Wide Awake Baby and the Booty Appears!

Mike and I rushed to the hospital today to squeeze in a very quick visit before Mike had to go to work. If we didn't make it, Mike would be going on three days without seeing his little girl. When we arrived, we had about 35 minutes before we needed to get back into our car and make our near-hour drive home. Whew!

Since I have been with Flara the past two days, I told Mike to go first and take the majority of the time. I asked him to leave me with just five minutes to go in and say "hi" to my sweet baby girl. Noël and I played in the waiting room and bought Junior Mints out of the vending machine. Noël thought the vending machine was pretty cool! =)

Mike returned beaming and announced to me that Flara was growing her hiney! That rat changed her diaper! I was glad for him, though. I was able to change Flara's teeny tiny little britches when she was two days old, and poor Daddy has had no opportunity before today. He was quite tickled. Last time he saw her little preemie booty, she had no cheeks AT ALL! We had a good laugh that Flara is fixin' to be like the rest of her family. That's where all that good breast milk is going!

I snuck in for my quick hello... that little gal was WIDE awake! I have not seen her with her little eyes open for more than just quick glances. Today, she was as wide-eyed as she could be. When I spoke to her, those little eyes would turn and her little forehead would wrinkle. Awww.... she melted my heart! I talked to her and held her little hand. I checked the clock. Time up. I stayed a bit longer... five minutes. I was hoping she would go back to sleep. Still awake. I lingered still. Another five minutes. We were ten minutes past our time to leave, so I decided I'd better scoot. Oh, it tore my heart in pieces to leave her in that sweet, quiet wakeful state. Thankfully, her nurse was in there, too, so I wasn't just leaving her alone. The nurse had tears in her eyes and told me she understands having had a 29 weeker herself, and knows how hard it is to walk away. I really appreciated her openness. It's nice to know someone understands how Mike and I are feeling.

When I returned to Mike and Noël, I told Daddy that she was wide awake. His response was the same as my response to him changing her diaper. We both had, "what? not fair!" responses to each other's visit. We hurried home, and made it in time. Mike left for work at his usual time, so no undue stress was added to our day. =)

Speaking of diapering... Noël has been really good lately about telling us when she goes potty. She pats the front of her "panties" and says "di, di" and will go to her changing table. However, since I have been unable to lift her, I have been changing her on the floor. The other day, she decided to really help Mommy out. She climbed up on the bench in our living room, lay down, and held her legs up. I realized she was laying there for me to change her! Such a sweet girl! So, that has become her temporary changing table. It amazes me how much her understanding is of the changes in her life. With my parents in town for the weekend, Noël took her diapering to a new level. She declared 'done' after eating supper, so we let her down from the table. We heard a little ruckus in the living room. My dad peeked over and started to chuckle. He told us to look at Noël... she was changing the diaper of Dolly her baby doll. Sure enough, she had taken a seat in her camp chair, which was pulled up to the bench. She had Dolly on the bench with the wipes box. She pulled out a wipe to clean Dolly, then was working with one of Flara's preemie diapers that we had brought home for Noël to see. It was the sweetest thing ever! I helped her put the diaper on Dolly. She gave the pat of approval! =) I just love that girl!

I know Noël will be a great big sissy. That's a 'great' big sissy... not a 'great big' sissy. =) She is always very helpful with Mommy and Daddy, whatever we are doing. She loves babies... she kisses, hugs, and holds her baby cousins. She loves to say "baby" every instance we see one. She'll point to Flara's pictures and tell us "baby." We had to quit telling her about 'baby' in Mommy's tummy. I think that was confusing at first. When I came home from the hospital, she would still lift my shirt, point to my belly, and say "baby." It took a few days of telling her 'baby' was now here and showing her Flara's pictures before she quit looking for the baby under my shirt. I can't wait for her to see little Flara. That's a long time coming, though, so we'll just have to be patient.