Feb. 23... Early Edition from Christina's Bed

The reason I write these early editions is because I am usually given 6am meds to take and the nurse takes a set of vitals. After the vitals, I could go back to sleep. But I find that after taking meds I need to sit up for a while to make sure everything goes in the right direction. Oh, and always be forewarned that the loopiness in my brain continues and will sometimes appear in my writing:)

Lots of things to write up about yesterday. First off, yesterday was my grandma's birthday. She passed away 14 years ago, right before Christmas. The funny/interesting thing about my grandma's birthday is the date... she was born on 2/22/1922 AND she was a twin. Pretty neat, huh? My grandma was a wonderful woman... very southern Baptist, a great seamstress and cook. And because she was southern Baptist I doubt she knew this little fact about her own name. My grandma hated her name (Edna). I remember about 5 or 6 years ago I did this read the bible in a year thing (including all the Orthodox books). Now, I even doubt that my grandma's bible had the additional books. So when I came across the Book of Tobit and I saw the name "Edna" I had to call my mom and let her know. Wish I could have told Grandma in person. It would have made her happy. Memory Eternal, Grandma!

Pavlos had his first day of preschool at Agia Sophia Academy yesterday. My parents took pictures for me. He had a great day. His new teacher sent out a little progress report. He adopted the farmer hat as his own for the whole 3 hours he was there. He enjoyed playing with the dried macaroni noodles. His favorite song for the day was "Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes." He is very sweet natured. He got hit in the head by another child with a plastice hockey stick but he doesn't want to talk about it until after he's married (?!?!?!?). I'm so proud of him. He's grown up so much in the last month. Here is a picture of him with my dad (pappous) and Dn. Kevin, the headmaster of the school. Hopefully I can post it without it coming out too funky:) My parents took more pictures when they picked him up from school. I will try to download those later today.

Baby Petros report... he's doing so well. I had a number of visitors yesterday and when someone comes to visit, we try really hard to make sure they get to meet our little baby. I was able to hold him for the first time and to feed him from a very tiny bottle. He can't suck, but they want him to have at least some of his food going in the right way rather than through a tube. Most likely he will be out of the plastic warming thingy (don't remember what it's called) and onto an open baby "bed". They are working on regulating his body temp (or, rather, him regulatins his body temp). But for me to be able to finally hold him. It was beautiful. He had his eyes open and he just looked at me and looked at me. We just wish that Pavlos could see him which is impossible at this time. Too bad. His blood sugars are stabilizing, too. He's just doing so well.

Paul was able to hold him for a long time last night, as well. He's a good and proud papa. My dad took pictures and as soon as I have those, I will put them on this site. Paul even put Petros back into his sleeping area. We have begun to decorate his sleeping area. A friend of our who is an NICU nurse at a different hospital let us know that we can decorate for him. So, she brought a small icon of the Theotokos for him and my mom bought a little stuffed animal (bear) and put a couple of icon pins on the bear. We also have some lullaby CD's for Petros to listen. And, there's a group outside of the hospital that makes baby quilts and they made one for him that we get to keep. Right now, it is draped over the top of his "bed" for color. I can't say it enough... everyone here at the hospital is wonderful.

That's about all for now. I will post my lab results as soon as I know them. We are shooting for 27 because then they will start tapering me off the prednisone. And that's my goal.