Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Home!

Well, we arrived home on Wednesday around 4pm. (I thought I'd be able to post again at the hospital, but once Gen became more alert she only wanted Momma. The first few days at home I've been too tired at night to blog.) It's now Saturday and Gen has done wonderfully since then. She's woken up a couple times each night but I think she's mostly just uncomfortable with the arm restraints she has to wear. They call them no-no's and they keep her from putting her fingers in her mouth while she sleeps. Other than that, she's taking the pureed food in stride and not giving too much of a fuss about it. This girl loves to eat, and would eat non-stop if I let her. I was pretty concerned she'd be whining all day for her favorites-crackers, pretzels, and cheerios. No crunchy stuff for several weeks till her palate heals. Every so often she'll sign crackers or cereal, so I have to tell her "No honey. No crackers/cereal till your boo-boo in your mouth heals." I'm pretty positive she understands because she'll stop asking... until the next time she sees her brother or sister walk by with a snack she loves. So hard to keep 4 other children from eating around their sibling.

We have a tentative date for Gen's lip surgery, July 1st. Not sure how long of a stay it will require, but we found out it will be an 8 hour surgery. Wow. That's 3 1/2 hours longer than this one and they did her palate, lip adhesion and ear tubes! I guess I shouldn't be surprised though. Getting all the lip vermilion matched up, muscles attached, etc... must be incredibly delicate work on lips so small. I know Dr. Mulliken is a perfectionist and he will want her lips to look just right. He's been known to do an operation, look at the end result and say "No, I don't like how it turned out. I'm going to do it over again." And he does. FYI, this guy is in his 70's and still going strong! Every one we talked to before Gen's surgery said he was one of the best cleft surgeons in the country. We are so thankful to have him!

Here's some more pics of Gen.



These were taken at the hospital Tuesday before her packing came out. You can see the little wad up her nostril. She also had a gauze pack on her palate that they took out Wednesday morning along with the nose gauze. She's still a little swollen and she has some bruising on her nose and lower right eye, but other than that she looks wonderful. I can't imagine how much prettier her lip will look when it's totally done. (Okay, scratch that... I can!)

Need to get going but thought I'd post some pics from the last 3 months home with Gen. Wow, I can't believe it's already been over 3 months! (I'll post a few more pics when her swelling goes down and her stitches dissolve.)



Snow fun and a muddy bum.



Sleeping on Daddy listening to some music.
Smelling flowers Daddy gave Mommy on Valentine's Day.

1 comments:

Ann said...

Hi Cheryl,
Paul says hi to Uncle Paul and Aunt Cheryl. We feel your fatigue! Paul's no-no's came off last sunday. He has mushy food for one more week. He doesn't get his lip revision until he goes to kindergarden. Just when they get into their sleep rhythm we have the surgery and off that sleeping all night or at least only up once. Paul slept this last week all night...must have known how tired I was:)) We love your blog and I am trying to set one up and to load all the photos to the site Paul set up... love seeing your family... Ann and Rick