Fix A Heart

These Are The Moments

Every moment we're together
Is a moment I remember
I'll take the good, the bad, the better
And the smell of your favorite sweater
These are moments I remember

"Alright precious, are you ready to try eating today? We're gonna get to feed you with the bottle and see how you do. Do you think you're up for it?" Sharna said as Bella laid on her legs. Her legs kicked around a bit as she fussed. She still preferred to be cuddled into either Val or Sharna but they were working on getting her to be okay with just them being near.

"You're already doing so good with your pacifier. I'll bet you're going to do amazing with the baba." Val said as he stroked the fine curls that were on her head. The one thing about Bella that was amazing was her head of hair. It was dark and matched her dark brown eyes.

"Baba?" Sharna said looking at Val with a grin. It had been amazing to see the shift in this man that she had fallen in love with. It was one thing to see him be an uncle but it was a complete other story watching him care for someone that could potentially be your baby. He had become so protective of the little one that Sharna found herself falling in love with him more and more everyday.

"Shush you. Right Miss Bella. Sometimes we gotta make cute words for things that can be scary. Because that makes them less scary. I know today will probably be a bit scary for you cause it will be different but we'll be right here through it all." He said making Sharna smile all the more. She leaned forward and nudged his head slightly so she could kiss him.

"I can't believe we're back to this point. Last time was so scary." Sharna said of Bella's bout with pneumonia. The last time they had been getting ready to try bottle feeding with the little one was probably days before she had gotten sick.

"It definitely was. But we're all better now right little miss?" Val said as he gave Bella his finger and she grasped it. The weeks after the pneumonia had been rough on the little makeshift family. Twice Bella had stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated. The only nutrients she was getting for about a week were from her IV and she had stopped being interactive. After the second time when she had stopped breathing, she finally starting to improve. Dr. Francis had brought up trying another small dose of steroids. At first Val and Sharna hadn't been keen on the idea however Dr. Francis assured them that this was totally acceptable and could probably help her. The day after the shot the fluid in her lungs started to lessen. Slowly and slowly after that, she began to improve.

"Mmhaah." She gurgled quietly smacking her lips, letting them know that she was indeed hungry. It had taken another week after her lungs started to improve before she was ready to try feeding from the dropper again. It was a tedious process but Christine & Caitlin has assured both Sharna and Val that it was a great bonding process and it would prove that they could slowly move her over to bottle feeding.

"Ohhh, I think Miss Christine will be in a few minutes precious. Then we'll try out the bottle huh? You just have to make sure you keep breathing okay? That way we can cuddle you while you eat." Sharna said softly. Since the dropper was such a process, they couldn't really cuddle her while they fed her which wasn't something she enjoyed. She preferred to be directly on her fill in parents at all times so while she'd eat because she was hungry, her stats tended to be all over the place.

"That's right, breathing, it's important. Who's ready to try something new?" Christine said appearing in the room. When they had let Bella try the pacifier the first few times, she was so focused on the suckling that she stopped attempting to breath through her nose. It took a good 3 - 4 tries on a few different days before she got the hang of things. Now the pacifier was definitely a great fill in when she was upset.