handsful

Home from her appt. with Dr. Glassman…Payton loves having his picture taken with the little one. 

Lainey had her appointment with the surgeon today, so he could see her fistula and tell us “the plan”.  He looked in her mouth and saw the small fistula smack in the middle of her palate.  He was not terribly surprised to see it for two reasons, (1) her repair was “tight”, as he told us right after surgery and, (2) most surgeons would have done her palate in two seperate surgeries, but we tried to get the whole thing repaired in just one (we all decided this), so a fistula is a chance you take. 

The good news…he thinks it will shrink up SOME on it’s own, he does NOT think it will get bigger, and she does NOT need a seperate surgery to correct it.  Whew!!  He said it can wait to be repaired until she has her nose and lip revision, which should be around age 4.  We also talked about having her left ear tacked back a bit (it sticks out more than her right) and he said it could also be done at the same time.  Wow, 4 procedures in one surgery.  Now, if I could just share the operating table with her and get a tummy tuck at the same time?  I digress…

He doesn’t think this fistula will adversely affect her speech development, because it is so small.  She has no new restrictions because of it, we can continue trying a straw (with lots of supervision!) and keep using a sippy cup.  He also said we wouldn’t have to deal with no-no’s for this next surgery, since she’ll be old enough to be told to leave her mouth alone…another praise there! 

So, all in all, a great visit.  We were preparing ourselves for another surgery and we’re SO happy to hear that isn’t the case. 

Here are a few swimming pictures from the other day.  Did I mention she has NO fear of the water?? 

That face makes me just melt…

No, Randy isn’t doing this, SHE is.  Everytime he held her out front, she’d dunk her face in, over and over again and come up laughing.  Payton isn’t thrilled about this picture, but he consented to have it in the blog.  Thanks, dude. 

Just the thought of her jumping into the water makes her giddy…sorry, I couldn’t time it right to get a shot her jumping in.  Maybe next time…

 

No longer the youngest kid in the family and loving his role as big brother. 

See the look of pure joy on her face?  For those of you worried that Randy is MAKING her do these things, be assured…she gets BORED when we put her in her floaty and almost immediately asks to be taken out (signs “all done”).  Randy has spoiled her rotten and become her water entertainer.  I’m much more boring laid back in the pool, so I’m not her preferred playmate. 

Two challenges we have with her in the water…she will NOT put her legs down when we try to teach her to float, they stick straight up in the air!  And, we’re having trouble teaching her to CLOSE her mouth when she goes under.  She thinks thats the time to open wide…needless to say, her diapers after swim time fill up fast :) 

Lastly, we have a new member of the family.  Marley decided to spend her birthday money on a new pet…a hermit crab.  We bought her the cage for her birthday, and she bought everything else including Herbie the hermit crab.  She insists it’s a girl (I hear it’s nearly impossible to tell, unless you’re an expert in hermit crabs), so the name confuses me! 

Her shell is very decorative, they come like that! 

A closer look at little Herbie…the pet store said she’s a baby.  Awwww…

 

 

Lainey and Dr. Glassman

Lainey had her 5 week post-op visit today and all is well.  No more follow-ups, she’s been given clearance to swim, use sippy cups, try straws, etc.  Woo hoo!  He said the repair looks great.  Our next step will be to monitor her speech development…she could need another surgery depending on how that progresses.  If not, then the next surgery will be when she’s around 4 or 5, to revise her lip and nose repair.  Between now and then, she’ll be monitored regularly by the cleft palate clinic.

Tomorrow is the big day!  TWO!   

One of her fav activities…having the kids push her around the tile floor in the famous blue laundry basket. Why is it famous, you ask? We have pictures of the other kids as babies sitting in it…one, with the triplets in it at one time :)

Lainey completed day 5 of her cleft palate surgery recovery today…9 more days of no-nos. Not that I’m counting. And, honestly, Lainey doesn’t seemed phased by them at all. I anticipated all sorts of crying, whining, and down right fit-throwing with them. When we dress her in the morning and have to take them off, she’s fine to put them right back on, even offering her arms to me.

We need to raise the counters up a little…

Feedings have been pretty easy, too. We either use a disposable cup or syringes with a short bit of rubber tubing at the end. Everything is pureed very smoothly, to a “pouring paint” consistency. Nothing like mac n’ cheese with chicken and veggies that will squirt through a syringe. Yum. She’s loving it. Her favorites have been mashed potatoes and gravy and cream of chicken soup. Tomorrow, we can be a little more adventurous, going to “soft foods”…things like scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, over-done pasta, etc. Things that require very little chewing.

Another first; painted toes! She’s helping me blow them dry. She can now blow air through her mouth! Look out, birthday candles!!

Her sleeping has been slightly disturbed with her recovery…she didn’t nap AT ALL yesterday, just played in her crib for 2 hours. Today was better, thankfully! She’s woken up a couple of times during the night, but has gone back to sleep. We’re still waking her to give her Motrin around 3am and she’s been much happier in the morning. We’ll wean her from it over the next few days. Others have told us that they kept their kids on pain meds for the first week.

So, we’re pretty much getting back into life as normal. The big kids have a little more than a week left of “full school” (all subjects), then they have their testing a week from Friday. After that, we’ll keep plugging along with math and grammar through the summer, just a few days a week. We’re all feeling the pull of summer and those 4 July birthdays around the corner! Three 10 year olds, and one 2 year old! I better stock up on candles…

Mom holding Lainey and her new friend, Speedy Cheetah at the hospital

Lainey slept all night! I went in to check on her around 11pm, when I was heading to bed, and was astonished to see one of her no-nos off! No idea how long it had been that way, but she was sleeping and we saw no evidence of fingers in the mouth. Lesson learned…wrap those things a little tighter next time. She woke up at 8:30, after getting to bed (late!) around 10pm. She was fussy! We didn’t wake her to give her Motrin during the night, so I think she was both in a little pain and very hungry. After breakfast (pureed banana and cinnamon spice oatmeal) and a dose of Motrin, she was a happy girl again. She played well today, kept her no-nos on, had a big lunch of pureed sweet potato, potato soup – left over from last night – and applesauce) and is now taking a nap. We’re pinching ourselves that this has been so much easier than we expected. And, at the same time, bracing ourselves for the bottom to fall out :) lol…

I’m home!!

She grabbed a plate and cup from “her” cabinet, turned this bucket over, sat down and began scooting herself all over the kitchen. Creative, huh?

This pic is from today, playing with her puppy and cheetah

Abbey had a fun night with her Jr. High group from church…a fun WHOLE night. It was called Insane Insomnia and they basically went from one activity to another ALL night. It started with a banquet at church, then to the Jr. High pastor’s house for games, then to a food eating contest, swimming at a pool, bowling, laser tag, and it all ended with swimming and breakfast at the beach. She had a wonderful time! Can’t you tell??

Looks like Abbey is pretty happy to be home, too!