Doing well, but…

…we’re creating a monster.  Let me explain.  They fixed her heart, thus giving her a bunch of energy she never had before.  However, we have to limit what she does to give her sternum time to heal.  And we can’t let her get real upset or angry or cry because that raises her blood pressure and could damage the sutures used to fix her heart.  So, for six weeks we have to harness all this new energy into a limited amount of activity AND keep her happy and mellow while doing it.  If that doesn’t sound impossible to you then you either have never raised a 20 month old or you don’t remember it!

Now please, don’t hear me complaining here.  This is minor and I wouldn’t change it for the world.  Having her home and healthy trumps anything these next six weeks can throw at us.  In fact, I wouldn’t even call this a problem.  Let’s call it a challenge instead.  And the biggest challenge is that it’s requiring a totally different parenting approach than we’ve previously taken (a.k.a. the “give-your-child-anything-they-want-to-keep-her-happy-and-thus-creating-a-spoiled-but-healthy-princess” approach).  So we’re now trying to balance this “new and necessary” approach with April while maintaining our normal parenting with Abe.

Sleep is where this is really hitting us hard.  Because of the four days we spent in the hospital there was, as expected, a bit of regression in her typical sleep habits.  Normally, we would nip this right in the bud with one night, two max, of sleep training.  No big deal.  However, we can’t do that in this case, and as I’m sure many of you know, kids figure these things out.  It doesn’t take them long to realize that they can get away with anything.  Naps are pretty much gone for the moment (thus the shortage of blog entries).  As for getting her to sleep at night, well, we’re still trying to work this out.  We tried the “let-her-roam-until-she-passes-out” method the first night and we didn’t get to bed until 1:45am.   Twice we’ve driven her around to get her to fall asleep, but she figured that gig out and now screams if we head toward a vehicle.  The last two nights I’ve been able to spend time in her room and convince (bribe) her to eventually get in her crib where she passes out from exhaustion.  She’s still winning the battle, but I like to think we’re gaining ground. =)

Here are some more pictures from the hospital and home if you’d like to see them.  We also had our first follow-up appointment with our pediatrician today and that went great.  Next week we see our cardiologist and the following week our surgeon.  Praying those all show a strong and healing heart!

Oh give thanks to the LORD, call upon His name;
Make known His deeds among the peoples.
Sing to Him, sing praises to Him;
Speak of all His wonders.
Glory in His holy name;
Let the heart of those who seek the LORD be glad.
Seek the LORD and His strength;
Seek His face continually.  –1 Chronicles 16:8-11