Wednesday, May 12th, 2021

Day 12 - Storytime

Something funny happened while at the hospital.

During our hospital stay, Declan needed some form of entertainment as much of the time he either was held by us, or he lay in his crib. 

So what is a 6 month old to do? 

Well, as it turns out, you can only play so much peak-a-boo, read so many children's books, before a steroid fueled demon child is unleashed and needs to be satiated. 

Declan was on scheduled feeds - 6 a day, 5 ounces of fortified breast milk, every 4 hours. Pretty much like clockwork, on the 3rd hour... the steroid monster would appear.

The only thing to tame the beast would be to offer up a sacrifice of food. Jennifer was allowed to nurse him freely, but this did not play a role in the dietician's caloric catch-up weight gaining regimen. So of course Declan was doomed to blow up like a balloon animal with this intense increase in calories (the likes of which he had NEVER seen in his life).

Although we were able to quell the dragon's appetite momentarily, through the escape that is entertainment.

Jennifer and I didn't have enough energy to perform as this tiny king's court jesters all day, so we resulted to the powers of the almighty screen.

Yes, judge as you might, but screen time for Declan came much earlier than we could possibly anticipate. 

While our hospital room's choices of movies for entertainment had a vast array of titles for young audiences, there was one in particular that caught Declan's eye...

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

No joke. A movie that was all about FOOD, happened to entrance this little devil for a decent hour and thirty minutes. 

So whenever we needed Declan to relax a little between mealtimes, or even just get him satisfied enough to drift off to sleep, we'd get him comfy in his crib turn on the TV, and make sure the last thing this little man saw before he dreamt, was FOOD. 🍔

If Bill Hader or Anna Faris happen to read this - I owe you a huge THANK YOU for entertaining our sick child during his extended stay at a children's hospital. 

"But any show would have soothed him" you might say - and I thought of this too (because let's be honest, any parent is well aware of the law of diminishing returns when it comes to children's shows) which is why I would attempt to put on any other available movie for his majesty's viewing pleasure.

Despicable Me 3 - ME NO INTERESTED.

Ralph Breaks the Internet - Declan says inter-NOPE

Moana - NO THANK YOU.

Frozen - ... ... ... by this point... we just let it go.

Seriously - he started to cry and whine harder when I put on Despicable Me 3 one time, so I quickly reverted back to his Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and voila...

Happy baby.