Twinkle, Twinkle Little Sophie

One of the nurses that comes to our house (through the NICP program) brought some pamphlets on developmental milestones and things you can do to help your babies development. One of the things it mentions is to sing to your baby, and more specifically to change the words to include your babies name. The first one I came up with was "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Sophie". It doesn't exactly flow well since it messes up the rhyming, but I get a bit choked up when I sing it because "How I wonder what you are" definitely applies. I wonder a lot. I wonder what developmental issues she is going to have. I wonder if her liver is going to continue to work. I wonder how long we will continue to have feeding issues. I wonder what we should try next in our attempt to get her to feel better. With every cry I wonder, "Are you hungry? Gassy? Reflux? Tummy ache? Over stimulated? Tired? Something else?".

This has been a busy week for us. Monday we attempted to get blood drawn again (Sophie's veins are apparently so small that even the "baby expert" couldn't get any blood from her). Tuesday we saw the surgeon, who said we will need to get her hernia fixed, a minor surgery. He said there is no hurry, so we will wait a bit to see how long she might need the g-tube since they could close that up in the same surgery. Wednesday we saw Sophie's GI doctor who gave us a new list of things we could try to get her to feel better. Right now we are trying a special formula (instead of the breast milk she had been getting) to see if that helps fix her loose & frequent stools and her gas. So far it's not helping, so then we'll try something else (another formula, upping her reflux medicine, an antibiotic for the bacterial overgrowth found in her stool are some of our options). Thursday we saw the pediatrician, which was a nice visit since I made it with the nurse practitioner that we normally see for Owen and really like. Plus, besides all that I had the stress of trying to get work done and getting ready for Christmas. I am working only 20 hours a week, but I sometimes feel like I am attempting to get a full workload done.

So it was no surprise that I was sick on Friday. We were planning on taking the kids to Tucson this weekend to watch Keith play frisbee, but my body said "Enough! You rest!". I didn't do much work on Friday, and today I had help since Keith was in Tucson. Keith's Mom & Dad were gracious enough to take Owen for the weekend, and my Mom was a big help here with Sophie. I am feeling much better today, so hopefully tomorrow I will have some energy to actually get something done. Right now the Christmas tree is half up and I need to get on the ball with ordering presents. I debated not doing the big tree because it can take so much time, but I really enjoy the decorations and I want to give Owen the full Christmas experience. I have tried explaining Santa to Owen, but I'm not sure he quite understands. I'm sure come Christmas morning, he'll have a better idea about who he is. :-) The good news is that he loves his manger scene magnets, and likes talking about baby Jesus, and who his mommy & daddy are, and what the 3 wise men bring him. Although last year we said it was the first year that Owen would be able to truly enjoy Christmas, this is the first year that Owen will be able to verbally express his feelings about Christmas. There is a lot more for him to think about and try to understand. I look forward to sharing his "wonder" at the season with him.