handsful

Randy and Lainey, surgery-day afternoon

We’re (finally) home. Our surgeon has a habit of late discharges, but we were hopeful…nope. We finally left a little after 8pm, and that was only after we told the nurse that we didn’t need to see him and would be fine with her getting the discharge instructions by phone from him. He agreed. We felt fine with this, having spoken at length with the cleft palate clinic coordinator the day before, and she filled us in on all the feeding instructions, etc.

Surgery day…tired mom, miserable Lainey

Let me back up a bit and catch you up :) Last night, Randy stayed at the hospital with Lainey while I drove back home to stay with the girls (they had stayed at the house together all day, while the boys were still at their friend’s house). I have to tell you what my big girls did. I walked in the door and they were grinning from ear to ear. They walked me around the house, showing me all the work they’d done that day. They did dishes, made beds, folded clothes, washed counters, made sweet “we missed you” signs, etc. I hadn’t told them to do any of it! They said that they knew I’d be tired when I got home and wanted to take care of it all for me. I absolutely cried with joy and hugged them like crazy!!

I drove back to the hospital this morning. I was thrilled to hear that she was taking more liquids by mouth, her drooling/discharge was WAY better (no more bleeding!), she slept well last night (which means Randy got a few zzz’s, too), and she was acting more like herself. As soon as I walked in, I got a smile from her…way to melt a mom’s heart!

This morning, playing in her bed

We spent the day playing a little in the playroom, pulling her around the halls in a wagon, filling her up (constantly) with clear liquids, and she took a good, long nap from about 1-4.

Today, ready to cruise the halls!

We’d been told by several moms who have been through this surgery with their children that the change from day 1 to day 2 was significant. We’re amazed! She’s doing so well. God truly designed this child to roll with whatever comes to her in life. Everytime we’ve wondered how she’d handle this situation or that event, we end up watching her glide through with grace and courage. We are so blessed by this child and I think we’ve learned more from her than we’ve taught her so far.

I’ll post pics of her homecoming tomorrow! Until then, here are a few more (totally out of order) pics that we wanted to share…

changing her into her hospital gown, she looks at it like “what are you putting ON me??”

Just a little while after she was wheeled into her room