Real Parents

Elle Update from Saturday, April 11, 2009 - Lee and I got to experience being "real" parents for the first time on Saturday. We called up to the hospital first thing on Saturday morning and discovered that we had a new nurse. Instead of taking our time - we rushed getting ready and made it to the hospital around 9:00am. Our day nurse, Karen, turned out to be absolutely amazing. We had so much fun with her during the day. Elle also received a visit from my favorite artist (http://www.shannonjex.com/) and her parents. Of course, Shannon came prepared with a painting for Elle's crib. Not only is her crib the pinkest on the block, it is also the only one with custom artwork! All of the doctors and nurses had to stop by and take a look at the amazing painting. Thank you Shannon!! After an amazing day with all of our (Elle's) wonderful visitors, Lee and I had to step up to the plate and be "real" parents. Saturday night is bath night - so Lee and I were in charge of Elle's bath - but first we had to weigh our little chunky monkey. Our night nurse, Selly, assisted in the process - but pretty much let Lee and I have control. Elle hates baths and it is a two person job - so needless to say - there aren't any pictures of the bath process. We were hoping it would calm her down and she would fall asleep...NOPE! Our little night owl woke up at 8:00pm just in time for her bath and stayed awake until 11:30pm. That's the longest she has kept her eyes open!! She was also breathing wonderfully well - Karen figured out during the day the trick to suctioning out her nose and once she got her nasal passage ways cleared - Elle could breathe! It was such a relief to see her breathing better. After her bath and while we were holding her binky in during her feeding, she spit up for the first time. Of course this scared me because I didn't know what was happening! Her food was just going down a little too fast! Selly lowered the syringe that was holding Elle's food - wiped her down and Elle was happy again. Our intentions on Saturday night were to leave by 9:30pm to go home and get ready for Sunday and to spend some quality time with the dogs. Elle has a way of changing plans. 9:30pm came and went and little priss was still awake. I got to sing Elle to sleep for the first time. Of course - I wasn't really singing anything - I was just saying "sweet baby" over and over again until Elle finally drifted off to sleep around 10:30pm. Lee and I quietly grabbed our bags and started to sneak out - we were probably 15 steps from Elle's bed when we heard her little cry again. It was so pitiful we had to turn around and go back to her. We put our bags down and resumed our positions over her crib. She finally fell asleep after one of the other nurses, Elizabeth, came over and helped us with "binky bondage." We secured Elle's binky in her mouth with a sheet all folded up and within minutes Elle was happily asleep again and Lee and I snuck out. When we got to the car, we both looked at each other and were just beaming. We were thinking the exact same thing - we got to be "real" parents for the first time! We got to feel the exhaustion of a little one not wanting to fall asleep, we got to feel the sheer joy of getting to sing our baby to sleep and the overwhelming excitement of her quietly falling asleep - content with her binky. Praise the Lord for the little things that make each day more special than the day before!