The Most Wonderful Sound in the World

Ayayayayay the sound of my own baby laughing just makes my chest want to burst! And the best are the times when it’s so unexpected, like I’m not even trying to be funny, but whatever it is catches her at just the right time. Like tonight, she was playing with her stuffed animals and wrestling with Pink Bear as she usually does. I was about to pick her up to go do something, so I snatched the bear away from her, fully expecting her eyebrows to furrow and her lips to turn down in that oh my gosh what horrific thing have you just done to me you mean old person, but to my surprise, she cracked up in the most beautiful, guttural, joyous laugh! I’ve been dying to get her intense laugh on video for so long, but it never works b/c as soon as the camera comes out she gets fascinated with it and forgets whatever it was that was so funny! But tonight I ran. I ran through the house to find the camera, hoping she would still be wrestling with her bear and forget about this 30 seconds of “where the heck did mom go so fast” and the normal-easily-distracted-baby-syndrome so that I could get back and sneak the camera on in time to repeat the previous cause-and-effect. It never works this way, BUT IT DID TONIGHT! I finally have my blessed baby laugh on camera!

The sound of your baby’s laugh – every mother knows this feeling, and it cannot be accurately explained until you’ve heard it for yourself, as a mother. Baby laughs are entertaining for anyone (have you seen these clips? one, two, three – pretty darn cute), but when it’s your own, it’s the most amazing thing. Especially when you’ve had to endure times of the exact opposite, whether it be a screaming newborn that won’t sleep in the whee hours of the morning, your baby going through surgery, or even the occasional ear infection. No matter what, the baby laugh makes it all worthwhile! I gotta say it – I have have been living for this video. For about five months now. There was a scary time five months ago that I didn’t know if this video would ever happen. And to think where we are now. WOW. That was half of Skyler’s life ago. Someday very soon, that weird nightmare spent at Children’s Mercy Hospital back in March will be a vague memory. I mean this in the sincerest sense – Thank the Lord.

Meanwhile I’ve gotten so used to Skyler’s healthiness that I forgot to report on her cardiology checkup that happend on Monday! On top of the whopping 17 pounds, 16 ounces (which means 10% percentile for weight, YEAH YEAH!), her heart function looked wonderful! However, there was an issue with another heart valve that her doctor had mentioned way back when she diagnosed her problem, saying it was common with coarctation patients to also have this additional heart defect, called “biscuspid aortic valve” (basically the aortic valve has only two leaflets instead of the normal three). But she had said back then that they would never be sure of this possible problem until her heart was healthy and they could measure “normal” blood flow through all the valves. So, now her heart function is great, and they are able to measure this valve. She said the measurements are certainly abnormal, but not at a point of concern at which they would need to intervene with surgery yet. In addition, she said the chances of this valve problem getting worse significantly lessens after babies turn one year of age, so she just wants to watch it closely for the next few months to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand. She instructed us to keep an eye out for the signs of struggle that we first noticed back when it all started, but otherwise wait for her next appointment in three months when they would decide if it was a risky problem or not, and whether or not it needed further investigation or treatment. Luckily, the treatment to fix this valve is less invasive than her previous procedure, but of course we still hope she doesn’t have to go through any kind of junk like that again!

In the meantime, we thoroughly and with pride, enjoy her laughs (which are increasingly common!), and I’m so glad to be able to record it here!

Meeting milestones?

Lately I’ve been kind of down about Skyler’s development. I know she has an acceptable excuse, but it’s still kind of frustrating when I see other babies younger than her that can do so much more physically than her. I’ve seen a few lately, and they seem so much older than Skyler in the way they act and move. Babies her age are rolling over, sitting up, putting weight on their legs to practice for standing up, and saying lots of alphabet sounds. Skyler can only roll from back to front, and she has a limited set of vowel sounds that she says and mostly just raspberries, so I guess those are “p’s” and “b’s.” And that’s about it!

I will say she is great with her hands. She loves to hold on to anything, pass things back and forth from left to right and vice versa, and is always grabbing for anything she can get her hands on. And I think she is acutely aware of everything going on around her. I can’t get her to focus on eating her bottle if Ronnie is in another room talking to us. She is twisting and turning looking for where is voice is coming from. When it’s just us playing and I hear Ronnie pull in the driveway, I say “Daddy’s home!” and her eyes light up and she kicks her legs really fast. She knows at least that something good is about to happen. Finally, I think she’s got an ear for music. When I sing to her she gets really excited, and sometimes I think she even tries to sing along!

As a result of her heart condition and surgery recovery, I have to accept that she is going to be a good month or two behind all the other kids for awhile. I know I should also try and be happy about it, because that is longer that my baby can be just that, a baby. I don’t want to wish her age away, but I’m also really looking forward to new ways that we can play together. Laying on her back has got to be getting really old – there’s just only so many toys she can play with like that!