One week home with our Maddy Boy! In some ways it feels like it’s been a month and in other ways it feels like a blink of an eye. I imagine this past week has been similar in a lot of ways to any other first week at home with a newborn with a few nuances unique to our little guy along with a whole lot of blessings and precious moments. I’ll recount a few in each of these buckets:

Similarities: lots of diaper changes, sleeplessness, cuddling, feedings, routine adjustments, loud cries, and soft snores.

Nuances: two doctors appointments already and several phone calls, keeping track of and organizing treatments, and continuous education on his specific needs.

Blessings: gifts and cards filled with so much love, friends partaking in a meal train for us (this we cannot be more grateful for), and family that live close by that are so good at loving on us and taking care of us.

Precious Moments: the doggies meeting Maddox (and Maddox not ever batting an eye at their constant barking), tummy time, reading with Nana, a sponge bath, and all the couch cuddles.

I’ve found myself in a blur of emotions, tasks, and sleeplessness. The couple weeks spent in the hospital have seemed to completely dump themselves onto me and are now getting mixed into the chaos of our everyday. I find myself getting lost in the sea of feedings, bottle washing, pumping, treatments, and diaper changes. Instead of praying beside his bedside in the NICU, I’m holding onto every last ounce of energy to get through one more middle of the night feeding. I’m giving myself grace, as should any parent. However, I have been starting to challenge myself to find gratitude and joy in the mundane. The “mundane” meaning the “ordinary”; the every day tasks, the tedious or “boring” duties we undertake. 

I’m trying to “reframe the mundane”.

One example of doing this is for Maddox’s chest PT treatments. I’ve decided to pray over him during them. These treatments typically take about 15 to 20 minutes twice a day – Adam and I  share the responsibility, but when it’s my turn, I pray. At first, I dreaded this task. I dreaded it because it reminded me with each tap on Maddox’s sweet little rib cage that he has CF, that his insides don’t work as well as others. I felt sorry for him and for myself and quite honestly I wanted to rush through it. I didn’t like tapping on his chest repetitively, keeping track of time for each quadrant and rotating his body to get every spot. I knew I had to change the way I thought about this and spent this time every day. I’ve reframed this mundane task to be a time to do absolutely nothing else but serve my child through many many chest taps and many many prayers.

I challenge you to do the same. This spreads far beyond CF treatments or midnight diaper changes. We can all find moments of our daily lives where a dull or monotonous task takes away from our day or steals some of our joy. Don’t allow this. Find one thing this week that makes you grumble – vacuuming, lawn mowing, feeding your pet, grocery shopping, folding clothes… oh man, folding clothes. My least favorite. Take this one thing and reframe it – whether it be rejoicing in it or using it as time and space to be grateful. Reframe the dull task of folding clothes and with each article of clothing rejoice in the comfort and privilege these clothes bring. Or, as I said, use these 10 to 15 minutes of folding to pray or reflect. Reframe the mundane.

It’s true that the backdrop of most of our existence is made up of the regularity of our lives. The “big” moments are few and far between and the real consistency of our character lies in these every day small opportunities. We get to decide what we do with them.

I can’t say I don’t still have the negative thoughts and dread of doing Maddox’s chest PT, but now I’m associating it with precious time given to me that can be purely devoted to praying and serving my son. As I’ve written about in earlier posts, I’ve been given a privilege and a responsibility to serve this little boy. I continue to do this with humility and honor with every feeding, enzyme, burp, diaper change, and tap.