Somedays

Somedays it's so easy to get caught up in the moment, to forget where you've come from and how long the trip has taken.

And others days you can't shake it any better than anything else.

You wake up with it, from a dream that haunts you all day and into the night.

You roll over to take in a good, long look at the miracle peacefully sleeping within arms reach.

Your heart fills with the warm fuzzies that you've heard so much about but rarely truly encountered.

You'd think this would do it. Off to the day. To deal with the weather and the traffic, the suddenly never ending poopy diapers and the hurry, hurry, hurry.

But not this day.

Everything you do, you do with a nagging something in the back of your mind. A slight tugging from behind. It implores you to stop and recall, it tempts you into its wonderment. You can't help but feel it's lure.

Eventually you give in. You go to the diaper bag and finally bring yourself to reading the discharge summary. You get to the bottom of page one and are amazed at how quickly your mind heals over the harsh. By page 12, of 19, you've hit your max and have to turn away. It's still too fresh, to sore to fully deal.

But you feel an odd sense of renew, refreshment, encouragement...hope.

We've come so far. It's cost so much, more than $2.8 million at last note. Must be something spectacular in the future.

For another parent that might be Yale or perhaps an M.D. but we're quite content with smiles and kisses.

It's been hard, it still might be, but I thank God for it every single night. I do.

Rice Cereal

Monday night Bryce had rice cereal for the first time...

Try as he did to get as much of the soupy cereal in his belly most of it ended up running down his belly. But it sure was cute.

It was very difficult to get a decent picture of the event because it was just the two of us and every time I put the spoon down to try and snap a photo he'd get quite mad! He was not a fan of the whole waiting for another spoonful o' food and still much prefers to attack his bottle as if at any moment someone might forever take it away.

In the same vein, he's begun eating quite ferociously. As I've said before, ever since he came home our biggest challenge has been trying to make him eat as much as the doctors prescribe. When we were still in the NICU they were fond of saying that eventually something would just click and one day he'd suddenly begin taking in all of the food he needed.

Well, turns out the NICU was right once again. Surprise, surprise. Last week Bryce went overnight from taking an average of 16 ounces per 24 hour period to an average of 20 ounces. But on some days he can even take more than the prescribed 24 ounces. And we've discovered that this directly relates to how much sleep we all get.

Dare I dream of a full night's sleep? Indeed, I do!