A Quiet Afternoon and Evening

It was a good day today. Aurelia was in good spirits for most of the day. She was awake for a lot of the morning and was happy to be playing with some of her familiar toys from home. She particularly loves her moose and her elephant, pulling each toward her, and often toward her mouth! I arrived with my parents and Madison around 11 am. Maddie was so excited to Aurelia she practically jumped into A's crib! She had picked out a lamb stuffed animal for Aurelia yesterday and was thrilled to give it to her. Aurelia even smiled and seemed to be pleased with her new toy. I think that she was most pleased to see her big sister! It was nice to see them together! Maddie has been a real trooper. We brought a suitcase of things for her to do and she spent quite a bit of time reading and playing with her magnadoodle. She is not nervous at all around Aurelia, which is a big difference since the last time Little A had a nasal canula. It really is a pleasure to see how much she loves her baby sister. When Aurelia gets fussy, Maddie gently pats her arm and says, "Calm down, Baby A. Calm down." It is so very sweet.

Aurelia is still receiving breathing treatments every four hours. She hates getting them, but she is so much happier after they are done. She gets a good suctioning right before and so the treatment works much better. She seems to have a fussy period each night between 7 and 8 or 9. Once she got her treatment tonight, she conked out almost immediately after receiving it! She is sleeping peacefully now.

I don't want to sound like a big complainer, but this has been a tough weekend for us (in addition to everything going on with Aurelia, Charley's grandfather passed away early Friday morning) since Charley and I have spent less than 15 minutes together alone since Friday night. It is hard to debrief as a couple when you can't actually spend any quality time together. It is a blessing that my parents were visiting and that they could help us with Madison (in fact, my mom is going to extend her stay so that she can help with Maddie in the mornings and evenings), but it is still hard.

I'm exhausted tonight and would love to write more, but I think that getting some sleep is the best thing to do. Let's hope that it is a quiet night too!