Here We Go Again

Part 35

"Mommy, am I going wif 'owan today?" Nora asked as Maya brushed the toddler's hair.

"No Piccola, remember, you are going to go with me and Mamma to an appointment to talk to a nice lady," Maya said as she grabbed a ponytail off the counter.

"But not 'owan?" Nora asked.

"No," Maya said, "Remember, Mamma took Rowan to go play with Josie and Nathan and Aunt Laila."

"Why?" Nora asked.

"Because this appointment we are going to is just for you," Maya said, "So we can help you feel better."

"But I'm not sick," Nora said.

"I know," Maya said, taking Nora's hand and guiding her out of the bathroom and into her and Carina's bedroom, both of them sitting on the bed, "But you know how sometimes, when we drop you off at daycare, your tummy hurts? And you get very nervous?"

"Tetause I miss you," Nora said, climbing into Maya's lap, putting her fingers in her mouth as she reached for a piece of Maya's hair to play with.

"I know," Maya said, hugging the little girl close, "And it is ok to miss me and Mamma when we aren't there, but we also want to make sure you are able to have fun and enjoy things even when Mamma and I aren't there because you deserve to have all the fun and not feel so sad and not have your tummy hurt all the time."

"Oh," Nora said, still sucking her fingers.

"This appointment isn't scary," Maya said, "And Mamma and I are going to be there for you the whole time. We might have to go outside the room for a little bit if the doctor asks us to, but we will come right back and after, we can come home and have lots of cuddles ok?"

Maya and Carina has already discussed this plan when they had found out that they would be able to take Nora in to see the childhood psychologist this week. They had called the day after they decided they needed to take her and were shocked to find out that there was an appointment available that Friday.

Luckily, Carina had off work so they could take her together. And they had decided to have Rowan go play at Mason and Laila's because Laila had asked if the girls wanted to have a play date at some point soon, and it was always hard on the twins when only one of them went to daycare. It did happen when only one of them was sick, but it made it better that Rowan could go spend the day with her cousins while Maya and Carina could give Nora all their attention.

Both Maya and Carina knew how taxing therapy could be and while they had no idea if it would be the same for Nora as it often was for them, they wanted to make sure they could just spend time with her after.

Luckily, Vic, Amelia, and Andy had offered to take shifts with Lia so Maya and Carina could wait to go until the twins went to bed if Nora needed them. It wasn't ideal, but it would work. Lia was doing better and better every day. She had been able to taper down to normal oxygen and was more and more of her feeds completely by mouth every day. She also hadn't had an A and B spell in four days and she was starting to act more like a baby and less like a preemie. She was over 36 weeks at this point and every day she was getting stronger and more ready to go home. Her reflux was still bothering her, but they had added a medication to help with it, and it had done wonders for her.

It made Maya and Carina both so happy to see their littlest thriving as much as she had been. There were a few tests she had coming up at the early part of the following week to check on some things related to her prematurity and also her brain bleed, all of which Maya was trying desperately not to think about because every time she did, she felt somehow even more overwhelmed than she did about the fact that they were taking their three-and-a-half-year-old to see a therapist.