Living the Dream

My morning:

Got up about 6:40 a.m. (after going to bed at midnight. Remind me not to do that again!)

Prepared and administered Annabelle’s meds and feeds.

Woke my three other kids up about 7:10.

Made sure book-bags were complete, water bottles filled, snacks in their respective spots. Yelled at them (er, I mean, asked them nicely??) to hurry up because at 7:30 they were still in their PJ’s. Made them speed eat their cereal, herded them through the bathroom for teeth and hair brushing. Found them socks. Searched under beds for shoes. And finally, at 8:02, one minute before the bus was to arrive, ushered the last child out the door to the bus stop.

I was standing in the yard, in my miss-matched PJ’s, uncombed hair, and bare feet, watching them at the corner getting onto the bus, when I had an epiphany.

THIS is exactly what I’ve wanted for a very long time. I’ve always been a working mother. NEVER (besides a stray vacation day here and there) have I gotten to be that Mom who gets their kids ready and out the door for the bus. I’d usually leave the house at 7, about the time they were getting up. And I’d get home around 6, when they were (hopefully) done with homework and Mommy was pooped from a long day.

But right now, it’s 9 a.m., and I have one very special little girl that I get to take care of today and take to her doctor’s appointment this afternoon without having to rearrange my work schedule. I have a small list of things I want to accomplish this morning, and I’ll actually have a little time to do crazy things like laundry and the dishes. (Note, my list is actually NOT small, but I’ve taken a few small things from my BIG list and delegated them to today!)

I know all of this will get monotonous eventually. It will lose the shiny newness, especially as money dwindles from my lack of income, but right now, I am looking to Jesus and saying, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for giving me so much more than I could have asked for. It came in a way I did not expect, and one that, to be honest, was not worth the price (Annabelle’s pain and suffering this past year), however I am viewing it as God’s silver lining, his way of taking care of me and my family and I am choosing to bless Him for fulfilling my greatest dream.

To be the Mom I REALLY want to be.


Annabelle Update:

She is doing fantastic. With the blessing of her doctor, we’ve started to SLOWLY wean her oxygen. We’re down to between 1/8 and 3/16ths of a liter for the last two days, and she’s been doing fabulous! She desatted a bit last night when going to bed, but I don’t think it was picking up well, but we moved her back up a bit just in case. This morning, however, she is doing GREAT on the lower amount.

Her labs were REALLY good on Monday. We got to go down on her lasix from 3x a day to 2x a day, which makes momma a little nervous as fluid has always been an issue for her (laxix makes her pee good!) but she has sounded GREAT lately and been on the dry side, so I think it is time.

We have an appointment with the ENT this afternoon to get an idea whether or not her vocal chord issue is fixed. She yells with the best of them, so I imagine it is all better! But, this will help us to know if we can start trying liquids by mouth with a sippy cup, so your prayers to that end are GREATLY appreciated!

Tomorrow is PT, and then Friday is her feeding evaluation for Speech Therapy. BUSY BUSY week, but it also means PROGRESS, and this Momma LOVES LOVES progress!

In other news

Some sweet person nominated my blog! Whoever you are, thank you! It’s in the Parents magazine Best Blog Awards, in the category of Best Special Needs Blogs. Anyway, I thought it was SUPER sweet of someone to think of my little ol’ blog!

It only has one vote right now… HA, that one is MINE! So if you want to, you can vote, however it does make you register with the website, and I know some don’t like to do that, so I TOTALLY understand if you don’t.

But, as the saying gos, “It’s an honor just to be nominated!”

OH OH OH

I almost forgot one other fun thing! We had a FIRST last night! Outings are VERY planned out with Annabelle. No more spur of the moments trips to Mcdonalds because we don’t feel like cooking. So last night, I decided we need our first spontaneous Phillips’ Family Outing! Even though it was a crazy evening (parents meeting at school and Karalynn volunteering at the local food pantry) we packed our kids up at 8 p.m. (yes, on a school night!) and took them for ice cream!

We went to Sweet CeCe’s here in Spring Hill, and even took Annabelle in! She was bummed not to have any, but I told her if she does good on Friday and stops puking, I’d maybe think about it! We came right back and were home by 8:30 and in bed by 9, but still, it was fun to do something spur of the moment and treat our kids with something special. They thought it was pretty neat!

PICTURES

Just a few minutes ago… hamming it up in her Jumperoo!! She’s been LOVING her finger lately, so we are thinking maybe, finally, teething?? Yes, my 13 month old has no teeth! (My eldest daughter didn’t get hers until 17 months, so this is not unusual for my kiddos!)

Playing at clinic! She was sitting her in chair ALL by herself (with Mommy close just in case) when the doctors came in. They were SUPER impressed, especially because she gave them a HUGE smile when they walked in too. It was like she was saying, “Hey! Look at me!! Aren’t I doing a good job!?!”

So, I went out and bought Annabelle a new bathtub. She got one for her birthday that worked GREAT, but now that she is sitting up, I wanted her to get used to sitting in water by herself.  But, Annabelle HATES baths. So I decided to put her in the tub in the living room while she watched Elmo.

She thought it was pretty cool.

Until, that is, we put water in it and actually GOT in the bathtub. NOT so cool.

However, Mommy taught her how to splash in her new tub. Nevermind, it’s cool again!!