It’s been a long week and I haven’t had the time to take pictures. Maybe tomorrow.

I usually try to be upbeat when I write these posts, but things just haven’t been all that well and I’m experiencing a lot of stress with taking care of the kids. Multiply that by a hundred whenever I have some work I need to get done, which was pretty much all day today, and you can sort of see where I’m at.

Damien hasn’t been sleeping very well. He’s crying in his sleep from night terrors. I just pick him up because he’s inconsolable if he’s laying in his crib (or he keeps rolling over and keeps crying because he’s on his stomach and trying to get into the crawling position even though he’s tired) and then I go to sleep with him on the couch. Bad habits, blah blah, so we’re going to try to fix them this weekend with Sean’s help.

Aside from Damien’s bad nighttime habits, he’s a really good baby. Eats his baby food without fussing (though he did spray me with green beans a few times tonight), smiles all the time, and doesn’t cry much during the day. Yesterday he started shaking his head from side to side, which was really funny, but he hasn’t done it today. I think he’s really close to crawling.

Liliana’s been learning a lot of new words. She can say “window” and has tried saying “bath” and “sun” with some success. She’s also doing all right with her oral feeds. The occupational therapist was very impressed with her straw-drinking, and it helped that Sean encouraged Liliana to take a sip each time he read a page from The Cat in the Hat. During the early intervention session this week, we had Liliana take a drink while reading a book, and we used page-turning as the reward. So there is some progress there.

Today Liliana also had some spaghetti noodles. They were very small pieces, but she had about ten of them. She’s still not eating much of anything too solid, so the OT wants us to keep offering her graham crackers and Ritz crackers.

Some good news! Apria called me today to say that Liliana’s formula and Farrell bags have been approved, so we should be getting those on Tuesday. I really hope that the Farrell bags work; most of the resistance that I encounter with her deals with her gagging and me trying to vent her. It doesn’t help that Liliana’s developed a high-pitched shriek that goes, “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” I could record it for your listening pleasure, but I assure you that it is one of the most annoying sounds you’ll ever hear.

As for one of the most heartbreaking sounds, the sound of Damien crying wins. I hope I won’t have to hear it tonight, because I’m supposed to stay away and not pick him up!

If anyone wants to know, I like breakfast. It makes me happy. HINT HINT.