Big Girl Cuddles

   I might end up taking a blogging hiatus or only writing one post per month for a while (starting in August) as I work on editing a book about Emma and our time in the NICU, then hopefully get it published on Amazon! So I need to put that as a priority for a while over blogging. This might also maybe help me take less pictures. But right now I still have five more recent posts that I want to write and have on this website. I love going back and reading everything, but sometimes finding the time and motivation to write them all is what slows me down, especially since I like editing the pictures first. And it's so much easier to take naps and watch Netflix on my days off when we don't have doctor appointments! Tomorrow we're going to Pulmonology and Emma will practice "sprinting", which means breathing on her own while the ventilator is paused.
   While Emma was in the hospital and we were holding her as often as we could, I wrote on Facebook that, "When Emma comes home, the only fight Michael and I will ever have is whose turn it is to hold her." I wish that were true, and we did hold her a lot.. that first week. Now she spends most of her time laying down, either on her mat in the living room or in her crib, and spends maybe an hour or two per day standing in her play seat by the window with the attached toys around her.
   About two weeks ago, on July 10th, I held her again. And it was the best!! I held her in my lap with her facing me while watching a show. She was really playful and rocked herself back and forth, laughing, and leaning side to side, laughing more. Eventually she put her head on my chest and fell asleep. She slept soundly for 45 minutes before I had to put her down and she woke up again.

   I thought it was interesting when a Facebook memory popped up from July 2017, and it showed a picture of baby Emma, almost one month old, laying on my chest. The caption said, "NICU life has a lot of ups and downs. Today was an up day." I agree with it for this year too!

   Since then I have been holding her more lately and Michael says he has been too. Last night she didn't care for it, but that was mainly because she was coughing a lot and required her lung treatments about 40 minutes earlier than most nights. In the photo below you can see her little hand on my neck. Even though she was sleeping, her hand would scratch me every few minutes.

   Some other photos of her recently, plus a couple of her sleeping because she looks so beautiful and comfortable at night too.

      She looks so big and mature in this ^^ photo! She is really good about sitting up for many minutes at a time these days. I saw in a post from last August when she was just learning to sit up for a couple seconds at a time. Before we do trach care at night and she's on the mat with a small table attached, I will say, "Earthquake!" and shake the table a decent amount and she is still able to keep her balance now, while also laughing! Her abs are getting quite strong and useful.

    Emma loves laying on the wood floors and will continuously kick her legs until she is off the soft mat. It is possible she likes this because the floor is cooler, even though Michael keeps the AC at 73. And there is no point in moving her because two minutes later she'll be right back on the floor!

   Those eyelashes!!  Since I started holding Emma while watching shows on Netflix during the day, I also began sitting her in my lap while reading her books, instead of keeping her on her back and holding the pages above her head so she can see the pictures. However, she still tends to look around at other things besides the illustrations and like laying sideways instead of sitting up straight. I'm still getting books from the library, but there are several books in the closet that I have not read to her yet- including a few she got for her birthday and the two I got after our North Georgia cabin trip in March about hiking the Appalachian Trail!
   (On Netflix I'm currently enjoying "How to Live Mortgage Free", which is a type of British mini-documentary show with six episodes, mostly about people living very frugally or building their own houses or living on boats so they can pay everything off super quick!)

  I love that Elvis hair. And even though I don't post much about Sasha (this blog isn't about her!), she is still kicking! She will be 12 in human years next month.

     Last week I woke up at midnight from whatever noise I heard. I heard Emma coughing and reached out for Michael who was still awake as his side of the bed was still made up. I heard him suctioning her like normal. I took my sleep mask off and freaked out when I saw the red lights through the window and peaked through the blinds to see an ambulance. I rushed into her room, "What's wrong?! Is she okay!?" This then made Michael concerned and I asked if he had to call 911 about something. But he would have definitely woken me up first and I would have helped him do an emergency trach change or whatever else he needed for us to trouble shoot together before calling 911. But the ambulance had parked directly in front of our house. We both looked outside again to see the EMTs walking up another person's driveway.

 Below Emma sporting her favorite look: We call it Piggy Nose. Sometimes she will purposely adjust her glasses that way and then put her hand down again. It's possible she is just doing it to be silly, but she has another eye appointment in August and she may get a new prescription then.

    Emma was so happy to get a piece of mail that was not a bill from the insurance company, which do get addressed to her. My cousin, Lindsey, who visited at the beginning of the month, sent her a post card from the Bahamas! She headed down to Miami and enjoyed a three-day cruise with one of her friends. We also loved getting a few birthday cards for Emma in the mail last month. :)