Thursday, July 29, 2010

Introducing Joy


So two weeks ago we welcomed our second precious little girl into the world: Joy. Millie is in love. I had been a little worried because Millie is an energetic little one and she consumes 350% of the attention and energies of both her mommy and daddy. We were worried about how she would adjust to sharing her spotlight. So far so good though. Truly it was love at first sight.

We had our daughter 8:20pm via c-section. This was the first night ever that Millie had been away from both parents. Both grandmothers were with her at our home. The next morning I was still feeling pretty rough around all the edges but the medical team advised that I get up and into a chair. We decided that we would have Millie visit for one hour that afternoon. The nurse technician asked me, "How old is your daughter?" "Three," I answered. She said, "OK, we need to make sure you don't have too many visible tubes hanging off of you." She put the chair in the corner of the room and the IV pole behind the chair. She got permission to remove the foley catheter. I took a fresh dose of pain medicine and after half an hour of getting presentable, I finally landed in the chair and waited for Millie and the grandparents to arrive. We were advised that the baby should be in the bassinet and not in mommy’s arms so as not to provoke immediate jealousy.

Millie entered the room and came right over to me, “Hi Mommy! Hi Baby Sister!” she said to my tummy as she had been doing for the last several months. “Hey Baby Sister,” she said, ready to launch into her conversation. I interrupted- “Millie. Baby sister is not in mommy’s tummy anymore. She’s out now. She’s over there,” I said, pointing to the plastic hospital bassinet on the other side of the room. Millie sloooowly turned to see where I was pointing- then froze. Then her eyes got huge and then in a reverent, awestruck shuddering, voice she whispered “Ohh- ohhhh-ohhh!” while skipping, hopping and dancing with excitement. She put her hands on her cheeks. Her body couldn’t contain the excitement. Finally, she ran over to the bassinet and climbed on the couch next to it. She stood on the couch peering over into the bassinet and said, “Ohhhh! I love huh (her)! She’s so cute! I’m going to sing her a song…” Then Millie serenaded little Joy with Rockabye baby. Then she said, “I want to sing her another song.” She then sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

It’s been a love story ever since. Granted—it’s only been two weeks but so far so good. Every morning, Millie whispers to Joy, “I love you baby sister,” and tries to hug her. She says, “I love her little toes. I love her little eyes. I love her little cheeks.”

Two nights ago she came over to smother her with kisses and hugs and out of the blue she whispered to Joy, “I’ll always be by your side.” Neither her father nor I know where she picked up that phrase—it’s not anything we’ve ever said to her and it’s not in any songs we play. As far as we can tell, Millie, on her own, was just moved to say it. I pray that it’s true- that the two sisters will always be loving and there for each other. All I know is that, so far, Millie as a big sister is more breathtaking than ever.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

He's Got the Whole World...

Millie's grandparents are visiting. Millie's grandmother was reading her the bedtime stories. After stories, usually Millie's dad will start the lay down routine. He was waiting in the wings in our room listening for the end of story time and the brushing of teeth.

While he was waiting he decided to try out a new speaker docking station that he had just purchased to see how it did playing the music off his cell phone. Millie's grandmother was bringing Millie to the bathroom to brush teeth.

Following the music, she ran past the bathroom and poked her head into our room, tentatively. She looked over at her father with a questioning look, not sure if she would get into trouble for delaying the brushing of teeth or not. Daddy, waved her in though and she happily scooted over to him. "Can I sit on your lap?" He said she could. Then the song changed to Raffi's "He's got the whole world in his hands".

By the end of the song, she started clapping to the tune and rocking along with daddy. When it was over Daddy turned off the music. She turned to him and hugged him and said, "You are the most favorite grown-up I've ever seen." "I love you too, Millie." he replied. Then off they went happily to brush teeth and settle down for the night.