Sunday, December 19, 2010

Some Knitting Done!!





I love to knit for babies....and it always brings me great joy to do so, new life, something to always celebrate!!  I have to share though...this sweater, so sweet, so pink, so innocent sitting there on my ironing board.....is a beast.  Don’t be fooled by her “oh, I am just all cute and sugar” look....don’t fall for it!!!  Maybe I think too highly of my knitting skills, maybe it was starting this project under the influence of heavy duty pain meds post two surgeries.....maybe the pattern is really written as badly as what I think it is...but all I can say now is thank goodness it is on its way to Oregon to a new baby in the family. I really love how it looks, and can’t wait to see that precious baby in it.
And the next sweater will be a knit from the neck down, one piece, ala Elizabeth Zimmerman, no seams, no crazy stuff....but the one after that...who knows!

Now....here is another little ditty I finished in just few days...

Wait a minute....that looks more like Lily’s tongue than my little whale hat.  Not ten minutes later.....I caught up with whale hat on sleeping girl on couch who was just yelling, “Go Colts” just a little while ago.


She really was sleeping with that little pouty lip out....too cute.  I think because Lily has not been an oral feeder, she still “sucks” in her sleep like a newborn.  She just started doing that after her jaw repair, almost like, “Hey, this is a developmental stage I missed, time to go back and do it now” kind of thing.
Oh...back to the whale hat.... The whale hat was picked out by Lily, I bought a book with all sorts of animal hats to knit for kids, thinking I was going to do a bunny hat for her, but she insisted on the whale hat.  Now, this particular whale has no eyes, yet.  I’ll get to them.  Notice the little bit of ocean spray coming from the blow hole on top.  The white curvy line along the brim is suppose to be a smile.  At least it is a nice whale....

More later!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

On this wonderful Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I give you a picture of tiny girl, in her big bed.  Notice there are no machines, no monitors, no tubes.....just tiny tired girl.  
Thank you, Our Lady!!


I want to show you some Lily Extreme Room Makeover before and afters from this week.

Here is a photo of what Lily’s room looked like pretty much like all last week...and the week before....it was so cramped with a twin bed, a crib, a rocker, bedside table, and changing table.  I came home Thursday and cleaned like crazy.



  


After several hours of working and teen boys helping with lifting...here is the “Ta-Da”!



Now, I need to get some pretty things up on the wall.  When Lily walked into her “new” room Friday evening, she was ecstatic.  There is actually room to play now, she has toys in her room, not a bunch of medical equipment.  What fun!!

Nine Year Update

So, for eight out of the last nine years, we have had a child with a tracheostomy.  There have been 28 surgeries in our family the last nine years, ten of those surgeries were in the past fifteen months.  Jim and I have not been out on a date, alone, in over three years. Dining in the hospital cafeteria while one of our young ones was in surgery does NOT count for a date. Seriously.

It is without further ado I announce that my husband and I went out last night to a great restaurant, just the two of us....alone. On the way into the restaurant, with its festive lights, Christmas parties, and lots of expensive cars in the packed parking lot, (didn’t see too many other 11 year old Suburbans in the lot) I mentioned to Jim that no one, not one person there, knew they were in the presence of rock stars.....us.....super heros.....Mr. and Mrs. Incredible.  I felt like we should show up to accept our award, our special needs Grammy, cashing in our filled punch card for free dessert, or wear a sign saying, “We rock....we have just been through the toughest battle, and we won.”

Lest you think I have an even bigger ego than the last time you checked, let me say that I am really a stubborn old girl for whom God has chosen to use my donkey ways to do His Will.....all Glory to Him. Even donkeys finish the race sometimes, with their Master pushing them along.  I just felt like taking my little donkey victory lap around that restaurant...in my Mrs. Incredible outfit, holding my Grammy.

                   

Here is the girl who really deserves a big standing ovation.  Go ahead and give it up for my girl. Way to go, Lily, you brave girl!!!

Yes, that is a white Christmas tree you see behind Lily.  I really, really wanted one.  After Jim left the hospital on Wednesday, drove nearly three hours, and arrived back home, exhausted, he got the boys and went to EIGHT different places to find a white tree.  What a guy!!  He bought the floor model. They packed it up, ornaments and all, and Jim took it home to surprise me when I got back home the next night. It looks so pretty from the street.




I prayed today for all of you who have carried us in prayer these last few months.  Thank you, and may God bless you for your kindness and generosity.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Smiling

Here she is.....no trach!


We are all smiling today!!

Just fine without that trach!

Lily slept really well last night once she went to sleep....after 1:30am....she had fallen asleep earlier at 4pm-8pm, so she had quite a bit of energy to sing in bed and demand stroller rides around the unit until the wee hours of the morning.  The nurses were cracking up at her singing.....I am not sure if the other parents were as enamored with it....but Lily finally calmed down and slept until 10am....with oxygen levels 96-99%.  Wow!!!!  She should be home tomorrow.  God is good!!

Can you pray for the other kids in ICU?  So many sad stories...so many new cancer diagnosis.....so much heartbreak...I am not sure how to process it all in the midst of our most exciting, wonderful, hard-won time.....but I know I won’t soon forget some of these families I have seen.  God love them all.

Thanks for your prayers...homecoming pictures tomorrow.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Lily is trach free--tolerating it well--waiting for our bed in ICU for monitoring. Will update later.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

I forgot to say.....

Next Wednesday, when Lily goes for decannulation,  it is Our Lady’s Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  I love it when our surgery and hospital days land on Our Lady’s feast days!  That has happened quite a few times in last several years. I feel a sense of peace that Our Lady’s hand is on this day.