For the Love of Ivey

to give the details of the week. So, we'll say it in pictures.

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Good morning or is it good night when it is 12:35 am? No nurse tonight, so I am on night duty bountifully trying to find something to do to keep me awake. Lucky for you, if you are reading this. If you were here, you would be watching National Treasure for the 1,000 th time with me too. It has been a quite week around here for the most part, but that quietness all ended today. Officially Walker is out for summer, whooo hoo! But quickly let me catch you all up on Ivey. Since her trach has been out life has not been exactly what I had expected. First off, I knew there would be more time, and there is. However, it seemed in my trachless dreams that we would be out do more things, just having a ball, living It UP. Well, we have when we haven't been sleeping. It seems that she and I have both crashed. Matt explained to me that my adrenaline level in my bloodstream has dropped-significantly; therefore, I sleep (except for tonight). And what do you know, Ivey has been in a great mood, a...

"Life isn't measured the number of breaths we take, but by the number of moments that take our breath away." Anonymous. You know when Ivey was first born I would reluctantly wonder why her life was destined to have fewer breaths than my own. The days were long, the nights were longer and the sound of her cries were excruciating. The nurse would arrive at 11:00 pm and I would take my place as a bystandard for the following eight hours as the nurse became Ivey's primary caregiver. Those times were so hard and unnatural to me as a mother. I had to step away from being a mother; I was to retreat to my room and sleep while a stranger fullfilled my place by her side. I would retreat leaving a nurse to console her as her breaths would resonate from the makeshift nursery off of the kitchen, down the hallway and into our bedroom. Some nights I would sit in my bed and silently cry through the entire night with her, other nights I would stand in the hall for hours nervously won...

Today is a big day- Ivey got her trach out! Gwen and Matt are enjoying watching sweet Ivey play and talk, trach free. Gwen got to do the honors of taking out Ivey's trach. She is doing great and will be coming home tomorrow.