Happy Blogoversary: Delhi Days 12 & 13

A whole year since my very first post!

And how appropriate that I should find myself IN India, awaiting the homecoming, er hotel-coming, of the two most beautiful beings I've ever laid eyes on.

MY CHILDREN.

For the past hour I've been crying.

Not to worry, nothing to do with the blogoversary-- I mean it's exciting, but not that exciting-- simply my dinner du jour which I selected to celebrate.

KFC's fiery grilled chicken. 

And no, they do not sell it minus the fiery. Indeed, the cashier, clearly sensing that I was in celebration mode, slipped in an extra ten packets of tango sauce!

Unfortunately, because my taste buds were about to fall off just looking at it, I never got around to sampling the "tango."

So this morning, I was chatting with "the greatest little sister ever" as I contemplated how to capture this day of reflection in none other than--a blog post, and in addition to suggesting that I somehow manage to slip in a certain five words (can you guess which ones?), she thought a "Best Of" post might be appropriate, a suggestion with which I wholeheartedly agreed.

Until I started reading through all of my posts.

At which point I really was crying. Only these tears had nothing to do with chili flake covered poultry.

Had we really experienced ALL THIS in the span of a year?

The apprehensiveness of wiring thousands of dollars to a doctor we had never met, the exhilaration of traveling 7000+ miles to a country we knew nothing about, the thrill of spending a week in India, the devastation of finding out that both transfers had failed, the uncertainty with which we proceeded again, the caution with which we celebrated our success, the fearlessness with which we toasted our first trimester's end, the bitterness of losing another pregnancy, the uneasiness with which we traipsed through our second trimester, the amazement of realizing that we had made it to the third, the fear of finding out that our babies had been born at 29 weeks, the guilt that accompanied wishing that they had waited, the raw joy of realizing that despite all we have endured...

I AM FINALLY A MOM.

As it turns out, there are no Best Of posts. Each and every one of these posts, they all make up OUR STORY. They cannot be separated, as what happened prior and what happened after are integral to understanding what happened at the time.

And as for what has yet to come? For those curious, please do keep on reading...


and now for the update...

Around 6 p.m. last night, Hayden found himself back on the C-Pap. No oxygen needed, but he was looking too distressed on room air only. Additionally, he is still on Lasix, caffeine, and a nebulizer twice a day. Though Lasix is a diuretic, the doctor was pleased to see that he is continuing to gain weight. (Seriously, this kid does not miss a meal.) The goal now is to continue supporting his lungs, in hopes that he will not have long-term respiratory problems, a determination which cannot be made until he is closer to his term date.

Poor little guy was NOT happy to be reacquainted with his helmet.

Scarlett is plugging away at "spoon feeding" or as we would say in America, taking a bottle. Today, just as the nurse was about to feed her, I swiftly snatched the bottle and asked in my sweetest voice if I could give it a try. Under very close supervision, I was allowed. Lo and behold, mommy knows how to feed her daughter! Unfortunately, the task is exhausting for Scarlett, and she tends to fall asleep and/or oxygen drops mid-feed. In time, we will get there.

So maybe her diaper was a little too tight or maybe, just maybe, my girl's got a little belly! (Must be the result of Mommy's bottle feeding skills!)