn at all. Actually, it's quite the opposite. She's bold, engaging and sociable.

We're not concerned. 

We're ignoring everything that's out there, but at least we're aware. We know the statistics going against her. Then again, she's always had the statistics going against her. 

The long road of prematurity won't suddenly stop when we're discharged from the hospital. Challenges will always be there. 

It's true that she's come a long way to get here, but now that she's here she just needs to be treated like everyone else. That'll be the best thing for her, and for us, too. 

Arabella has been doing really amazing lately. She's developing and flourishing like a wild flower. A sensitive and delicate wild flower, but a wild flower nonetheless 😊