Lunchbox Days

So it has been almost two weeks since my last posting and we are beginning to finally feel as though we are settling into a "normal" routine.  Let's start with celebrations!  First, we were released from the hospital the Friday before Mother's Day!  Celebrating my first mommy's day with two kiddos was so much sweeter from the dining room of Cooper's Hawk restaurant and winery as was the yummy wine shared with my mother and sister-in-law!  Next, Sophie seems to be tolerating her feeds pretty well overall.  We still have some episodes of major "pukeage" but I think that is more from her icky reflux than anything else.  She is now taking in 4 full ounces every 4 hours for a total of 24 ounces in a 24 hour period.  This is huge considering Sophie was taking half or less of that amount for months prior to being hospitalized. Third, the Friday we were admitted to the hospital, Sophie had weighed in at 13.5 for two consecutive weeks at our pediatrician's office.  When we visited her again on Friday (5/13), she was up to 14.14!!!!!!!  What a huge gain in three weeks!  We were thrilled beyond belief to see the scale throw up those numbers!  And finally, after two weeks of non-stop Coldplay in the hospital, just when I thought Tarek and I could truly take on Chris Martin and his band and maybe even show them up, we found a new song to soothe our sweet little girl....it is called Innocent by Taylor Swift.  This is not Sophie's first dive into Taylor's music as she adores the songs, Speak Now, Never Grow Up, and Enchanted as well.  We love Coldplay but are happy to have a break from it!

Fifteen days in the hospital took more of a toll on us than I think we expected  The Friday we were discharged, exhaustion had settled in, and our "get up and go" was completely "gone."  Tarek filled the air mattress for me and we decided that one of us would sleep in Sophie's room to make sure the pump pumped and that Sophie tolerated the feeding ok.  This was before our brains allowed us to do the math to figure out how to get the pump to run over 4 hours (2 feeds at once) so that we didn't have to get up twice at night.  It took us two hours that night to get Sophie completely settled and asleep.  I think I was asleep before my head even hit the pillow that night.  However, before getting into bed, I hooked Soph up to the pump, double checked to make sure the tip of the tubing fit snugly into the smaller port, and that I had the dose and rate inputted correctly.  I hit the run button and climbed into bed.  I awoke about an hour and a half later to the sound of Sophie shivering....Scrambling out of bed (ever tried to do that from an air mattress ~ not so easy) I looked into her crib only to find that she had somehow, in all of her nighttime movements, unhooked the latch on the big port, which allowed at least 2 ounces of formula to pump directly into Sophie's crib.  Then came the big debate, to wake or not to wake.....thinking back to how painful getting Sophie to sleep was that night, I decided to let her sleep.  As I was sopping up the mini lake of formula that pooled in her crib, I was thinking of the following lyrics Sophie's new favorite song, Innocent:

Wasn't it easier in your lunchbox days?
Always a bigger bed to crawl into
Wasn't it beautiful when you believed in everything?
And everybody believed in you?

Wasn't it easier in your firefly-catchin' days?
And everything out of reach, someone bigger brought down to you
Wasn't it beautiful runnin' wild 'til you fell asleep?
Before the monsters caught up to you?

While I continue to be amazed at all we are learning (tape the big port, tuck the tube into the onesie, don't give Cole a baby shovel as he will throw dirt at his sister), there are still nights where I miss those lunchbox days...We continue to be grateful for your prayers, emails, and phone calls.  Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts! We love you.