Ray of Sunshine

That’s me. Just a regular old ray of sunshine. …..er not. Today I’m a crab. I’m sick. I have no patience for sickness right now, and I’m a whiner. The it-could-be-a-lot-worse mantra is not working today. I feel like crawling in bed and hiding from the world. Even from hubby. (sorry babe) Usually when I’m sick I want to be cuddled, but this time I’m just crabby about it. I don’t want to be touched. I don’t want to do any parenting. I don’t want to be at work or do any work. I don’t even want to be awake! Away from my warm, cozy bed. If my children didn’t use up all my PTO time, I would SO be at home from work today. I think the reason this round of sickness is so insulting, is that we had 5 complete months of sickness starting in January. Honestly, there were 3 weeks in the whole 5 months in which we weren’t at the clinic for some illness. So the last 2 months of relative good health were such a relief. Apparently I’m still bitter (you think?), this new round of illness is showing me that. Adding to the insult, this is the kind of cold that really hurts in the glands, even into the gums and teeth, I was awake almost all night long, and I’ve been sleep deprived with the exception of the recent kidless weekend, and I’m just plain tired of it all. No more clinics. No more hospitals. No more sickness. No more responsibility. No more thinking. No more adulthood. Can I get away with that please?

Our Niece's Heart

So I am realizing maybe I should talk a little about our niece's heart condition. She was born with a birth defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, in which the left side of the heart is severely under-developed during pregnancy. It is a rare condition with no known causes. If you click on the link, you will find plenty of additional information. Our niece just had the 3rd and final operation, and is doing very well.

Ahhh....kidless weekend....

Okay, don't get me wrong. We adore our children, but sometimes you just need a break. We realized we had not had a kidless weekend since before Ellie was born, last year for our anniversary. This year for our anniversary, we checked with the grandparents and they were willing to take the kids for the WHOLE weekend!! We were like kids again. And I truly believe a weekend away is good for everybody. Good for hubby and me and our relationship, good for the kids because their parents are rejuvenated and appreciate their kids more, good for the grandparents who get plenty of bonding time. And it was such a happy reunion! Both kids were so happy when we arrived to pick them up. So sweet. Of course, Ellie developed a cold, however, so that is an interesting development to deal with right away. A slight fever too, but not high enough to keep her out of daycare. Cross your fingers it stays that way and doesn't elevate any higher or turn into an ear infection. Yikes. Maybe teething? Who knows - it's always a mystery to solve, isn't it?

Anyways, being kids again ourselves looked like this.

I picked Sean up from work Friday afternoon and we headed over to the hospital to visit our niece. This was our last responsible thing to do... :) She is doing very well and was happy to see us. She did have one minor setback and had developed fluid around the lungs earlier that day, and had to be put to sleep again so they could put a tube in to drain the fluid. That has been going well so far. So she was very sleepy and napped most of the time we were there. She had just been turned in bed and was upset, so hubby held her hand and I kept my hand on the top of her head stroking her hair. She relaxed when she saw us, and just before we left she woke up and was answering questions. It was wonderful to hear her voice after all she had been through. Children are incredible how quickly they recover!!! She was to be in the hospital 6 days and may be there longer because of the fluid around the lungs development, but in spite of that she is doing great. And her parents are exhausted but managing.

From there we headed to Sonic and did the drive-in thing. Holy cow - go there, people, and get the banana split blast! Yummy!!! From there we headed to our college campus, where we met, and walked all over the place reminiscing about the good old days. It was fun, and we arrived home about midnight and collapsed for the night. Neither of us slept as well as we had hoped, but it was such a relief to wake up and not have crying, screaming, any noise of any kind.

Saturday we arose and went to Perkins for breakfast.....no brunch. That's right - we didn't even get our acts together until about 11 for breakfast. It was SO GOOD! We tried to go to a museum exhibit after that but found the earliest entrance time was about 3 hours later, and that wasn't going to fit in our schedule. So we pouted and instead got our shopping done. Target and the grocery store, oh, and home depot. Yeah, we know how to have a good time. Since Matthew wasn't here, I decided to finish up painting his room. I had the majority completed a few weeks ago, but had some squares around the room that I painted blue green and red. As I went, I discovered it was going to take multiple coats because of how saturated those colors were. Grrrr. I did one coat, and then we headed off to dinner and the drive-in movies!!!

We saw The Dark Knight and Hancock. They were showing a third - but the idea of getting home after 4am wasn't too appealing. Both movies were good, but I was a bit let down. Shhh, please don't shun me. Yeah, Heath Ledger had a great performance, but still as a complete psycho. Yikes! It was creepy. I'd say more, but I'm sure many of you out there are planning to see this still, so I'll hold off judgement. Hancock was pretty good, but got really strange in the last 1/2. Pretty funny, though, to see a superhero be a total jerk! It was good for some laughs.

Sunday we got up and I jumped out of bed and went straight to painting. Unfortunately it became clear it was going to take even another coat after that. Grrrr x 2. I called my parents to see if they minded keeping the kids for an extra couple hours so I could finish that painting. So we went to the museum and saw what we had planned to the day before, then came straight home so I could do a final coat. And it had to be a final coat no matter what since I ran out of paint... The coverage was good, though, so it all worked out. We put the room back together and were off to pick up the kids.

Boy were they happy! It was so nice to see them! And it was great getting butterflies in our tummies on the way there, just excited to see them! And they were excited to see us. Even Ellie started smiling away at us and bouncing in our arms when we held her. Too cute! Matthew could hardly finish his dinner he was so excited.

Thanks, Mom and Dad for the much needed break. We had a great weekend, and are ready to be non-disgruntled parents again!

Niece update

Our niece got through surgery very well yesterday. What was supposed to be an 8-hr surgery took about 5.5 hrs. That's what I understand anyways. When we were called, she was still sleeping and was due to be taken off the respirator in a couple of hours. I have not heard anything since. I'm sure it is a crazy time there! We are planning a visit this evening. Thanks for all the support!

Staycation and other random things

My twist on a staycation? Giving the kids to their grandparents for the whole weekend! Yeah baby!!!! That’s what my husband and I have to look forward to this weekend. Oh my gosh. A whole weekend – what ever shall we do with ourselves? (don’t answer that, you sickos)

We have this ever growing list of things we think we can fit in – humanly impossible. For sure, our plans include going to the drive-in movies (there’s 2 left around the area), and going to Sonic. We’ve never been. I know, I know, that’s probably sacriledge, but we have never had one nearby until recently. Our list includes things like the museum, taking walks at night since we never get to, bowling, outdoor concerts, restaurants (we’ve already talked about 4 restaurants). Like I said. Humanly impossible. We feel like kids again, and this weekend will be so fast. But it will be SO FUN!!!! Oh, and did I mention SLEEP? That is first and foremost on the list. Sleeping in. Which to me, would even mean 7am. Even that sounds glorious! I can’t wait to wake up without a monitor in my ear to the sound of a baby waking up before she’s ready to wake up. Those of you with kids knows when they wake up before their bodies are ready, the word cranky comes into play. Add a cast that makes them unable to get themselves comfortable, and it’s a winning recipe for a 5 or 6am start to the day. UGH!

Moving on,
Why did this not shock me?

Apparently one of my SILs (sister-in-law) went to the county fair in the town I grew up in. Well, this town has a bit of a reputation for having a lack of ‘diversity’ to put it nicely. But let’s read between the lines – it’s full of racists! Case in point: so my SIL and her family are at this fair. There is a black family close to them, and some guys shout “get out of here, you niggers. This is a white town!” Ummm, huh? What year is it? Where do we live? Keep in mind here, that my SIL is half black herself, and my husband is black. Nice. SIL has asked us so many times why we don’t move up there – now hubby has plenty of ammo. Did I mention there was a group of skinheads at my high school? Nice.

In other news,
my niece is having heart surgery AS I WRITE THIS. Please, please, pretty please, pray for her. Her last of 3 major heart surgeries! This girl is a trooper - pray she will continue to be and for the doctors and all medical staff involved to be at the top of their game today. And let's especially pray for her parents to be able to get through this. We love you guys!

Another day, another cast

Just to let all my loved ones know, Ellie had to have her cast replaced. I took her in last Monday because her cast had slipped down her arm a bit - like a 1/2 inch or more! When they heard that, they told me to come in that day and that we'd have to wait a long time because the cast room was really busy.


I was expecting to be there all afternoon, so I had prepared bottles ahead of time, and brought plenty of distractions/change of clothes/etc. I was amazed when 2 minutes after I sat down, the girl that checked me in came to tell me they were ready for me. I hadn't even heard them call our names because I assumed it would be a long time! How amazing! I went to check in and was immediately sent to the cast room where they were waiting in the doorway for me. Did I mention I love the hospital where everything related to Ellie's hand has taken place?! About a minute later, they were sawing away at the cast. That's right - sawing! What a horrible thing that was - pinning your baby down while she's screaming because the saw is the loudest thing ever!! She recovered quickly though, and they put a new cast on. They left the bandaging around the hand intact, so I didn't even get to see her hand. Huge bummer! September seems so long from now before we can see her hand.

We were in and out of the hospital in about a half hour total, with brand new purple cast in tow. I'm still hugely amazed by the fact we got right in and out! The validated parking did me no good because we were there such a short time, it was only $2 instead of the validated $3!

The Cuteness Factor

Ellie

Ellie is rolling all over these days. I think she'll be crawling soon if she can figure it out with the jumbo arm. She has figured out how to stay sitting up with that arm now. In her crib, we'll find her wiggling to get comfortably with her butt so high in the air. Once she figures out that she can go up on her arms at the same time, watch out world.

After Ellie ate yesterday, we put her in a little rocker recliner seat while we ate or cleaned up or something. We often put her there to watch us in the kitchen. As she was sitting there, she all the sudden stopped all movement and got serious, and I asked if she was okay. About 3 seconds later, she had a huge shiver. For some reason, it really struck us cute to see this little thing shudder because she got a chill.

Matthew

We were on our way to pick up Sean from work downtown and head to my parents' house. I was explaining downtown to Matthew. He kept bringing it up during the car ride, and at one point said "mommy, know what downtown means? it means downtown." He is full of these statements, and I think it's precious every time. whenever he says know what something means?, I'm always prepared to hear it means whatever the something is.

One more. This week Matthew started saying "I love you mommy" all the time. I just about melt every time. I can see in my near future that he'll be using this to his advantage, but for now I just enjoy it and say "I love you, too."

War of the Roses

Okay, if you've been around my house in the last 2 years, you know about a usually sad looking plant I keep trying my darndest to kill, then reviving with this crazy level of patience past the point where most people would give it up and throw it away already. Well, after maybe the 4th round of killing and reviving, I started leaving it outside a little too early in the spring and it kind of froze. Not completely, but the leaves all turned brown. The main stem, however, hung on and stayed green. I almost gave up, but after yet another revival, I am proud to say there are 12 FLOWERS on my rose bush. Hurrah! Please admire! I have graduated from a black thumb to a brownish green thumb. If I ever get around to yanking out the hideous shrubs in our front yard, maybe I'll actually plant it in the ground. Imagine that!

An update without a theme

Okay, honestly, I just don’t have it in me to come up with a cute title and theme for this post. Just a plain old update about our lives this time. I’m back to work this week after Ellie’s surgery. She’s doing quite well. We even attempted no painkillers today – she almost made it. I still think she would have, if she had taken a better morning nap, but she settled right down after being given some Tylenol. We ARE down to straight old Tylenol now, so that’s a really good thing.

I decided that my week wasn’t stressful enough last week, and decided it would be a great idea to paint!! What WAS I thinking? I painted Matthew’s room (mostly done) and an accent wall in our entryway. I like both. I just have to go in Matthew’s room and fill in some squares with varying colors. Let me just say part of me wishes I hadn’t done that. But I had the week off at home, and painting seems to be a project I just never can find time for – Matthew’s room has been hanging over my head since we moved into the house 2 years ago. A working mom dilemma - multi-tasking is the name of the game when you actually have a day off work. Don’t worry – Ellie was asleep whenever I worked on it. It took 4 days to get it all done with all the kid interruptions. At least it’s done. Mostly.

All that has been going on took its toll on AJ, our cat. He decided it would be a good time to find a nice plush carpeted area to pee on. Thanks, AJ. I’m attributing it to all the changes, the furniture rearrangements and Arm&Hammer changing their litter and making it more rocky – what’s up with that. Also, I have to admit that cats hate vinegar apparently, and I cleaned his box a couple weeks ago – WITH VINEGAR. Pardon me a second while I pat myself on the back for that smooth move. I ran out and got a brand new litter box, and different litter, filled up his food nicely for him, cleaned the water dish, gave him petromalt and treats, and all seems to be well. And yes – odor remover. It hasn’t worked completely yet, but I keep working on it. We think there must be another area that we haven’t found yet. I sure hope this problem stops. The last thing I want is a cat that pees all over the place. Ewww, gross!

Matthew’s birthday was Sunday, and since we've been so Ellie-centered, we celebrated in style. First of all, on Friday, he got to go to the zoo with daycare - and they had at least 2 birthday parties for other kids during the week. Saturday we took him to a fabulous little local train store where they have a b-day party room. We had pizza and cake and lots and lots of presents there, and family and friends. What a great idea, btw. A b-day party out of the house! Much easier! And it has a time a limit. Very key. :)

On Sunday, we went to church, which actually is a treat for Matthew. He loves it! Then in the evening we took him to Applebee's for dinner. He loves that place. He even got an ice cream sundae on the house! We came home and he opened his presents from us. Let me just say, this boy got an amazing amount of CRAP - oh, I mean, presents. My gosh. Trains, trains, trains. We'll be Thomas'd out. But thanks everybody. It's his absolute favorite thing in the world these days.

Here he is at Applebee's, my big old 3-year old. Amazing how grown up he looks to me!

The Cuteness Factor

Welcome to the July 11th edition of The Cuteness Factor.

Ellie

Need I say anything? What a little sweetheart!!

Her cast does not slow her down a bit!! Well, maybe a bit, but not much. She still rolls over in a flash, and sits up, plays in her walker, etc. She moves her casted arm a lot too.

In the hospital, when we went to bed at night, Ellie slept about 4.5 hours, until a nurse came in and messed with her around 12:30am. I woke up - barely - and watched her toss and turn for a while. She must have quieted down and slept for a while, since I fell back asleep. Next thing I knew, it was 3:30am, and I awoke to the sound of Ellie doing the grunt/growl thing she does to get your attention. As I stumbled up out of the hospital chair-pull-out-bed, how surprised was I to find her on her tummy at the foot of the crib, on top of a bunch of wires and the monitor, with her little glowing cherubic face grinning at me. Adorable. I knew she was going to be fine after surgery when I saw that!!

Matthew

I can't leave Matthew out. It's been a little Ellie-centered around here the past 2 weeks. Here he is swinging at the park. Notice, he still thinks he can sit in baby swings. This park is awesome and has a splash pad, that's why he's topless. He's got his swimsuit on. Have you heard of splash pads? That's where there's all kinds of things spraying water with a non-slip pool surface that kids can run through. Free water entertainment is always a plus.

This is funny. At the hospital, when Matthew came to visit, his daycare provider brought him to the hospital. It was at an awkward time such that we weren't sure if he had eaten dinner or not. Nobody thought to ask, because Ellie was an unhappy mess when they first arrived. He wasn't acting hungry, and if you asked him if he had eaten, he said yes. (he says yes to every yes/no question, so you can never tell for sure - and he doesn't understand the breakfast/lunch/dinner difference yet) He was really well behaved. After a while, my parents brought me a hospital vending machine dinner. (yum) Matthew came right over, and started asking if he could have some of everything. First he saw my yogurt and kept asking "pease can i have some of your yogurt?" I said no because I have a little cold. Then he says in a sad little tone "pease can i have some appwesauwwwwce?" I thought he would never stop dragging out the sauwwwwwwwwwce into the longest word of all time. I cracked up!!! I decided he must not have eaten dinner, so I gave him a bag of pretzels I had. He gobbled, and I mean gobbled, them right up. Afterwards he says "pease, can i have some miwk?" One thing after the other. Needless to say, Sean stopped at Wendy's on the way home, and Matthew chowed!!

Here ends the latest reading of The Cuteness Factor.

Holy fear, batman!

Wow. We had a mini-hurricane whip right over our house yesterday. In reflecting on it since it happened, it occurred to me I've never been that scared in my whole life. And what ended with an EFzero tornado (not for me, don't worry) is what did it. I can't begin to imagine if that storm had produced an EF2, 3, 4, or 5. Yikes.

Here's what happened. I was having a normal day at home with Ellie. I started to notice it was getting kind of dark outside. Not a big deal. Looked like a normal summer thunderstorm was coming. Just to be an informed citizen, I went and checked out the radar. Severe thunderstorm warning. No big deal. Looked like the worst of it was going to be just north of us according to the news. No warnings out for my county. I kept an eye on it, but it just never seemed that bad. I went outside to make sure all the toys were inside, and stopped to watch the sky for a minute. It still looked slightly north of us. I checked the radar on TV again, and it still didn't look like it was coming for us - we'd expereience the thunderstorm, but the worst wouldn't hit us. Apparently the nat'l weather service radar was showing it would smack us according to Sean, but I had already shut down the computer in case the power went out so I couldn't see that. I went up to wash something and kept watching out the window over the sink.

The sky started looking green to me, so I went out to see which way things were moving. All of a sudden the sky starts looking green, and clouds so dark the sky looked purple, and red clouds were moving quickly towards me. I quickly headed into the house, locked everything, and with amazing speed the storm moved straight for my neighborhood with a vengeance and I tore up the stairs, yanked Ellie out of her crib in a sound sleep, and ran as fast as I could to the basement. As I was getting her, the wind went NUTS, and kept seeming to get worse as I went to the basement. I was TERRIFIED! I ran up one level to glance at the TV, which was showing purple and black right over where I live. BLACK - I'm thinking, I've never seen BLACK!!!! We're done for! By then the sirens were going off a 2nd time, we were upgraded to a tornado warning, and the wind was so loud. I was sure we were going to be hit by a tornado. I've never been so sure. I was in the safest corner of the basement with Ellie tucked under me in tornado position (against the wall, head tucked in, completely wrapped around Ellie). I sat and listened, trembling, and I could hear amazing wind and snapping sounds. I was chanting "God, keep us safe" "God, keep us safe" over and over. After about 10 minutes, all I could hear was strong wind, so I snuck up to the TV, and the worst was past us.

We found out later, that a tornado came out of that storm and touched down about 3 minutes southeast from the exact line it moved over our house (that's about like 10 miles away, I want to say, but the storm was so quick, it had to have been 2-3 minutes after coming through here). That's as close as I EVER want to come to a tornado.

The snapping sounds were boards and nails from our privacy fence popping off. 2 boards were down, 1 crossbrace, and one joint is loosened. We almost lost a whole side of that fence. Some trees went down in the neighborhood, someone's basketball hoop knocked over, almost landing on their car, and a bunch of branches were down. It could have been a lot worse.

The reason I was so scared, as if all of this weren't already enough, is because I just KNEW at the time there would be a tornado, I was waiting to hear deafening noise and things crashing above me in the house. And I was so terrified I wouldn't be able to hold onto Ellie, especially with her giant awkward cast. There is nothing worse than a storm with small children! I'm convinced. Matthew was at daycare, in case you're wondering. Even though they're only 1.5 miles away, they are just enough NW of us, that it wasn't nearly as bad right there, though there were plenty of branches down.

Whew, at least we're safe and no major damage occurred. I'm calling it a mini-hurricane since the winds were 65-75mph. We're due for worse storms today, but they should at least be more predictable. At least, that's what they're saying. God help us all!

To my CA readers, I'm ready to pack up and come join you (not seriously), but then I'd have to worry about earthquakes and my state falling into the ocean...

A Lesson Learned

Baby + Stool Softener = Puke Fest

Home and Relieved

And 24 hours after surgery began, we are home. What a fast 24 hours. I am in complete letdown mode. I am flooded with emotions, just from the release of all the time leading up to the surgery. Apparently I was a little stressed or something???? I am flooded with emotions thinking about all the love and support we had too. I can't begin to imagine how many prayers were uttered for us yesterday. Thank you everybody! It's truly amazing. And all the grandparents were a big part of the day - including my parents who spent almost the entire time with us, minus going home to sleep in between yesterday and today. Incredible. And our daycare provider brought Matthew and her whole family for a visit - and she came during the crying time - which was making me cry at the time, and in turn made her cry. We love you, Kelly. We can't believe how much she loves our children as if they were her own. Times like these really show what an impact love and support can have. Enough gushing already!!

We arrived at the hospital at 9:30am Monday morning. We were ushered right in to the prep room, where we were surrounded by every staff member in the place. No small thanks to Ellie's curls - they draw a crowd, let me tell you. I never worry about whether she'll be in good hands. Honestly, the anesthesiologists were arguing over whose turn it was to get "the cute baby." One told the other, "oh no, you had a cute baby last time - it's my turn." Weird. But funny. Ellie was quickly weighed and changed into a mini hospital gown. Loads of staff came to discuss everything with us - the O/R nurse, the resident following the case the whole day, both anesthesiologists, the nurse anesthestist, the surgeon, you get the idea. Lesson 1: Always go to a pediatric hospital if your child needs surgery. Wow.

About 11:15am, they whisked Ellie away. Literally. The whole surgical entourage and our whole entourage practically ran to the surgery entrance, and they wasted no time getting us to cram in our hugs and kisses, and like a flash, they took our baby. What a moment that was. All the moms present, especially this one, commenced crying immediately. :) Thankfully, we were able to get to our room where we stayed overnight during the day, so it was nice to have something to do, hauling all our things to the room and waiting there, where we could all talk and sit and distract ourselves. They paged us around noon saying they had begun and Ellie was asleep and was doing fabulous. You want to know what the worst feeling is? The first page. Everything in the room stopped as I called in for the status. What a relief to hear everything was fabulous. From there we all relaxed quite a bit. After a while we went to get lunch. They paged again halfway through the surgery to let us know everything was still fabulous. (that's their word choice, not mine, so don't make fun of me)! They paged again towards the end and had us come down to the waiting room. Within 10 minutes, the surgeon came to tell us what occurred during surgery. She showed us an x-ray revealing a brand new thumb!!! HOORAY!!! She pinned the thumb inside the cast to straighten it, to set the bone, and to keep Ellie from moving it inside the cast. The resident that was present the entire time described the skin graft as beautiful. It matched up really nicely. And the x-ray showing the thumb? What a CUTE little hand she's going to have!

Not too much later, someone from the recovery room came to get us so we could see Ellie, who was starting to wake up. What a pitiful sight when we got there. A drug stupor. Ellie had half-open eyes, puffy lips, and was just laying there, hardly moving. She was turning her head side-to-side every so slightly, to get a look at Sean and me and the nurse. She looked like she calmed down when she saw us. Of course, the morphine probably had something to do with that too. She was on morphine for only a short time, and has moved onto tylenol with codeine every 4 hours.

Ellie is such a trooper. She had one really fussy time after surgery when her body was fighting with itself, which was more important - sleep or food. A raging battle ensued. Just kidding, but she did cry hard for 30 minutes straight. Some time in there they also came in to administer some extra IV painkillers. I don't know what kind it was, and honestly I didn't care at that point. She calmed down and went to sleep. That was her worst crying fit. She actually hardly cried the entire time except for that period. We were all amazed. Thank you prayer!! I truly believe all the prayer support made a HUGE difference.

This morning, Ellie was on formula, and for lunch I tried giving her solids. She practically tore the bowl of cereal and pears out of my hands when she saw it!

We left the hospital around 10am this morning, with a girl with a shiny new huge purple cast. Okay, maybe not shiny, but definitely huge and purple. There's even a giant sock on it, so she doesn't rip her face off rubbing it with her cast. What a sight.

Here are some pictures of the experience:

Ellie - post-op, looking pitiful and barely awake

Moved into our room for the night - asleep (out cold):

The cast, with a giant sock over it, propped up on a pillow:


Tuesday morning - bright eyed and bushy tailed, with her usual spunk:

We are glad to be done with stage 1. Stage 2 is set for August 15th. They're leaving the cast on until then, and cutting it off as part of the procedure, separating the remaining digits, and re-casting. We are thrilled with the thought of seeing her hand. 2 months to go. I think it's going to be a long 2 months, and we're all going to be bruised by her hard-casted boxing glove of a hand, but it will be worth it. Thank you, God, for bringing us successfully through part one of this journey.

One of these days, I can't wait to share about our hospital - what a great experience!

Twas the Night Before Surgery

This is it! The night before surgery! We'll fairly calm, actually. I just can't wait to be done. And I'm more anxious that my trying-to-be-a-cold forming will actually form. Pray it will be unformed enough that they won't kick me out! I'm on the Airborne/Zicam defense. So far so good.

Here are "Before" pics, and later I will add "After" pics. This is Ellie's left hand currently.

Okay, fine. Those WERE before pics. Apparently I uploaded strangely, and I'm not going to waste my time figuring it out, given that it's 10pm and I have to wake up Ellie at 3am to feed her the last formula she can have before surgery. She can have clear fluids till 8am, but I figure she might not take them very well - not a big fan of juice/water - so this seems like the best option to make sure she has some nutrition in her.

More updates later. Surgery is at 11am. Go Ellie go!

Congratulations!!!

A congratulations is in order for our friends, John and Sara, from church. They had a baby boy on July 1st about 9pm. Welcome, Tobias, and congratulations to Mom and Dad! I've never seen so many updates DURING labor from anyone before! LOL

Syndactyly

Ellie was born with a webbed left hand, which is called syndactyly. Syndactyly is a condition where two or more digits are fused together. Around 16 weeks of gestation, an enzyme dissolves the tissue between the fingers and toes, making the webbing disappear. Rarely, the process does not completely dissolve the webbing. I've seen different statistics about how often this occurs, but it occurs about 1 in 2,500 according to Children's Hospital Boston.

The causes are unknown - it is often a fluke, but sometimes can be caused by uterine banding, or other disorders. Chromosome testing was done, and Ellie does not have a disorder which led to her syndactyly.

If syndactyly involves only skin, it is considered simple. If the webbing extends all the way to the finger tip, it is complete. If the webbing extends only partially up the finger, it is incomplete. If there is bone involvment it is complex syndactyly. That being said, Ellie's first web (thumb and index finger) has a complete complex syndactyly with a complete union at the distal phalanges bones, meaning they are fused. (see diagram above). Her 2nd web (between index and middle) has a simple complete syndactyly. The third web (between middle and ring) has a simple incomplete syndactyly, and the 4th web (between ring and pinky) has a simple incomplete syndactyly with 5th finger clinodactyly. Clinodactyly is a fancy way of saying the pinky curves toward the ring finger. Also, her 2nd and 3rd fingers are each missing a phalange bone, meaning they will be shorter than the others.

The correction will take place in 2 stages of surgery. The first stage is described below.

Procedure #1

On July 7th, Ellie will have surgery to separate the 1st and 3rd web on her left hand. The procedure lasts 4 hours, from the time they start anesthesia, to the time she is waking up. They put her to sleep with a mask, and then start the IV anesthesia. We meet with the O/R nurse prior to surgery, the surgeon, and the anesthesiologist. The anesthesiologist and a nurse anesthetist will be with Ellie through the entire procedure. That makes me feel SO much better, just to know they are monitoring her closely the whole time. And this is a pediatric hospital, so they specialize in pediatrics, and it is a designated pediatric anesthesiologist. That also helps us stay calm about it. Or calmER, anyway.

The surgeon will be separating the bone connecting the thumb and index finger. There will also be quite a bit of skin needed for that web to give her thumb the full range of motion necessary, and to allow growing room. If you look at your thumb, see just how far it actually can move, and how much your skin stretches to accommodate, and you can imagine how much she will need. They do a full thickness skin graft and take it from the groin area, right in the crease. That site will have stitches, and a sterile dressing put on, which makes the risk of infection only 1 in 10,000. If you’re wondering what a full thickness graft means, it means they include all layers of the skin, whereas with an adult they would only need the top layer.

Once the thumb and index finger are separated, there is possible pinning needed to straighten the index finger. It depends on what they find. Sometimes when they do the separation, the finger lays where it is supposed to right away, and sometimes it needs a little help with pinning. They are also separating the skin webbing between the 3rd and 4th fingers. There is not much webbing there, just a bit. After the surgery we’ll have a daughter with a lobster claw! A thumb, and 2 sets of 2 fingers. We might not even get to see the lobster claw, because there will be a cast put on during the surgery. We even get to pick the color ahead of time! (it’s the little things, people) The doctor says the cast will be a big old boxing glove, really thick and padded around the hand, and it will taper up the arm. And yes, it will be a full arm cast. They say she will probably not move her arm for about 2 weeks because she won’t know what to do with it. Poor thing. She’s going to be very upset not to be able to shove her whole fist in her mouth like she does now. It’s one of her favorite things! Because the 2nd stage surgery is 5 weeks later, and the cast is worn for 4 weeks, they are probably going to leave the cast on until the 2nd stage surgery, with no break in between.

After the procedure, Ellie is moved to the recovery room, where they let the babies sleep and wake up on their own. If she is still sleeping after an hour, they start talking to her to initiate the wake-up process. When she is awake, they reunite us, and we all travel to her room where she will be staying overnight, probably for just one night as long as she is safe from infection and is handling the pain ok. They first administer pain meds and antibiotics through an IV, and move to oral meds once her tummy is returning to normal. This whole while she will be hooked up to monitors to keep track of her vitals.

The day of the surgery, we can give Ellie clear liquids up until 4 hours before surgery, and nothing after that. I am not looking forward to having to starve a six-month old hungry baby, but she is usually fine if she’s got plenty to look at. Though, who knows. She may be EXTRA hungry with having had only clear liquids. I probably dread that more than anything, and what coming out of anesthesia will be like. She can really get crying if she’s unhappy about something. LOUDLY, might I add. After the procedure, they start by feeding her pedialyte (once they know her tummy is awake). Depending on how she takes that, next will be pedialyte and a little formula, and so on until she’s ready to handle the formula without problems.

We are getting nervous as the day approaches - just 5 days away. I know Ellie is in good hands. It is a very reputable doctor. I don't want to reveal the name or the hospital to protect our identity, but suffice it to say both the doctor and hospital are reputable. Besides the care, God is with us and will be watching over. I have confidence about that, since the surgery has already been rescheduled due to chicken pox exposure, and I have felt a peace about the surgery ever since. I just know God was watching out for Ellie and it was rescheduled for a reason. I know because she never even got chicken pox, and I was horribly nervous for the original date. I have no idea why, but I had MAJOR fear issues then, and they disappeared after rescheduling. Now I think it is a healthy amount of fear I have. I just know she is going to be okay. It is not going to be fun, but it will all be worth it, especially for her as she gets older. And thank goodness she's so young she won't remember any of this. What a gift. Don't say I'm a glass-half-empty girl, look at that! I plan to take and share plenty of pics, but honestly, I have no good ones yet. Have YOU ever tried to capture a wiggly 6-month old hand in a photo? Yeah, I don't think it can be done. I'll have to sneak in when she's sleeping.

Happy 4th of July to all! We'll be in complete lockdown to avoid any and all extra germ exposure. Some day Matthew will get a 4th of July - last year the flu made him miss it. This year, the lost year of 2008 is the culprit. I'll explain what I mean by THAT some other time.

Signing off....

The Cuteness Factor

Welcome to July 2nd edition of The Cuteness Factor. This will be a regularly occurring post I'll do, where I will keep track of some of the cute things the kids do or say.

Matthew
A couple days ago, I was sitting on the couch with my mother-in-law and Matthew in between us. We were having a conversation and were talking about something to do with booties. Matthew looks up at me and so inncocently says "mommy, did you say boobies?" I thought his Grandma Margaret was going to fall on the floor laughing!

This morning, Grandma Lingle was over and she was holding Matthew. He was trying to ask me something, and absolutely could not find the words to spit out what he was trying to say. He was getting frustrated. So I said "it's hard to think in the morning, isn't it?" To which he said "yeah." Then he snuggled into Grandma's shoulder, looking really defeated. A few seconds later he said, "mommy, pease can you hewp me think?" SO CUTE!

Ellie
Ellie has taken to roaring like a little mini girly lion. She hasn't quite figured out how to find her voice, and that's what she does instead. Now she's trying to see how loud she can be too, and cracking herself up in the process.

Ellie also figured out how to play peek-a-boo. She pulls the blanket up over her face by herself, then pulls it down and waits for someone to say peek-a-boo. Then she giggles.

We enjoy our little entertainers!