Sleeping Habits

No, I'm not going to proactively apologize for my snoring; or mention how late my wife likes to stay up at night; or tell stories about how we had to kick Lizzi off the bed when Ellie was a baby sleeping next to us...

Ellie made one more foray into big-girl land this weekend.

Saturday afternoon, we uninstalled the railing from her crib, and installed the toddler side guard.

Clearly, Ellie loves the new configuration of her bed. We helped her crawl up into bed and explained that when she woke up in the morning, she could climb out and come wake us up.

Despite how much Ellie seemed to love the new bed, things didn't go well Saturday night. Mom was out late for a girls' night. Ellie woke up a couple times while she was gone and needed some comforting, but I went to bed around midnight and all was well. When Mom got home, she went in to check on Ellie and found her curled up on the floor, on top of the heating vent! She had warm pajamas on. I wouldn't think she'd be that cold. Well, the move back to bed was enough to disturb her sleep thought, and Ellie didn't get back to sleep until about 4:30 in the morning. Ugh!

Tonight has been much better, though. Ellie had a big day (church followed by Dora live on stage and dinner out). So he conked right out after her normal evening routine. Things were going well. A little squawk from the nursery... excuse me, "big girl room"... from time to time, but nothing of consequence. We thought.


Turns out that, some how, Ellie managed to roll off the bed, get oriented upside down, and then roll under the bed... and remain happily asleep!

PICU Memories

Sarahlynn posted a couple days ago on the anniversary of Ellie's heart surgery. We she mentioned it to me that night, I was amazed. It never occurred to me. I guess we're so far past it that I only think about that week in the hospital when I'm triggered by something else:

• Seeing the cutest picture of Ellie ever taken (warning, she is bandaged here, so consider constraint if you're really sensitive to blood). We sometimes keep a framed copy of this on the coffee table.
  
• Hearing the music from either her play Aquarium or the hanging star that we used to sooth her in the hospital.
• Seeing the book of song lyrics that Sarahlynn and I put together and sang over and over and over during the whole first year of her life.
• You might be surprised that seeing her scars doesn't usually trigger any hospital memories. I guess we see her shirtless enough that I'm used to it... except for the little scar on the inside of her left foot, from the "spare" IV line that they kept in throughout her stay.

Sarahlynn spent five installments recounting our stay in the hospital with Ellie two years ago. So, I'll just share my most impactful memories.

The first one was on the night before the surgery. The amazing surgeon, to whom we owe Ellie's life, came in to talk with us about what would happen the next day. He explained the procedure and some of the risks. He said something to the effect, "and I have to share with you that there is an ever so slight change the Ellie may not make it through the surgery because of complications that may arise." "What's the risk?" we asked. "On the order of 1-2%," he told us. We were openly taken aback by this answer, I guess. He repeated, "it's a very slight risk." I then explained to him that he was talking to people who had a 1 in 228 change of being in this position at all, but here we are. And he was telling us that it was 4 times more likely that Ellie would die, than that we would be in this position at all. It's not an entirely rational response, but I think we were both scared to begin with. After the fact, I admitted to Sarahlynn that I honestly believed that when we handed Ellie off to the anethesiologist, that was the last time we'd see her alive. Or worse, she'd come out of surgery, get worse, go back in, have some emergencies, battle on, and finally succumb to all the complications...

That memory will be very vivid for a long time, I think.

The Plague Cometh

I, the Plague-Carrier, have continue to infect family after family. After the trip to Wyoming, during which I put my brother-in-law in the hospital, we all returned back to Valparaiso for some time with Sarahlynn's family. Grandpa Ted had already had his 24-hour dose of flu. Over the past several days, both of Sarahlynn's sisters (and possibly a dog or two) have all gotten equally sick, and now great-grandpa is having stomach cramps!

Admittedly, there's a minutely slim chance that I haven't been the only carrier of this bug... but believing I infected dozens of sure makes me feel influenzial (sic)*.

*Ha! Did you catch both of those convenient puns:
influenzial.... influenza...
sic... sick...