Recovery

I don't have much time to write, so let me just say two things.

One, this has been the most intense 4 days of this whole journey. Seeing my child in pain and getting no sleep is one thing, but having to clean the incision site and remove all the scabs is the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life. Did I mention I've had natural childbirth three times??

Secondly, it is shocking how much I miss that big goofy grin. I never expected his face to change so much. I expected him to have an in tact lip and I felt pretty uncertain about what it would look like. I did not expect perfection, but I am shocked how much the surgery changed his face. Matt and my mom feel the same way. We are actually grieving the loss of that face we came to love. Here are some photos from the past few days.

Scenes from the walk from recovery to our room. This is my sister Brianna who is finishing nursing school in June!

At this point he couldn't sleep so they gave him another dose of morphine. He ended up needing it through that first night, but was off it when they removed the IV the next day.

Surgery is over

Dr. Kuang just came out and said everything went well. She showed us a picture in her camera. He is still out. It looks really different. His whole face is puffy, which a friend had warned me of. His mouth looks like a little pucker instead of that big wide mouth we are used to. He has nasal stents in his nostrils. We will get to see him in person as soon as he wakes up. Soon, i hope.

Surgery Day

We came up to Portland yesterday and stayed the night at Matt's dad's house (Grandma & Papa's). They have the kids today. Our check in time was 10 am with a scheduled surgery time of 11:50. His last feeding was at 6am. I had been so nervous about the long wait from then until noon. At 7.5 mos he's ready for solids, but not eating what I offer, so he'd been waking up every 2.5 hours lately just STARVING. I imagined this being a very hard morning. Last night, in an attempt to ease this situation, I decided to put cereal in his bottle and I think that helped. He slept a 5 hr stretch and still wasn't very hungry at 6 am. He missed his morning nap with all the excitement and was fussy and tired, but not screaming at all while we waited in the pre-op room.

Brianna, my sister, and my mom (Grammy) took turns holding Sean while the various nurses, anesthesiologists, our surgeon and her resident looked at Sean and asked us questions. They were all really great and playful. He weighs 18 lbs 7 oz today. I changed him into a tiny hospital gown with pink elephants.

We handed him to the anesthesiologist at "the kissing corner" at 12:10 p.m. I had imagined this moment so many times and felt the emotion well up. But when it came time, I suddenly remembered my promise to Sean Michael to be present with him and that he could count on me. At the las minute it occurred to me that it would be better for him to see my smiling face than a worried or sad face as he was handed to virtual strangers. I told him the anesthesiologist's name and said "Ready?" then, with a swinging motion, "one...two....threeee!" and he landed in her arms with a giggle. He was smiling excitedly at me over her shoulder as she carried my precious baby down the hall to operating room #3. Phew!

Later we received a ph call letting us know the surgery began at 1pm.

The four of us waited in the lobby at Doernbecher for Jessica. I met jess through a mutual friend. She is a mom of three and lives in the Porltand area. Her baby, Liam, was born in January at home and "surprise" he has a unilateral cleft lip and palate. It turns out Jessica and I have so much in common and lots to talk about. She has totally inspired me. she arrived wearing a buton that said, "Team Liam". Check this out http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/view_shared?p=850254656d293fa610beec&skin_id=1603&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url


At 4pm the nurse called to say they are wrapping up and that we could expect to talk with Dr. kuang within an hour and a half or so.

Anticipating first surgery

Well, Sean Michael's lip repair is still set for March 24. Here are some updates. Notice today sarcasm seems to be my coping mechanism of choice.

We had pre-op visits with the surgeon and anesthesiologist on March 2nd and got more info about the whole deal. Here are some things to look forward to:

• He can have breastmilk until up to 4 hours before our scheduled surgery time. Unfortunately, he eats every 2.5 hours and our scheduled time is the time we arrive at the hospital and then who knows how long we'll have to wait before they are ready to put him under. We are not looking forward to that part.



• They'll give him a sedative and said it will be the first time we'll see our baby drunk. hmmm...



• We get to hold him and walk all the way to the operating room doors before handing him over to the doctors.



• They'll remove his NAM and keep it as part of his medical record. We do not get to keep the NAM. I better take pictures!


• The surgery will take around 6 hours. Dr. Kuang said not to be worried if it went longer. It would just mean they are taking their time. Attn Portland people. This would be a good day to come and visit / distract us at the hospital if you are free. :)


• He'll stay one night in the hospital during which time he'll be on pain meds.



• He'll wear arm restraints called "no-no's" for 3 weeks so that he can't bend his arms and get at his surgery site.



• In the hospital, a nurse will come ever few hours and wash his incision sites and then clean off any scabs that have begun to form. did I say every few hours? It may be as often as every 2 hours. Turns out, my sister Brianna, who is in nursing school, performed this task during a clinical rotation at Shriner's hospital in Portland. She said the baby screams through it. Yeah.


• Even better news! We get to continue performing this glorious task over the following two weeks. The self absorbing stitches will fall out while we are cleaning the scabs between 5 and seven days post op. Good thing we hear good things about this surgeon.


• After two weeks we switch from scab removal to massage. I'm not sure what we'll use to massage the scar. I have some research to do. I heard vitamin E can be irritating to some babies. I welcome any ideas. You can post a comment or e-mail me.
  
  More later!