Taking a Page from Punky

Caroline is rarely called by her given name. Nearly all of the time, Josh and I call her "Punky." If you are an 80's or early 90's kid, you probably have a clear association with that name. In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, here you go. You are welcome.

The first time I called her Punky, we were getting her ready for a late night feeding. Caroline was upset because she was hungry. When I say "upset" what I really mean is kicking, scratching, pinching, screaming may-ud! Josh holds her arms while I attempt to change her. You know as a new parent, the thought of changing your baby is about the most daunting thing ever. Then you get a few weeks and a few hundred diapers under your belt and you can change her blindfolded while doing laundry and vacuuming. It's amazing. Here is how the conversation went over the screaming:
Me: Ohhhh, it's really ok, Punky.
Josh: What?
Me: I said "it's really ok, Punky."
Josh: What? What are you calling her? Punkin?
Me: Punky!
Josh: Punky?
Me: You know, like Punky Brewster?
Reconition spreads across his face and in a dead ringer for Henry (the guy who adopts Punky) says, "Punky!"
I stare at him in adoration and think, "this is why I love you."
Early on in our NICU stay, we had to feed her on a strict schedule- there was no "feeding on demand" in the NICU.  Eventually, we were able to talk the doctors into letting us feed on demand which made our NICU stay much more bearable. Anyway, at the time, no one could figure out why Caroline was having difficulty finishing a bottle. The thing is, cleft-affected babies do usually have trouble figuring out how to eat. They have totally different anatomy and it takes time for their little minds to wrap around the issue at hand and adjust. That wasn't the problem with Punky. She astounded every single nurse, doctor, and speech therapist with her sucking ability. That baby was using a regular baby nipple- a Dr. Brown level 1 at that! For all of you who haven't had much experience with bottle-feeding, a Dr. Brown level 1 is one of the hardest to manipulate. It is designed for newborns so they don't get too much milk at once and choke. Anyway, poor Punky could take about an ounce at a time and then she would be so winded. It would take about 20 minutes for her to take just an ounce because she would need frequent rest breaks. Y'all, by the time our 20 minutes was up (oh yeah, they time you, but that's for another day) my poor baby sounded like she had just finished running a marathon. No one could figure out how on earth Punky could start off so strong but wear out so quickly. Then, they found the choanal atresia while they ran a CT scan to examine a cyst on the back of her tongue- more on that another day. Poor baby couldn't even breathe out of her "good" nostril- the one not affected by the cleft. The nostril on the cleft side was totally open to her throat of course, but an issue when feeding with a cleft is the milk flows up into the cleft. So, while technically, she could breathe out of her cleft-affected side, it was impossible to do so when she ate. Are you still with me? Basically, Punky was teaching herself how to breathe out of her mouth and eat simultaneously. Breathing out of the mouth is something a typical baby does not do until 3 months of age. So, why do I call her Punky? Because like Punky Brewster, she's a tough, scrappy, resourceful, funny, larger-than-life little lady.

Yes you are, baby girl. Yes you are.