Half a Million Minutes: A Summary

Our girl turns 1 today, and the last few days have, of course, been full of 'remember whens.' In her first 525,000 minutes (give or take a few), there have been a lot of memorable ones...

  

• The 380,000 minutes I was pregnant with her.
• 2880 minutes-That's how long our family and friends were in the waiting room...waiting.
• The 15 minutes we got to see her (after the 120 we waited after the c section) before she was transferred to Primary.
• The .0005 minutes it took her to realize she would not be swaddled
• The 10 minutes I got to hold her when she was 2 days old, even with a crowd of specialists on hand to keep her tubes connected and everything stable
• The 15 minutes (x a billion beloved family members) that each of our family members got to see her before surgery.
• The 30 minutes we spent as a little family before handing her off to the surgeons. It was precious and scary and the most blessed I've ever felt.
• 720 minutes-our first sleepover took place in the CSU room she was moved to after she began to recover. There was not much sleeping, by either of us.
• The 60 minute windows of time where Nana would babysit while Todd and I 'escaped' to the grocery store. We were supposed to be gone hours, go relax, but were too scared to be gone that long.
• The 3000+ minutes it took us to figure out her incision was infected and get her readmitted (this does not include the 3 minutes where I was ready to knee-cap the surgeon who was cutting her incision to check it. In an exam room. With scissors. And no anesthesia.)
• The 9 minute naps Clara used to take on her dad's tummy.
• The .0005 minutes she realized that, along with swaddling, clothing should be optional. Especially socks.
• The 58000 minutes her feeding tube was in, followed by the 1 minute with Uncle Brad where her feeding tube was out. Followed by another 110000 minutes it was in until she convinced us the 13 minutes of crying when replacing it every 800 minutes was JUST NOT WORTH IT.
• The 60 minutes it took us to finish our first 5K-Thanks for pushing the stroller, Papa!
• 30 painstaking minutes Aunt Jenn spent painting tiny toes with a toothpick. You've never seen such style on someone just 40000 minutes old.
• The 3 minutes she still spends each day eating her toes.
• The thousands of minutes she spent learning to stand, with no furniture or support, just from a sitting position. It's so creepy to see her just rise up like that.
• Clara's daily 10 minute routine of looking in her fishbowl. Or down her shirt. What is she looking for?
• The day Clara spent 10 minutes wrestling her Boppy. And then 20 minutes wrestling the curtain. She lost both rounds.
• The 5 minutes each day where, if I catch the right window, Clara will let me put anything on her head.
• The 8 minutes each night where Clara and I smoosh our faces together and I kiss her cheeks and ears and nose and she presses her face in tighter and tighter. That's our favorite bedtime routine.

I can't begin to measure the joy we've experienced this year.
Happy Birthday, Sweet Pea, Clara Bellisimo, Coco, Flirty Face, Baby Girl!
We love you!
Mom and Dad