Home Again

Thank you all for your comments and prayers during Nathan's hospital stay. We are HOME! And he is doing very well. We are still adjusting into a new routine of weighing him daily, checking his blood pressure, and giving him (only one!) medication twice a day, as well as needing to go to regular pediatrician and monthly kidney specialist visits. His wonderful pediatric kidney specialist has repeatedly assured us that he is extremely happy with Nathan's progress, that he thinks that he will have no lasting damage, and that he is recovering quickly.  We are going to have to have his peritoneal dialysis tube removal surgery in a few weeks, and then I know that I will feel like we're getting back to normal.


 Nathan is understandably a bit emotional, and swings quickly from extremely happy and giggly to tears.  This is not normal for our even keeled, cheerful boy, but obviously a small child who has been very sick, stuck with countless needles, catheterized (with two failed attempts by the PICU nurses before they called the stat nurse), gone through minor surgery, and gone through temporary cold turkey weaning is going to be scared and confused and feel less secure for a while.


But he is still generally a happy little guy, and is getting his energy and strength back very quickly.  He is blossoming verbally in the last few weeks, labeling everything by color (usually correctly!), spontaneously reciting animal noises-

"Cow say MOOOO. Pig say *snort snort*.  Chicken say BUK BUK BUK."

- and greeting us all by name in the middle of dinner ("Hi, Miriam.  Hi, Mama.  Hi, Daddy.").  He is also enjoying some new books he was given, including a new favorite, Fifteen Animals!, and an old favorite that I remembered reading to my brothers but that we didn't have, Guess How Much I Love You.



Also home is Monkey, who was given to Nathan by some kind friends who visited us in the hospital.  Monkey was 'listened to' by countless nurses, bravely took tylenol first to show Nathan it tasted good, donned a face mask along with Nathan whenever the dialysis nurses needed to change his dressing or hook or unhook his tube from the machine, and even wore a blue cap and accompanied him into surgery.  Monkey's given name on his tag was Bongo, but Nathan told every nurse who asked that his name was Monkey, so we're going with that.  ;)

We are all soaking in the summer with renewed enthusiasm... eating popsicles with all four of us piled in the hammock we bought on our honeymoon (and hung this week... why did we wait so long?!), wearing our "flips flops", as Nathan says, drinking pink lemon aid, and generally reveling in being home and being together.  God is good and has been gracious, and we are full of joy.

Baby Cuddles!

Leigh at Marvelous Kiddo has a beautiful post here full of baby photos, including this one that I sent her.  Thanks for including us, Leigh!

Peaceful Moments

It is always a good idea to have a toy or two stashed so that your toddler finds it a new and novel distraction when you really need him to play happily in the other room and let his sister nurse. She tends to get distracted when he is in here kissing her feet... although it is so sweet it's more than worth the delay!

Wrapping Away

Last Friday, I purchased 5 yards of fabric, washed and dried it, and wrapped it up!  We are loving the wrap, and although I still needed (in this picture) to cut it lengthwise (so I look less like I wrapped a king sized sheet around myself), and I still need to taper the ends, and hem or serge the whole thing, I love it!  Very very comfortable and distributes Miriam's 15 pounds very well across my whole back.  It feels very secure and although it takes longer to get on than the ring sling it is more comfortable for longer periods.  We took a evening walk and it was a lot more comfortable than the sling for a brisk pace.

I opted not to get a stretchy fabric because I read that was better for smaller babies and that a non stretchy would be better for older babies and toddlers.  I've done a back carry with Nathan, which worked great- still working on doing the back carry with that wiggly little one... Daddy helped us with this one and we both loved it!

 

Perspective

"To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labors, and holidays; to be Whitely within a certain area, providing toys, boots, cakes, and books; to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene; I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone and narrow to be everything to someone? No, a woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute."

-G.K. Chesterton, in What's Wrong with the World