I spent the morning on the phone scheduling appointments for Leo. As of now, he has an appointment scheduled with our pediatrician, who we are switching him to, an appointment with a general surgeon, to be evaluated for a g tube, a hearing test appointment, an appointment with the feeding clinic and an appointment with an ENT. Thankfully, all of the appointments are spread out so it doesn't seem so overwhelming. Last night, we had our last visit with his current pediatrician. She was very pleased with his 1 pound weight gain and shared past history information and recommendations with us. I think we are on the right track or at least headed in the right direction.
I then began feeding Leo at 11:15 with his bottle and then transferred him to tube feeding and decided it was time to make lunch. In the coarse of an hour, Emma stole a sandwich, I dropped the vita mix filled with smoothie stuff which spilled under the frig, I then discovered the front panel does come off the frig and discovered years of gross, icky stuff, cleaned up the gross, icky stuff so we could walk and Emma would stop licking the floor. Leo decided he wanted to be held in the middle of all of this and so I recruited Amanda to do that. Finished making lunches and finally sat to eat. Thankfully, most lunches aren't so tiring.
I am hoping for a quiet afternoon.
So much for a quiet afternoon, we all piled into the big van and went up to Micheal's Crafts. In the check out I encountered the most ignorant cashier ever! She had the nerve to ask in front of all my children (who for the record were actually behaving and waiting patiently by my side) if they were foster children. I replied, no and she insisted they had to be foster children, they couldn't all be mine. Let me tell you, she got my mamma bear blood boiling and we will just suffice it to say it was mighty hard to show love and grace to someone who was being oh so ignorant!
I told Jeremy last night that I feel like we are beginning to get back to normal around here or at least our new version of normal. We are developing a routine although it seems to change from day to day so not sure how much of a routine it is. Anyway, we are settling down and feeling more comfortable having baby Leo as part of our family. Even though he is 13 months old, he really is a baby- eats every 4-5 hours, can't leave him unattended, doesn't sleep through the night, etc. Probably the hardest adjustment besides lack of sleep, is figuring out how to feed him if we are not home. He is not taking the bottle too well and gets most of his nourishment through a tube feeding which can take up to a half hour. We have seen more and more of his personality come out a little more each day. He really is a happy boy!
We have been reminded of how God wants us to live our lives with action not intentions. We can have all the best intentions but if we don't act on them they are worthless. Sometimes we think the only actions that “count” are those that are big, but I have been reminded that some of the best actions are really just everyday acts of love. We have been blessed with meals being delivered to our home by friends and family. This may not seem like a big deal, but to a mom with a new baby and 5 other kids, who is not getting enough sleep, this is HUGE! I am so thankful for family and friends who didn't stop at having good intentions but went the extra step and acted on them.
This week should be a quiet week- Jordan has his last baseball game of the season tonight, Amanda and Jonathan go to the dentist on Wednesday, Leo and I go back down to his pediatrician on Thursday evening (I am hoping after this visit we can transfer his care to our pediatrician who is much closer). Please pray that I am able to get all information I need from his pediatrician so that we can make sure he is getting everything he needs. Please also pray specifically for his reflux- seems like a small thing- but I believe God answers small prayers too. His reflux is really no small matter when you have to change his outfit up to 4 times a day because it is soaked. Thank you to all who are praying for our family!
