Great news from Ani

So, Christy tells me Ani has "something to tell me" after her night-night routine. I go in and ask her what she wants to tell me. She says (3 times!!): "Ah luh da-da". Say it to yourself..."I love daddy!". Praise God!

This is what would make me feel better, at least right now.

I've had friends tell me how they've changed since our tragedy.  They've paid more attention to their children, made sure to tell them they loved them before sending them off on the bus, etc.  This would make me feel good.  Do you have a story of how you've hugged your children just one extra time because of our story?  Are you more intentional about remembering how precious they are, even during a difficult time with them?  Tell me.  It's almost like if I hear stories like this, then my love for Nate that I can't express directly to him gets expressed to other children through our story and experiences.

Poor Ani

Ani's leg is indeed bad, her muscles have pulled the ball out of the socket, and have stretched tissues not intended to be stretched.  She will have to have surgery, surgery that takes 5 hours.  She will need a cast for a while, then will need to have a brace between her legs to keep them apart so she doesn't rip the tissues again.  Christy talked with the orthopedist, and the things we have been doing, like rotating her leg out to seemingly pop the leg back in have actually been helping her.  Yay (at least for this).  It could actually have been worse had it not been for what we've been doing.  I guess it could be pain from her leg that's keeping her up at night, don't know.

Ani is so uncomfortable...

She has lapsed back into the fussing till 12:30AM again.  The last 3 nights have been really hard.  I've kept my composure at least; rationally I know she's not doing it on purpose.  She does quiet down a bit when you're in her room, though I think it's more of a "Mommy or Daddy is here, that makes me feel a little better".  I just don't know what do do.  As far as I can tell, she's in the same physical position that she's in when she's in her bean bag chair before bedtime, so what's different?  It's later, her stomach has slowed down its processing of food.  She gets 3 different meds at night, so those might be messing her stomach up.  She's a night person, so some of it might be frustration about going to bed (normal for _any_ kid) that stacks up to more stress.  We got her a Tempurpedic mattress, so that should have at least (if not better) support than the bean bag chair, at least as far as pressure points go.  I've been thinking of going to Gillette when Jessica or Ruthy is there to "mine their experience" to see if there's something that they would try if they were caring for Ani.  It appears that much of the discomfort is gas in her stomach and lower abdomen, rubbing her tummy helps a lot.  Venting her helps a lot.  Sometimes it's her leg, though we should find out today how to help that better.  When she's comfortable and rested, she is _so_ much brighter.