Big sister

We haven't talked a lot about Lucas's big sister in a while. She is doing well, putting on a brave face and trying to be as good a girl as possible. She's trying to cheer everyone up and while there are some tantrums and regression, she's being an angel overall. Her world has been rocked, and she only sees her parents a few hours a day or every other day. All she knows is that the hospital and baby Lucas is where we go to everyday.

Many of you have kindly offered to help bring Christmas cheer around here, decorating and grabbing a tree. Thank you! My husband and I made some time one evening to do a little Christmas cheer with my parents and Tessa. We went to Swanson's Nursery (gotta use those Swan dollars) to find a nice tree, see the camel, donkey, and reindeers, and the train set up. She was so excited! She especially loved the warm apple cider.

When we got home, we set up the tree and she wanted to help out with everything. From wrapping the lights around the tree, to hanging the decorations, and putting the star on top. I've never seen a happier and more excited child. She loves the tree. We may be leaving it up for a while, since she will definitely put up a fuss when we have to take it down.

We also started to light the yule angel candles after dinner. It's a Scandinavian tradition that we adopted after one of our friends showed it to us after we had dinner at their place one year. Thank you guys! She loves the whole concept of the warm air rising to turn the angels that in turn hits the chimes to make a nice sound. Plus she loves blowing out the candles and she sings Happy Birthday.

I'll mention here that Lucas continues to do well. His bilirubin count is 9, down from 14. His diet is being supplemented by more calories, and he's taking the morphine weans as well as anyone can who's been on it for 2+ weeks. I did work with a feeding therapist today with Lucas's suckling. He's got a strong suck which is great. He needs to work on swallowing now. We just started with tiny amounts of breast milk dropped into his mouth while he's sucking on a finger. He gags quite a bit. But we're hoping to associate positive things with his sucking. Small slow steps.

I'll leave off here with some images of big sister and the tree and the yule angel chimes.

Decorating the tree:



The tree:



Yule angel chimes: