Baby Power

Life with Simon is amazing. I forgot how sweet it is having a newborn. That baby smell, soft skin, downy hair. Simon has his serious, wise-old-man newborn expression as he stares solemnly at us with big dark eyes. We are all in love with him! The power a baby has! (Especially between the hours of 2-4am, which is the time of day when Simon is wide awake and has no interest in sleep.)

Simon's power extends beyond that. He has forced me to slow down. Although the house may be a mess, laundry is spilling out of hampers, and I don't want to even talk about my kitchen floor, Simon requires that I sit down many times during the day and nurse him. I have a book on each floor of the house, so whenever Simon wants to eat, I am ready to take my ten minutes of reading and relaxing and not feel guilty about it. After all, a baby has to eat! Doing a lot of sitting, though, has also forced me to not jump right in and scoop up Clare whenever she wants me to. She is usually content to sit next to me on the couch while I nurse Simon or play at the coffee table, but sometimes she gets restless and wants to be elsewhere. So I have been encouraging her to go where she wants to on her own. Which is something we do frequently, but now I really am not getting up and picking her up. And she knows it. And what do you know, Clare has started cruising! She is slow and tentative, but she will walk along the entire length of the coffee table now. She will turn around and pivot herself from the coffee table to grab onto the couch and take a few steps to the couch (then I do this oh-so-elegant one-armed hauling movement to get her up on the couch with me). She is starting to walk only holding onto one of my hands, since my other one is usually occupied. Her confidence is growing!

Clare was supposed to get her AFO's today, but they were not ready, so she has an appointment next week. Now that she is gaining confidence and realizing the power of walking, I am hoping she will take off with the help of her braces. Clare also has her sedated echocardiogram at the end of this week. I am very nervous about this echo. Her last sedated echo was in November. I have a nagging feeling that this echo may not be good news. It has been 14 months since Clare's last cath, and post-cath, her doctor predicted 6-12 months before she needed another one. Clare has proved that wrong! I am praying she continues to prove them wrong!