in the moment

As we closeout a wonderful weekend (more on that tomorrow) and an up and down week I am reminded that we do best when we stay in the moment and either enjoy or sometimes merely survive each day. This journey, our life, only gets overwhelming when we think too far into the future, whether that be thinking about the next day, week, month or decade. The moment is always manageable and usually joyous. The future was incredibly uncertain on October 22, 2011 and it still remains uncertain today. What is certain is that there will be tough and scary days ahead as well as many happy and exciting days.

The focus of the week was feeding by mouth. Something that Virginia is clearly going to do on her own terms and on her own schedule. This is true to form for Virginia, and I am quite certain that this will be her personality for a long time and we will love her for it. She started the week by utterly refusing a bottle and scaring just about any nurse that tried to feed her with one. By mid week the doctors ordered a battery of tests to rule out any respiratory, neurological or physiological reason for her refusal to eat. All of these tests and evaluations came back completely normal, thank goodness. We now know we just need more patience. Virginia has not yet coordinated the complex suck, swallow and breath sequence and is just stubborn. By the end of the week Virginia was taking some milk from a bottle for some nurses but not for others and most surprisingly took to her first 2 attempts at breastfeeding like she had been doing it forever. We will continue to be patient, enjoy each day and stay in the moment.