5 days is a long time...

Max giving "thumbs up" to his daddy after eating a bite of yummy chicken noodle soup. He has a heart sticker on his forehead and a Toy Story sticker on his cheek from playing earlier in the day. 

In the grand scheme of things, 5 days is such a short amount of time, but in hospital terms, it is a very long time. Max has been doing so great. Each day is encouraging and filled with so many proud moments as I watch my boy get stronger right before my eyes, but each day is also very long. There is a lot of monotony about the hospital that can wear you down without you even realizing it. I'm starting to get to that point. Even though we have support surrounding us and tons of help, it is still hard to be here day after day. Tonight I can feel the weight of all my stress and sleepless nights wearing me down. My body aches. I miss my family. I miss eating dinner together and going through our night routine of baths and playing games together. I miss exercising and fresh air. I miss sleeping in my own bed with Spencer and walking up to my two knuckle-head boys wanting to watch cartoons. I know this is temporary and probably by the end of next week I will be home and settling back into our normal routine. We have been blessed time and time again since we have been here, but it is still hard. It is still exhausting. There isn't a way to make it better. Being at the hospital is just hard no matter what. We just have to do it. We just have to stay optimistic and pray that Max's recovery continues going as well as it has been.