Progress, fun, dress-up, and my wish

Today was fun. There's a description I don't often use.

When I walked in this morning Cora was awake and alert, just staring curiously at her nurse as she administered the morning medications. As soon as she saw me she lit up, and within a few minutes she was literally grinning. A smile wider than I've ever seen her give. It was beyond words.

I tried to capture it on film, but nothing will cause a baby to stop doing something cute more quickly than pulling out a camera. Sure enough by the time I got my phone ready the moment had passed.

The change in Cora over the past week is amazing. She's a different baby entirely. Well, she's her, but for a while there she was completely gone. Now she's back, nearly all the way. And she just warmed my heart today. I held her for a long time and she surrendered to a deep sleep right there with me. I read her blog posts (not mine, that would be weird) and told her stories. Mostly I just looked at her and adored her little bits, just one mom in a long procession of moms who have done the very same thing a thousand times. I love the normal stuff.

She is still making progress weaning down on the drips that are keeping her on the ICU. I'm sure within the next few days we will be officially booted from 7 East. She just looks way too good to be there. In fact today she played with toys, looked in a mirror, had tummy time, wore a shirt and even got dressed up by me and her doting nurses (complete with accessories.) It was ridiculous, as the photos will confirm.

So hard to believe that's the same girl that was getting chest compressions less than two weeks ago. Life is crazy. And it just goes on and on, over itself, astounding you.

I'm starting to daydream about having Cora home. I know it will be challenging and there will be a plethora of medications, feeding through a tube, and still an oxygen concentrator wherever we go. There will also be her very tenuous health and the uncertainty of the path ahead. But I'm starting to make my very long list of things I can't wait to do. There are so, so many.

For some reason the one thing I want to do more than anything is to go for a walk in our neighborhood. Cora has never once been in a stroller or a baby carrier, and she's never seen trees or birds, and she's never felt the sun on her baby skin. I plan to change that on day one of our dismissal. And on that day I hope all our neighbors who are reading this will smile and wave from their porches as Cora goes by, and I will remember that this was the very thing I always wanted.