My call into the night nurse left me feeling sad and slightly betrayed. Tera is fine, so don't worry about that. During our conversation, the nurse mentioned that she had given Tera a bath. A bath? Like in the sink? No, she assured me. She washed her off in her isolette. That was ok. I'd heard that other nurses had done that in the past. When I arrived at the hospital this morning, however, I learned that it was a slightly bigger deal. Our day nurse informed me that, based on the report she got this morning, she had a real live bath. Like a baby-sitting-in-soap-and-water kind of bath. Apparently, the night nurse put Tera in a tiny bucket in her isolette and bathed her (because she would get too cold in the sink), and from the day nurse's best look at her records, this is the first time this was done. I can't help but be disappointed. Why couldn't I have been there for it? Or at least gotten a call from someone to see if I wanted to be around? I have no pictures of my tiny child sitting in a tiny bucket with water trickling down her face.
Holding Tera helped make up for it, and this particular moment . . .
. . . made it all go away for awhile.
On a much better note, Tera is now taking a full ounce (30 cc) during each of her feeds. She is also up to 3 pounds 10 ounces (1645 grams). The pediatrician stopped by to check on us. She explained that she had already been around with the Neonatologist and reported that Tera was doing great. "She's one of my best babies," were pretty much her words. Maybe even, "She's my best baby!" but I won't get too carried away.
After the pediatrician left, I opened our book to begin reading. Our chapter today is on praying for your child's marriage. I'm sorry, but I couldn't make myself read it. I know that I will need to be praying about this long before either of my children are close to being ready to get married, but now is just not the time. The closest thing I can pray for in this regard is that the guy Tera chooses to marry doesn't leave her after reading all of this sappy stuff that I am writing now. And that Canon's future spouse is already taking punches and tackles from older brothers to prepare for his "strong love" as I will call it from now on. The book was closed, and we sat in peaceful silence for the next half hour.
Now for today's Picture Montage. I have never thought that she did before, but she looks so much like Barry to me in this first picture.
Because she could tell I was a little upset about missing the bath, our nurse suggested taking her footprints, and I was ecstatic. There is a place in Tera's Early Arrival Journal for footprints, and I keep forgetting to ask someone to do it for me. So, after lunch and just before her 2:30 feeding, the nurse got to work.
This shouldn't be as exciting as it is, but I never saw Canon's footprints taken (and his Daddy never took pictures of it if he saw it) nor have I seen Tera's prints taken yet. I see other friends' pictures of their child's prints being taken, and I have to admit my jealousy. This just felt like a big deal to me. So here we go.
Right Foot:
Left Foot:
Big Foot:
After cleaning her up, the nurse let me get Tera out for the second time today. It's the first time I've held her twice in one day. Again, I tried to get out the prayer book, but I just couldn't make myself read it. This time, I took a nap with Tera, dozing off for a few minutes here and there to make up for my middle-of-the-night wakings.
I said my final good-byes for the day, it was time to get Canon. The weather had looked threatening all day, so much so that I called in to OLS to make sure they weren't planning on closing early. They weren't, so I made my planned 5:00 arrival at the school. I managed to pick up Canon, take care of our weekly grocery shopping at Publix, and get to Lydia's before the weather got bad.
Canon loves these buggies at Publix.
I have found that he is much more pleasant in a place if I get him to help me with as much as possible. At the grocery store, I give him items to throw in the basket while we walk around. But it's at the cash register that he really gets to work. He insists on helping me unload the cart ("My do it!"). Once that is empty, he swipes my credit card ("My do it!") and signs the electronic pad with some gibberish spelling ("My do it!"). It always gives me comfort when the phrase "Signature Accepted" comes on the screen when Canon pays (sarcasm implied).
Back at Lydia's, we ate and spent some time watching cartoons and putting together a puzzle before calling it a day. The storm started picking up force just as I put Canon to bed. Hopefully, he is like his parents and sleeps best in these weather conditions.
What About Barry?
If there's ever a day that you don't need to worry about Barry, it's today. For three minutes on this night every year, Barry is filled with enough joy to last him until this very day next year. Tonight the NCAA Basketball Championship game was played. Barry, of course, loves to watch the game and always has a team to root on - usually the under dog. But it's not the game that gives him joy. The disappointment of a loss is only temporary and the thrill of a win is only made better when, after the closing ceremonies, Barry shushes the extra noises in the room and focuses all of his attention on Luther Vandross' (now Jennifer Hudson's, I think) voice as it comes through the speakers. The highlights from the tournament flash across the screen, and "One Shining Moment" plays in the background. It is the song played at the finale of every NCAA basketball tournament to commemorate a team's desperate struggle for athletic victory. If you think I am kidding about this, I am not. These are what I interpret to be Barry's innermost thoughts based on the number of times I have been quieted and ignored during it and based on the size of the smile on his face when this song is played. It's so unbelievably monumental, that I'm not even allowed to sing it to him at other times during the year. It's sacred only to this one shining moment. If you haven't heard it already, you should check it out at some point. It's the single cheesiest song I have yet to listen to in my life, and I was an avid Garth Brooks fan in my much younger days.
As much as I make fun of him for it, I really like to be with him during this time just because it brings him so much happiness, and I love to be there to see it on his face. I just got his text "Time for the song," and I could feel the excitement in his message. I can't help but smile to know how happy he is going to be for the next three minutes.
No comments:
Post a Comment