Sophie's World

2:40 PM: Sophie seems to be tolerating yesterday's chemo pretty well. She hasn't been nauseated, and her energy level has been pretty high. She did have a hard time holding herself together during dinner last night, but she had only had a short nap on the way home, so she was probably more tired from the lack of nap than from the chemo.

I think what's getting hard is how attention-seeking she is. When she's awake, she wants someone by her side all the time. This makes working at home (or doing anything other than sitting with Sophie) challenging. When she's not napping, we find ourselves putting her in front of the TV far too often (and even that isn't entirely successful).

Inspired by the show "Supernanny" we thought that perhaps a little more structure to our day would be a good idea. So, this morning, I developed a daily schedule of activities for Sophie. This will be helpful for us as a family, because it will give us concrete (and fun) things to do throughout the day, which will reduce our reliance on the TV. It should also be helpful to family and friends who come to help out. This means, at least temporarily, that the adult-in-charge won't get as much productive work done, but if it reduces the frustration level, it will be worth it. I'm planning to go on a reduced schedule under FMLA in the next week or so (I'm still trying to maintain a full-time schedule and eating up my leave balances). And after Randall's classes are done (this week!), he plans to focus on finding someone to come to the house during the day to help out.