Back to the real world

I officially went back to work today. Yes, it was hard, but easy, too. The things that made it easy are as follows, in no particular order: (1) my mother-in-law spent the night, so I had no worries about getting Emma anywhere by a certain time; (2) Russell woke up in time to help with Emma if she decided to get up while we were getting ready; (3) my coworkers are wonderful; (4) summertime is business casual dress. I obviously wanted to be back home with my sweet baby, but it was nice to work again. And the work wasn't stressful, either. That can change at any moment, but it was a nice day to go back to work.

Let's see, I think my last post was Thursday...what's happened since then...oh! Occupational therapy on Friday morning. That went well. Emma was in a pretty good mood until she was wet/dirty and/or hungry. Then it was all over. The occupational therapist was wonderful, and she did some things to loosen up Emma's arms and hands and work on her upper body strength. And neck strength. We went out to eat with a delightful couple from our church Friday night. Saturday morning we woke up to Emma having a terribly hard time breathing, but she was herself again by midmorning. We had a great weekend with some visitors, too. Father's Day was wonderful for all the men in our family but I think especially meaningful for Russell's first Father's Day ever and my dad's first Father's Day as a granddad. My parents graciously had me, Russell, Emma, my mother- and father-in-law, my brother- and sister-in-law, our nephew, and my parents' neighbors over for Father's Day dinner. Emma had a good day today, but she had some pretty bad choking episodes.

Last night we learned our lesson about Ultimate Crib Sheets. If you don't know what they are, find out. Ok, I'll tell you: a crib sheet has white fabric on top, vinyl on the back (read: waterproof or bodily fluidproof). It doesn't wrap around the sides of the mattress; rather, it's flat on top, and it has these little elastic straps on the edges that you wrap around the crib slats. You keep your regular crib sheet on the bed underneath. Then, in the middle of the night when your baby's diaper fails you miserably (as it inevitably will), you don't have to struggle with removing a sheet (and possibly a mattress cover) and putting a new one on; you just take the Ultimate Crib Sheet off and ta-da! Clean sheet underneath. We've been great about keeping these sheets on Emma's bed. So far, no accidents. So of course, last night, the one night we don't put one on her bed, her diaper seemed to be nonexistent. We had to wake her up (and greatly anger her) getting her out of her crib, take off the crib sheet and the mattress cover, and struggle to put on another crib sheet and Ultimate Crib Sheet (I repeat, lesson learned). Drop side cribs are dangerous, but they must be so much easier to put a sheet on. Anyway, my mother-in-law did Emma's laundry today, and I was breaking a sweat this evening taking off the 3 am crib sheet and Ultimate Crib Sheet and then putting back on the mattress cover, crib sheet, and Ultimate Crib Sheet. God has blessed us mothers with Ultimate Crib Sheets, and I will never again take this divine blessing of modern motherhood for granted.

It's late as I write this blog, so it's time to cut it off. One reason it's late is that during the summer, I'm working longer hours Monday through Thursday, and I have Fridays off. When I came home, Russell and I educated my mom on Wii Fit - she loved it! So of course I had to get some Wii Fit time in as well. Then my mom and I took a very sticky walk through the neighborhood. I've got about 15 pounds to get off, and I don't know when I'm going to find the time to do this without sacrificing my sleep. Tomorrow Emma goes to the pediatrician for shots and a well child visit. She has another swallowing study on Wednesday, 3 more appointments on Thursday, and 2 appointments Friday. Busy girl.

Here's a picture of one of our visitors since Emma has been home. Dan is a good friend of ours from church, and he and Emma had some great bonding time. The thing I love about this picture is that it looks like Emma is warning him with her little fist: "If you don't spoil me rotten, I'll knock you into next week."