It REALLY doesn't get any easier

 It's done. Sophia had her hip surgery and has a cast on. She is finally home after 4 days in the hospital and is getting better every day.
Everything I predicted on my last post has been true. Even though I have been through this experience before and I was expecting everything, it REALLY doesn't get any easier. It's so painful to see your kid struggle and not being able to do anything to take the pain, discomfort and frustration away. I would trade places with her anytime!
A whole week has gone by and I feel like we are finally turning the corner. At the hospital we had to deal with the nausea and the oxygen level and while it was really tough I knew she was going to be ok. But what I was really fearing was Sophia's frustration and hence, my own.  I wasn't wrong.
The weekend was bad between pain from the incision and frustration, Sophia was screaming the whole time  (or at least it seemed like it) day and night, sometimes the pain medication helped a bit with the pain but not with the frustration, it was so hard.  But despite being so painful for me to see her like that, somehow I was able to be the mom that Sophia needed. Somehow I have been able to be patient and understanding, Sophia has all the right to be frustrated, she doesn't understand why she is in pain or why she can't move and play the way she is used to, she doesn't get that it's only temporary, for her the present is all that matters and for her the present sucks! I get that, I understand, so I am very thankful that I was able to keep calm and be there for her.
 Fortunately this phase was very short. After the weekend Sophia has been getting better and better and she is now back to her normal, beautiful, happy self. She is playing, laughing and babbling all day long, Sophia is such a brave and strong girl, I didn't think it was possible to love her more than I did before the surgery but I really think that my love for my daughter grew a thousand times! We spend our day playing with all of her favorite toys, changing positions and trying to keep her distracted and we have bonded even more.

It's done. The moment Eric and I were dreading for about 6 months is here, we went for a second opinion and decided that we were going to give it one more try and we did.  In a little over 2 weeks it's going to be behind us and hopefully Sophia's hip is finally fixed and she can start practicing walking again. Hopefully this third surgery was worth it because I don't want to put Sophia through this again, because it REALLY doesn't get any easier.