Changes in Schedule

After last evening's post, Jeni reminded me about a cool shower gift she received from our good friend Erika. It is a contraption called the "moby." Basically this thing is this wrap that allows you to carry your baby with you while you do stuff around the house. How Jeni got this contraption on me, I cannot tell you. What I do know is that in less than five minutes she had wrapped this red cloth around my waist, shoulders, and back and conveniently placed Hope in the "basket hold." Now, I am literally looking at my daughter as I type this post. Pretty neat, huh? Hope and I were able to inventory all the junk in Mount Piperstuff and get it ready for the Salvation Army tomorrow. We also took out the trash and recyclables together and did a load of wash. I am enjoying just feeling her cozied up against my stomach and hearing her little grunts and groans while she rests away.


Last night was a bit of a rough one. After a day's worth of activity and a night of chillin' with Mom and Dad, Hope's schedule got all messed up. She ended up waking at times in between her normal 4 hour intervals between feedings and fussed up a storm. This morning at 5:45, I got up to feed her, not knowing that Jeni had just done so less than two hours prior. Hope eagerly rooted and took down her medicine for the morning, then took a slug out of her warm bottle of fortified milk and decided she wanted nothing to do with it. Of course, being the worrisome parent, my first thought was that she must be sick. Oh no. I woke up Jeni and explained the situation to her. We both thought it would be best to put Hope back down and try again in a half hour. At that time I got up and repeated the same routine, with the same result- no eating. Finally, I set her in the pack and play and right around 8 she really started squawking and grunting and she was able to take down her whole bottle (after she had a two-diaper-blow out). Jeni and Maggie stirred around this time, and Hope greeted her friend Mags all bright eyed. Dad, meanwhile, brewed a pot of coffee. Needless to say, Hope seemed perfectly healthy, so we stopped worrying about a possible illness causing her not to eat, and instead came to the realization of the obvious- maybe she was not hungry at 5:45.

It is funny how when you try to control life, even a for something as simple as when your daughter eats and sleeps, you encounter unexpected bumps in the road and sudden changes to your plan.

Speaking of sudden changes to the plan- we learned today from Nurse Rosie that Gracie might be coming home as early as tomorrow! While this is not necessarily the most likely scenario, Rosie explained that everything is in order for an early week discharge for Grace and her doctor might just want to send her home right away, especially as he knows that Jeni is off of school and not teaching any summer school and my summer school classes are only in the mornings. Holy cow! As early as tomorrow and perhaps as late as Wednesday, our family will be all united under one roof in Fox Point, WI. Could it be that our trips back and forth to St. Joe's for the past 74 days could be nearing a close? While it would be premature of me (pardon the pun) to get my hopes up for Grace coming home tomorrow, I have to say that Jeni and I are making sure the place is in good working order for a second baby, just in case. While there are many uncertainties that lie ahead, I can take a deep breath and rejoice in knowing that Family Day will be here soon. For this mom and dad and the literally hundreds of people who have been following this story, I am sure I can speak for us all when I say, I can't hardly wait!






Daddy finishes the blog and reads it out loud to revise while Hope naps peacefully on his stomach.