Many blessings despite the challenges

Today Claire is 5 days old and I have to brag a bit! She is an absolute angel and has been sleeping well during the night. Last night I even had to wake her for all of her feedings. She is a great baby and I think she is enjoying being spoiled by Nanny and Papa Hlavka.

Nanny and Papa arrived on Friday and surprised us at the hospital by showing up 2 hours earlier than expected. They helped us get home and settled. Here we met our first challenge; getting up the stairs. It was a tough ride up for Jeff and Dad with the heat because they had to carry me up the three flights of stairs in a wheelchair. Once we made it upstairs, we spent the evening getting the apartment arranged so that I could move around freely. Then we called it a night and went to bed exhausted.

Yesterday was another exciting day with yet another challenge for us. Claire met her Grandpa Dave and it was fun watching him interact with her. Each time he held her, she would make a poopy diaper so we decided that if she ever gets constipated, we will just give her to Grandpa Dave for a few minutes! The challenge presented at 4pm when we noticed that the air conditioning went out in our apartment. By the time they came to "fix" it, the temp in the apartment was 89 degrees and it was 104 degrees outside. I am not sure what the guy did but the A/C worked for about 30 minutes before going out again. It did run long enough to bring the indoor temp down to 83 degrees. Within another hour or so, the temp inside was back up to 90 and after a few phone calls to have the A/C fixed, we were told that it was getting too dark outside and that someone would come by in the morning. We had to pack up everything we needed for the baby and headed to a hotel for the night. I decided to make it easy on the guys this time and went down the stairs on my butt. It actually worked fairly well. We all got a good night sleep in the cool hotel room. Even Claire slept most of the night.

Today we went to church and are now back at the apartment. I went up the stairs backward on my butt and this was a workout for me but it was much easier on my dad and Jeff this way. It was probably good for me to do some activity anyway. After all, I can't sit still and let people do things for me if there is a possibility I can do it for myself:)

Each day we are seeing progress in my strength. Yesterday I was able to extend my right leg almost all the way out when I was laying on my side. It was a pretty big step and Mom even started to cry! I am doing pretty well with staying positive but have my moments. Jeff has been a wonderful support and I would be lost without him. My parents have been a huge blessing as well and I am so grateful for all the amazing people in my life. God has truly blessed us and is making us stronger through the challenges we are facing. We hope you enjoy seeing the pictures of Claire.