Sadbh had a great night and woke up shortly after
seven. She was still in bed when Katie, Cillian and I barged in and started
singing “Happy Birthday to You” to her. Even Jirapa joined in.
Sadbh was grinning from ear to ear and she could not
wait to get up. Before getting out of bed she asked if Cillian could climb in
for a snuggle first.
We had a very busy day and it started off with
opening as many presents as possible.
She got to talk with her uncle, Ger, who she shares
her birthday with. Happy birthday Ger!
Then she got to chat with Poppy and her cousins in
Portland.
Afterwards we headed out to the Volunteer Park Café
for breakfast. Sadbh had a ferocious appetite and ate half of Katie’s breakfast
also.
Sadbh’s monthly trach change was scheduled for this
weekend and earlier in the week she picked out her trach change toy. It was a
Pocahontas doll and when I let her know that it arrived last night she was
eager to get home to have her trach changed out. It was all she could talk
about.
Once home we got trach care and change set up and
Sadbh was a superstar. Cillian was great also and sat back and watched.
Everything went well and Sadbh got her new doll as
soon as her new trach was secured and cleared out.
After trach change Sadbh got to Skype with Nini. They
had not Skyped in ages and Sadbh was so excited to see and talk to her.
Sadbh had an important appointment in the afternoon.
Katie had booked a tea party for us and Ali-Baba in the Queen Mary Tea Room.
Sadbh got to enjoy afternoon tea along with all the trimmings. It was a very
grand affair and she even got to wear her tiara as she sipped tea with her
pinky held high.
Sadbh was very tired by the time we arrived home but
a few more presents had arrived so she had to find out what they were. She
received a CD player from Poppy and it was the perfect gift to listen to her
new collection of read along books with CD’s.
Despite the constant treats throughout the day she
still had a huge appetite and wanted a nice big healthy dinner before crashing
out for the evening.
She’s back sleeping upstairs in her room next to ours
since we chose not to have a nurse this weekend.
It often feels like the last four years have been
forty years. Katie and I have had so many obstacles to deal with. Initially
with Sadbh’s condition and her stay in hospital, dealing with home care
nursing, insurance, medical supply companies and so on. But despite this we
feel like we are the luckiest parents alive and have one incredible and amazing
young lady in our lives. We are also very well aware that there are many out
there that have it far worse than us and with each and every visit to
Children’s Hospital we are humbled by what we see.
Blog update: I’ve been posting daily updates for Sadbh
since she was born and this process takes an average of an hour every evening
after Sadbh goes to bed.
With the addition of Cillian to our family and just
managing life in general I have decided to end the daily updates after this
weekend. I will continue to post photos on a daily basis (over 50 thousand
photos of Sadbh so far…) and will post any major milestone or medical updates
as they happen.
Thank you all for the constant support and Facebook
likes. It’s been fun.
All
the best,
Wayne, Katie, Sadbh and Cillian
