Spectacle

This summer, I went to the hospital to see Lindsey and her new baby. On my way out, my feet kind of steered themselves off the elevator and on to the second floor, down the narrow, windowed hall, past the stairway to the long hall that lead to the NICU. I sat down on one of the benches and stared through the glass doors and into the ward. I smelled the familiar smells. I watched the familiar sight of parents walking by and going through the drill. Sign in. Stick the thermometer under your tongue. Record the reading. Hand-sanitize. Get your key and go see your baby, hoping and praying with every step that she is well. I wondered how early their baby was.

And despite my best efforts to keep myself together, I sat on the bench and cried. I cried for my Lucy. I cried for the woman I was and the man my husband was then. I cried for the parents who were in the throes of this struggle. And I cried for their babies. And in any other setting, I might have made a spectacle of myself, but here, seeing someone you don't know in tears is just part of NICU culture. Because when your newborn looks like this, it's hard to hear even the doctors and nurses over all your worry. You can't see it in the picture, but Lucy has an IV in her head. (There's a hole in the hat, which I kept.) That thing on her face is called a bubble C-pap. There is also a feeding tube running up her nose. The sensor things taped to her torso are measuring breathing or blood flow or something. There is a blood pressure cuff on her foot and I can't remember what that thick tube in the back is for.

Last week, as a part of our connect group story, I read John 9:1-3:

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. "Rabbi," his disciples asked him, "why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents' sins?" "It was not because of his sins or his parents' sins," Jesus answered. "This happened so the power of God could be seen in him."

 So the power of God could be seen in her.

October 22, 2012, after a 19-day stay in the NICU, we took Lucy home. Within a year, she was caught up with her peers in size, and within two years, she was caught up with them entirely. And from the very moment of her birth, she has been a testament to the power of God.

Keep that up, Lucy Jean.

New Thing: Furniture Assembly

I've been losing an organizational battle with this particular piece of furniture in my dining room. It has become a catch-all for all things kid and craft related. It holds coloring books, markers, glue, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, crayons, puzzles, McDonald's toys, you name it, it's in this stupid shelf/cabinet thing. I SO wish I had taken a before picture.

Enter IKEA. It is quite possible that IKEA is my favorite. (I was going to say store, but I don't feel like that is enough. I was going to say place on earth, but I think that might be a little much. So it's somewhere in between.)

We had purchased this shelf at IKEA for our son's room and loved it. So I asked Rick if he could swing by on the way home from work one day and pick another one up. He did, but he didn't have time to assemble that night, and as you can see from the photo above, assembly is required. I tend to default to Rick for all things assembly-related, but I was itching to get started, so the next morning, I rolled up my sleeves.

I started at 8:15, and by 10:15, viola!

I had intended for it to go into the corner vertically, but once I had it assembled, I realized how much more beneficial a horizontal placement would be. For one thing, the top would provide storage and for another, both kids could easily access every drawer. Win win!

The big job was organizing everything into the cubbies and drawers. I ended up taking all the outdoor things (bubbles, sidewalk chalk, etc) and putting them in a basket to be kept in the entryway closet, and I think I threw a few things out, but everything else was neatly arranged onto shelves or into drawers. The front of the drawers are smooth, white plastic, so I grabbed a dry-erase marker (from the newly organized "Art Supplies" drawer) and labeled them. There was even enough room for a "Mommy's Stuff" drawer!

Since this picture was taken, I have secured two turn-in-type trays from the dollar store and placed them on top. Whenever one of the kids finishes an art project, instead of it floating around for a week until it inevitably ends up in the recycle bin, it goes in the tray. One of my best ideas!

Big Girl Bed

My girl is two-and-a-half and ready for a big girl bed. We did this with brother when he was about her age too. We considered buying her a new bed. We went to several stores and looked around, but in the end, we decided she would get brother's bed and brother would be the one to get a new bed. But before I get to that, can we have a moment for this crib?

Both our babies spent the first two and a half years of their lives sleeping here. It was a great crib. And it made me a little sad to see it go.

But the cute little pregnant lady who bought it was excited, and I'm glad another precious baby will put it to good use. And we got $100 out of it, so I was happy!

We moved the bed up to Lucy's room and headed to Target to look for bedding. I knew I wanted bright, that was really my only requirement, which was fortunate because the options were limited. But the good news is we found one we liked and it was on clearance! We found two sheet sets that matched (one of which was also on clearance!) and headed home. We got everything set up and had one excited girl!

The transition has been very smooth. This one likes to get out of her bed (which brother never did), but she learned quickly. And we learned that if we just give her a couple of books, she will read to her heart's content if she wakes early. :)