Tossing Pennies and Magic Tricks

Days of Life: 39 & 40

Saturday

Our usual Saturday schedule commenced this morning. Barry got up early to work out while I prepared myself for Canon's typical 7:00 - 7:30 wake time. He slept in the Pack 'n Play in Lydia's room last night and woke up in the middle of the night wanting his juice (he's been doing this a lot lately). So as not to further disturb Lydia's rest, I put him in the bed with us. He's only done this one other time in his life, so I wasn't surprised that it took him a good half hour to fall back asleep. I shouldn't have been too shocked, then, when he slept until almost 9:30 this morning, giving me time to relax on the couch with a movie and Barry time to return from his workout. Once we were ready to start our day, we headed to Homewood Park to let Canon wear himself out. I ordered pizza and brought it to the park for us to continue enjoying the outdoors. Then, we were off to the hospital.

There is a fountain just outside the doors to the WIC, and it is Canon's favorite thing about visiting Tera. He loves to throw pennies in the fountain. Doc taught him to do this during Christmas when he gave Canon a penny to throw into the coi fish pond at the local Chinese restaurant in Greenville. Ever since then, where there is water, there should also be pennies. I gave Canon three pennies to throw - we're trying to teach him limits - but that didn't stop him from digging in my purse to try to find more.

That got a good scolding from Daddy.

Canon and Barry only stayed at the hospital for a few minutes before going back to Lydia's for a much needed nap. I, of course, took advantage of the quiet and got my daughter out to hold.

While I held her, I noticed that I didn't use the blow-by oxygen nearly as much as I normally do. I typically try to settle it several inches from Tera's face so that it is blowing in the general vicinity pf her airways but not directly at her. I can usually find a comfortable spot where her oxygen saturation stays within its healthy range, and then we don't have to worry about it during our time together. Today, however, she continued to high-sat wherever I placed it, so I eventually just laid it at her feet, still blowing up toward her face but not giving her any real benefits. There were a handful of times that I brought it closer to bring her sats back up, but otherwise, the blow-by stayed fairly unnecessary. Her bed oxygen level showed this same improvement. It is down from 35% yesterday to 28% today. I admitted to our nurse how wrong I was in my prediction of Tera's pending infection on Wednesday.

Still taking 27cc at each meal, Tera now weighs 3 pounds 7 ounces (1575 grams). She is well within weight range for taking a bottle but still not developmentally ready for it. She is continuing to stay alert for longer periods of time, even managing to lie on her back more and more frequently.

This is the last shot I got before leaving the Burier.

I promised Barry that if he stayed at Lydia's during Canon's nap this afternoon, I would keep Canon completely out of his hair during both Final Four basketball games tonight. We made plans to watch them at JD and Laura's, so at 5:00 I headed that way. When I called to let Barry know I was coming, he explained that Canon never took a good nap this afternoon. He had fallen asleep in the car on the way back to Lydia's - never a good sign. Barry had laid down with him once they were back at the house, but I don't think Canon slept more than a few minutes before waking up again. He spent the rest of the afternoon playing with his cousin, Xan, who was visiting for the day.

When I arrived to take over the parenting responsibilities, I found an excitable little boy - a good sign that sleep is in the near future. Canon has recently learned a trick, taught to him by Lydia's boyfriend, Christian, a couple of weeks ago. I'll let him show you.

Afer the show, JD and I took Canon to Academy Sports so that I could get him some shoes. He was completely alert throughout the trip, even pitching quite a fit in the check-out line. Once in the car, he repeated over and over that he was hungry and wanted "chichin fwies" - translation: chicken and fries. The more he said it, the more slurred and whiney his voice became. I had chichin fwies in his possession within ten minutes and no more than five minutes later, this is what I found in the rearview mirror:

He went straight into the Pack 'n Play when we got back to JD and Laura's, and we didn't hear from him again until we woke him up to leave. Funny story: When putting him in the Pack 'n Play, I was cradling him in both arms and leaning over the side to try to lay him gently in his bed. I almost had him on the mattress when his weight became too much for me, and he rolled out of my arms, landing flat on his face. I think he opened his eyes long enough to make sure he wasn't dead, then went right back to sleep.

Sunday

Today's church service was not nearly as anxiety-driven as last week's. I managed to actually enjoy this service which, ironically, included a sermon about Mary and Martha. For those of you not familiar with this story, during a visit from Jesus, Martha is left to do all of the work while Mary sits and talks with Jesus. Martha becomes understandably agitated and tells Jesus to insist that Mary come and help her with all of the preparations. Jesus' response to Martha is that Mary is actually doing what is right by spending time with Him instead of getting caught up in daily life. It was hard to be too antsy to get on with my life after reading straight from the Bible that I needed to relax.

After church, Lydia stayed with Canon during his nap so that Barry and I could visit Tera.

Barry was able to stay long enough to eat lunch and spend a few minutes with his girls before leaving for home. I think he is slowly getting more and more comfortable with our situation. It's just not in his nature to sit anywhere for more than a few minutes unless there is a sporting event within eye and ear shot.

After he left, I spent my usual afternoon with Tera, now up to 3 pounds 8 ounces (1610 grams) and taking 28cc of milk each feeding.

We read in our book about how to pray for your child's purpose in life. I found this chapter highly enjoyable, I think because it is directed toward mothers. One of my favorite lines in the chapter came from one of the author's friends: "Our job is to equip (the children). God's job is to call them." She was expressing the importance of not pushing our children into doing what we want them to do, most obviously in the way of career paths but I think it applies to lots of situations. She uses another author's (Jean Fleming) suggestions for praying for our children's future as we do the following things.

1. Acknowledge that God's hand is in their lives.

2. Admit areas that we resent God in how He created our children.

3. Accept and thank God for how He made our children.

4. Affirm God's purpose for our children's lives.

5. Ally ourselves with God as His plans are followed through.

Our prayer tonight: "Let Canon and Tera be glad for all you are planning for them. Let them be patient in trouble, and prayerful always." Romans 12:12.

And then it was time to leave.

Canon was still asleep when I arrived back at Lydia's almost four hours after initially leaving. He woke up as soon as I walked in the room, however, and was excited to see me. Lydia and I took him to Homewood Park again to kick his Toy Story ball around. We had a great time. Of course, Lydia had to watch from the side. She is still in a full-leg knee brace and on crutches. I think we gave her some pretty good entertainment as Canon fell about every ten steps or so. Most times when he reached down to grab the ball (which is about half the size of an exercise ball), he would roll right over it and onto the ground. I'm sure some parents were tempted to call DHR. I tend to not make a big deal over things like falling, opting instead to have him "Jump up!" or "Shake it off!" Some of his falls looked fairly abusive, but there was no blood so I assumed all was ok. Maybe we'll start doing some balance exercises in the coming days.