The writing on the wall:   Jacob officially weighs 5 pounds! He would have been 35 weeks gestation today…hard to believe he shouldn’t have been born for another month. His feeding tube was out when we visited this evening.  Craig loves feeding him (a privilege he hasn’t had often, since we usually try to avoid […]

Our Little Miss Sunshine is 7 years old today!   She’s busy with ballet, books, sewing, and drawing.  And, of course, being the best playmate ever for Isaac.  Her superpower: she gives great hugs. We’ve spent a lot of time counting our blessings lately, and our lovely, loving children are always at the top of […]

This is why I like us all being home. I’m making lunch and packing up to go visit Jacob this afternoon. Lucy is practicing violin, working between piano, YouTube videos, and her metronome to get it “just right.” I walked by the art room, and Samantha (who could not, would not read this time last […]

As of last night, Jacob was up to 4 lbs 5 oz!  He is growing really well, praise God.   He has had some setbacks with his feedings, however.  They went back to tube feeding for the time being because he hasn’t got the suck-swallow-breathe thing working yet.  He’ll start trying the bottle again in […]

Good news!  The nurses tried bottle-feeding Jacob last night, and it went really well.  That’s the next step to getting rid of his last tube.  Craig was able to be there (it was the 11:30pm feeding, so I stayed home with the kids and slept.)  Jacob is awake more now and feisty as ever.  3lb […]

Jacob is one month old today. As of yesterday afternoon he weighed 3lbs 10oz. We’ve come a long way. Here are some of the milestones from his first month: -Ventilator taken off -Umbilical IVs taken out -CPAP taken off -PICC line put in (that’s an IV from his foot to his heart) -Humidity turned off […]

I wrote an essay on the theme of “waiting” for the Mudroom blog back in December.  You can find it here. I thought, once this baby was born, the waiting would be over.  No such luck.  We started our waiting game over: First waiting to meet my baby – I had be strong enough to […]

This really should have posted yesterday, but I, by which I mean Craig, had to figure out how to post pictures since it’s been so long.  Better late than never, right? The view from our kitchen window. That is a leaf inside an icicle, if you were wondering. And the bush outside the bathroom window.   I […]

The Scene: We are driving to breakfast after Mass.  An opossum, sadly, has become roadkill, and there is a vulture there enjoying his own Sunday brunch. Clare: “Do vultures eat live things?” Craig: “No, only dead things.  They’re like catfish that can fly.”

There are funny posts forthcoming, but it’s not all fun and games, this almost dying thing.  I’m glad I can laugh about some of it – really, I’m glad I’m here to have the option of laughing about it! – but there were lots of very poignant moments, too.  Which, honestly, are a little harder […]