something happened to christmas this year. i know it has passed: the red cups are gone at starbucks, the flood of jewelry commercials has subsided, and the valentines merchandise is out, but it doesn't feel like it was actually ever here. the holiday itself was one of my favorites in recent memory, yet the season seems to have slipped by almost unnoticed.
there are several possible explanations for this phenomenon: our son spent the first couple weeks of december recovering from surgery, just the simple fact that we have a son which alters your life entirely, or my grandmother wanda's passing a week and a half ago. all those things may and probably do contribute, but another major factor occurred to me during christmas eve vespers.
one of the staple christmas anthems in nearly every protestant tradition is "joy to the world". it is a hard one to get away from, which is all right with me b/c it can be a profound song if i allow it to be. this year, as i sat in a crowded and uncomfortable pew, i was struck by the phrase "prepare him room", as i suddenly became aware of how little preparation i had made this year.
it is not that i have a recipe for reflection like that for sugar cookies, but i usually like to be a bit more intentional in considering the Christ child who came to speak love, hope, peace and joy into our world. this year i simply and quietly failed to make space, to prepare room, to allow christmas to sink in.
there is a song by a fellow named chris rice called "welcome to our world". essentially it is his thoughts on Christ's birth in a lowly manger and the mystery of the divine wrapped in infant skin. (if you would like to listen, i struggled to find a good video of it on you tube, and below is the least corny of them, but you would still be better off just listening and not looking.)
this song has always resonated deeply with me, especially the line "tender brow prepared for thorn". something about the contrast of Christ's violent sacrifice and the innocence of a newborn hits me hard, even more so now that i have an child of my own. my favorite place to kiss him is on his forehead, where softness and smell mingle together. the image of thorns and sweat stinging this flesh, face bloodied and bruised, is simply too much.
and yet this is the reality we remember at christmas. a child, born of a virgin, was sent by a reconciling god to declare good news to all humankind, and ultimately to die. the word became flesh, and moved into the neighborhood. may we all prepare him room.
we had yet another appointment today, this one with dr. marilyn jones, the woman who coordinates the cleft clinic at children's hospital. she is a delightful, warm, and caring lady, who kept telling us how cute, social, and charming our son is. "yeah, we know, but we always love to hear it again."
isaac is sprouting quickly, weighing in at about 14 lbs. 8oz. (6.59 kilos to be exact) and growing 5 inches since his birth nearly four months ago. he is also doing very well developmentally, showing all the signs of a kid that is growing like he should. the only thing that she still wants to figure out is what is going on with his ears/hearing, but we are not super worried about that at this point.
i feel like we are at a place we were really looking forward to a couple weeks ago, where the worst of the surgery is far behind us, and life is resuming whatever sense of normalcy it can when you have an infant. there have been many loops along the way, with many more to come i am sure, but we are in a good spot right now. and when it comes right down to it, right now is really all we got.
so things have gotten progressively better since isaac's surgery almost two weeks ago. we have learned several things about our child during this time, especially in regards to surgery recovery:
get on pain meds soon, and stay on them long enough. we learned the first half of this principle during annie's recovery, after she refused pain meds the first couple times she was offered them. apparently it is easier to stay ahead of the pain, than to catch up to the pain. the second part we learned after this surgery, b/c we are pretty sure, although not certain, that we took him off codeine too soon. the saturday after his surgery was a rough one, lots of screaming and such, but he is doing way better. now he is on straight tylenol, and no worse for the wear.
if you must give suppositories, give them sooner rather than later. the boy has always had bowel issues, but the drugs associated with the surgeries only made things worse. at certain times his belly swelled up bigger than tom brady's ego, and the step of artificial relief became a necessary evil. we only had to give two total, but in the future, i would give them at the first sign of post-surgery constipation.
give plenty of breaks from the zombie braces. isaac is a very tactile kid, so having elbow restraints that prevent him from flexing his arms make him very agitated. this wednesday when he can stop wearing them will be a very beautiful day for all the montgomery's, cause then he can put his hands in his mouth all he wants without us having to worry about him causing damage to his lip. until then, we are trying to give him as many breaks as possible.
it is crazy to watch his personality continue to flourish, he is a super social kid, loves to be the center of attention, and always wants to play games. he is learning peek-a-boo, and thinking it is the greatest.
