Enjoying motherhood

Nicole has been out of the hospital now for a few days.  She is doing great!  She's been happy and is loving having the freedom of space.  Being able to get down and walk around the house is helping her to get stronger.  It is so fun to hear her laugh and giggle as she plays.  She is only throwing up once or twice a day.  Her diarrhea is slowing down.  She does have an awful rash on her bottom that won't clear up.  The doctors try different creams but none of them are working. She is still on TPN and lipids  (IV nutrition) because she isn't tolerating feeds too well yet.  Getting her to eat will be a slow process.

I have always enjoyed being a mom and listening to my kids play.  I have loved little people conventions in my living room and listening to the creativity of play.  But listening to Nicole play brings such different feelings.  I have always tried to enjoy my children while they were little because I knew that I only had them for a short time in my home.  Now each day with Nicole reminds me that being a mom is a gift for our Heavenly Father.  Each day you have with your child is a gift.  I am grateful that I have spent time playing with each of my children.  With Nicole being in isolation for most of her life I haven't left her too often.  It's mostly just been me and Nicole.  We have had to find ways to entertain ourselves that don't include going to the park for play dates or roaming the stores to "kill time".  How grateful I am that my Heavenly Father has given me this gift to spend time playing with Nicole. 

Elder Ballard quoted "Author Anna Quindlen reminds us not to rush past the fleeting moments. She said: “The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. … I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less” (Loud and Clear [2004], 10–11)." (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/04/daughters-of-god?)

 

Pictures of Nicole getting ready to go bowling:)

Now watch her go!!

Kermit has competition tonight.  Nicole loves my kindle fire:)