Monday, March 18, 2013

0430 hours   4:30 am

For those of you that have children, you will laugh and smile at my story.

Aubrey slept all day yesterday very hard. She slept through a diaper change when I was trying to wake her up for a bottle. So I figured she would stay up with me late since she had slept all day.

So about 11:30pm, 30 minutes before she is supposed to eat, I started the feeding process. You know, change the diaper before she has a full belly, make the bottle, add enough rice cereal to feed an army, and then give it to her after getting lots of towels and tarps ready. The first diaper was wet, and by the time I had it completely changed, I changed it again because it was messy. Two diapers and 14 wipes later she is ready. Go to the bottle mixing station and mix the powder, stir, mix some rice, stir, more rice, stir, more rice, stir, check consistency, add more rice, stir, check again, hope its right, clean up the counter and lets see if its thick enough for picky eater pants. Grab the towels and tarps and sit her in my lap, do the bottle dance (a song and dance we sing to get excited about taking the whole bottle - she usually stares at me like "what are you doing dad?") and begin the feeding process. She does her gag, then takes the bottle like its a race. Few minutes later, she is done. Ok, gently place her back in the crib, and clean up the bottle. Few minutes later, she makes the sound that means she has to burp, and I sit her up to burp her by patting her back. She spits up a little and I reach for a wash cloth to wipe the formula off her face. Then I hear it. Its that deep burp that has has some power behind it. You parents know that sound. That moment in time that stops as you try to turn her mouth away but can't move quick enough moment of oh here it comes. And it did. She splurted all her bottle up onto her clothes, bedding, head block, my shirt, the couch and all the way across the crib. So I strip her down and start carrying the laundry to the machine and clean up a bit. I lift the now naked baby out and place her in the round thing on the couch, and oh, yeah, I need to change the diaper again.

Keli is upstairs sleeping. She needs to sleep. I don't want to disturb her. Besides, I can handle this. No big deal. So I clean the crib, take everything to the washer, clean up, diaper change and clean myself. I locate some clothes, then dress her, and try to give her another bottle. She refuses it, refuses to go to sleep, and thus the fun begins. She fusses as she is placed in the crib, then calms down in my arms, fusses when she is laid down, and calms down in my arms. So I laid her down and she threw her arms up and down in a temper tantrum like "I'm not kidding daddy" flailing her arms and trying to roll over. There was no consoling her unless I was holding her, and eventually she goes to sleep around 4:30 am. She refused her 3 am bottle so I had to put that in the tube, even though she was wide awake.

I was kinda frustrated with her until I woke up this morning and saw her. After looking at her, all was forgiven. I love my little girl.

Adam

little penguin trying to fly

8:30p.m.

So I made it for about 3.5 hours at work this afternoon...and I didn't call home once to check on Adam and Aubrey.  Ok, so I did text once, but that's it.  They were fine, of course.  It was good to see my boss and the birds and the cats and dogs, and everyone was happy to see me which was nice.  One of the puppies peed on the floor she was so excited to see me.  Now that's love. ;)  I kind of felt bad that it wasn't harder for me to leave the baby--I guess all that leaving her at the hospital every day for 4 months made it easier.  Plus I knew she was at home with Adam and I would be back with her in just a little while.   I was really glad to see her when I got back though and had to snuggle her up pretty fast. :)

More appointments this week--speech tomorrow, physical therapy Wednesday, pediatrician on Friday.

-Keli