I wear my sunglasses at night...

Day 2 of recovery.  Last night's sleep went good.  All 3 boys in their beds.  The girls on the couch.  Liv slept better than I anticipated.  Some tossing & turning.  But a solid number of sleep hours.  And she woke up in a good mood.  We have had some touch & go moments of tantrum/fits of terror from her, mostly this evening before & related to getting to sleep or being tired.  I think we are going to have a hard transition back to sleep-trust at bedtime even once this recovery period is over.  But overall, an ok day.

Nevermind how awful I look, this is first thing, 7:15, in the morning.  Can you believe she smiled?!?!

While I think we are slowly on the mending trend, Jeff & I agreed again today that the process has been worse than we expected.  Not that it has been anything horrible or super traumatic, we just heard from the doctors & experienced parents "Its a very easy out patient surgery.  Resume normal activities in 24-48 hours."  Here we are at 36 hours & a far, far cry from normal.  I guess we'll see what the morning brings.  After my call to Dr. Troia last night, he called late this morning to check in on us.  (How many doctors do that, call you at home to check in?)  He said some kids bounce back so fast, are their normal selves that same night.  Lots of kids are back to themselves the next day.  And then there are some kids who take longer, a few days to bounce back.  Olivia apparently falls into that last category.  That is why we expected this to be easier, everyone we talked to, their kids apparently fell into category 1 or 2. 

Despite the fact that this recovery thing is slower than we anticipated, I'm taking nothing away from Miss Liv's spirit.  This girl is a trooper!  We keep joking that, God forbid, she would make a great blind girl.  She wants to get down & walk around, eyes closed.  She feels our faces.  Is chatting up a storm.  Has mastered her new Elmo doll & new interactive talking Elmo book with her eyes closed.  She can eat crackers out of a snack cup without opening her eyes.  She's pretty darn awesome!  Its hard to express it via text, but trust me, you would be amazed at her abilities sans vision.

Thats mostly our "hold up" with recovery.  She isn't ready to open her eyes & see her new world.  She is eating, not meals, but doing a very acceptable job of snacking.  She is taking good naps with mommy or daddy.  She is playing & smiling.  Just not opening her eyes.  Which means at least one parent is tied up 100% of the time.  Very needy & unable to do anything for herself, even walk, because her eyes are closed.  We did get her to peek those baby blues open a few times today.  And when I say that, I mean they were probably open for a cumultive of 2 minutes today.  Not much.  However, I do feel like she is doing some squinting too, opening them just a slice so we can't tell they are open.  And when they were open, she pointed out things like, "papa," a ball & a baby.  So I know she can see when they are open.  We are living like vampires, keeping all the lights off & pulling the blinds, trying to encourage her.  In addition to sore, irritated & swollen, her eyes will also be light sensitive for a while.  I also went out today & found her some sunglasses.  Hence the title of this post. 

My poor Elmo loving baby.  New Elmo jammies, Elmo doll, Elmo interactive book, while new Elmo DVD is playing.  Eyes, still closed.  She just pushed the buttons on the book & giggled hearing Elmo's voice over & over & over.  She got upset one time when one of the boys tried to read it.  I believe I even heard the 2 words "No" & "My."

They boys are doing so amazing.  I am so proud & amazed by them.  They have behaved perfectly.  So independent & grown up.  Not clingy or not needing a mommy or daddy's lap.  No stealing of Livi's toys.  They brought her her sunglasses this evening after she woke up from a nap.  They are always bringing her her "juicy."  Logan looks at her with sad eyes.  You can see it in them that they feel sorry for her.  I don't know how they know, but they know.  It melts my heart beyond words. 

G-ma Candy & G-pa Tom came up today.  Brought us some yummy lunch, did a few loads of laundry & provided a few extra hands to keep us from going insane.  Both them & G-ma GG didn't leave the boys out from the present list.  They've gotten themselves some sweet new cars.  And they got to watch Livi's new Elmo movie, while Livi just listened. 

They boys getting the corn ready for lunch

This evening, while Livi reluctantly took a nap, I took the boys to Target & Walmart.  Not that is a super fun place to go, but I felt bad for them for how their last 24 hours has gone too.  So I wanted to at least get them out of the house & get them something fun too.  I had gotten Livi a little toddler computer, which we got out tonight & she typed away without opening an eye.  While the boys have not bothered her Elmo, we were on the brink of fighting over the computer.  So I took them out to buy 2 more (which I planned on doing eventually anyways.)  So we all "blogged" tonight!  I only got a picture of Livi though.

On to tomorrow......