Little Victories...Big Blessings

This blog was created to share with the world how our family has been blessed and continues to be blessed. So, I thought it appropriate today to share today's little blessings. (actually yesterday's)

1. Sadie slept 14 hours last night!! Well, let's start at the beginning...Sadie was pretty upset in the evening time, we think she might be pre-teething, so it was rough to get her to calm down enough to even remember that she was tired. She wouldn't nurse, so I strapped her in the bouncy chair and let it work its magic. She eventually fell asleep and I was able to stop bouncing, but that never lasts longer than 30 minutes. So, when I saw the eyes pop open, I grabbed her, wrapped her up like a little baby-burrito and I was going to stick a boob in her mouth, when her eyes just went back closed. So, I patted and held her for another half hour and since she was out, I put her in her bed. She woke up for about a half hour to eat at 4:30, and I brought her in bed with me, then she slept until 9:15!! Amazing.

2. Which brings me to swaddling. I asked in one of my previous posts recently for tips to help with napping, sleeping in general, routines and schedules, etc. Many of you mentioned swaddling. My mom has been mentioning this for over a month (sorry, mom) and I've been telling her Sadie hates to be confined, she doesn't like swaddling, blah blah blah. But, as usual...mom's right. I "accidentally" swaddled Sadie the other night when she woke up after being put in bed, while I nursed her back to sleep and I started wondering if she does like it. Turns out, it just might be my saving grace. As I type this, Sadie is swaddled, laying in bed asleep by herself and it's only 2:00!! She stayed there and took a 2 hour nap!

3. Car screaming. Since Sadie woke up so late and so happy, I decided to venture out to a LaLeche League meeting this morning. It's held at my Bradley teacher's house and I really wanted to go, but it's so hard to take Sadie anywhere because of the car screaming. Well, it took us 35 minutes to get there and Sadie didn't scream AT ALL! We tried a couple different things. I sang a specific song about car riding as we were getting ready and until we got out of our neighborhood, then I cranked the classical music. When we were about 5-10 minutes away, Sadie started whining. Not crying, but pre-crying, so I turned down the music and specifically told her "we're at the last light," or "we're gonna make 3 more turns and then we're there," or "I'm parking the car now and then I'll get you out." I also told her a lot that I understand that she's uncomfortable and doesn't like being in her car seat for so long, but that she's doing a good job and I'm so proud of her. The whining NEVER turned into a full on cry, and when I got her out, she was as happy as could be!

4. Car screaming part 2. I was worried about the ride home from the La Leche meeting because Sadie was starting to get fussy. She had been awake about an hour, and the nap had only been a 30 minute nurse-nap, so it was far from adequate. I totally expected her to scream her way home...nope. She did fuss and whine and make little scream/squeaks, but there was no crying until literally we were pulling into our driveway!! And I'm not sure that would have even happened had we not hit some construction traffic. So our ride home ended up being like 45 minutes, but she did okay and I am so proud of her!

5. I was visiting our Bradley teacher today, enjoying her La Leche meeting and she told me something she said she's been meaning to tell me. You see, we've visited some of her other Bradley classes to tell the pregnant ladies about our birth experience using Bradley and let them ask questions. And everytime, of course, it's come up that Sadie is a miracle. She's not perfect and she has special needs, but she is a miracle. Our Bradley teacher told me today that each time we've come (and it's been 3 different times now) that we've been such a blessing because each time we've left the conversation has come up about how much we love our little girl. I don't know if people expect us to reject her or be distant from her or treat her differently because of her HIE, but somehow they're surprised at how loving we are. What a blessing to hear that we're blessing OTHER people just by loving our child. ...and boy is she loved!!