Surgery Update !!!

Sorry it took me so long to update but I am exhausted , the night before the surgery I woke Leah up this time for her bottle so she wouldn't be so hungry and I only got 2 or 3 hours sleep . The surgery went fine she was in there a little over 2 hours , I was shocked when I first saw her she looks so different , I was happy and sad at the same time , it will take me a little while to get use to her new face , she is so beautiful though , the surgeon did a great job , I love her little nose . Now that the latham is gone Leah is saying Mama every time she is feeling pain :( .

Well by that evening she was smiling at Riley and slinging her arms and slapping her No No's together but we didn't know that today was actually going to be her worst day , when we got up this morning her face was swelled and she wouldn't open her mouth to take her pedialyte , her diaper was not very wet either so they put her back on I.V. and they were giving her to much pain medication so right now everything is fine , they said the swelling in her eyes is probably because they had to do so much to her nose , because her cleft was so different . Well I will try to update more later , here are some pics ......

 This was right after the surgery.

This was the second day that her face started to swell.

This is her cleft repair bear they gave her , see the stitches on it's lip ? I thought this was so cute .

This is the bottle we have to use , so far it hasn't been that bad , I think she may get use to it once she starts feeling better .

Leah's Next Surgery

Leah's next surgery is in the morning , this is her lip and nose repair she will be in the hospital for three days . We will be here for a week , I don't know how this surgery will be , it's going to be rough , I have to feed Leah through a bottle with a tube in it and also she has to wear something called No No's that will keep her from touching her face , she is going to hate that :( and also she has to sleep in her car seat , she can't lay flat because her face will swell , and this is for 2 weeks , it's going to be a long 2 weeks . Leah has been so happy tonight , playing and laughing , it makes me want to cry knowing what she is going to go through tomorrow , well I will keep everyone posted , please pray for Leah .

Eggheads

This summer we made eggheads , these are a lot of fun . what you will need -
Raw eggs
a needle
Egg carton
Grass seeds
Potting soil
Permanent markers.
First , use a needle or small nail to make a hole about the size of a quarter in one end of an egg , then drain the egg and rinse out the shell . Carefully draw or paint funny faces on the shells and put them in the egg carton , use permanent markers so the colors won't bleed when you water the hair . Use a spoon to fill the shells with soil , then plant the grass seed , moisten the soil , cover with plastic wrap and place them in a sunny window until the seeds sprout . Style the hair into pigtails or buzz cuts , We made pigtails on a couple of ours but then Riley decided they all needed buzz cuts . I got my grass seed at the hardware store , all you need is a handful , it's a lot cheaper that way .

Leah's First Surgery

Leah had her first surgery , it went well only I didn't really know what to expect . I was led to believe that she would be nursing her bottle again in a couple of days , so I would like to share my experience with others so they will know what to expect just in case you don't want any surprises . First off this is painful Leah screamed and cried a lot , she was on Ibuprofen and Tylenol but your not supposed to give babies Ibuprofen under the age of 6 months so after the second day I had to stop giving her that but I had to keep her on the Tylenol for a while because the latham after a day or two can cause sores on the throat and tongue which makes babies feel like they have the strep throat , I also didn't know I was going to have to force feed her , I have never had to force feed before it can be emotionally stressful , you have to try to keep your baby from getting dehydrated , Leah would fight me every second when I would try to feed her so I couldn't get 3 ounces in her like the doctor wanted me to do so I came up with a plan to give her an ounce every hour and it worked . Another thing is I did not know that I was going to have to tighten the screw in this thing two times a day , this was a bigger shock than the force feeding but I am doing it , someone told my mom that they didn't think they could do that to their child , well that thought crossed my mind to but a mother will do what she has to do for her child , when I first started I didn't know what I was doing I just did it because I had to , I guess lately I have done a lot of things I never thought I would be doing , but it's really not as bad as it may seem , the first 3 days are the worst , I think by the 8th day Leah was starting to get back to her normal happy self and I am getting used to cleaning and tightening the screw even though I will never like doing it , I was not looking forward to the next surgery but I can't wait until this latham is taken out , even though Leah is already used to it now , I don't think I will ever be , when Leah first started taking her bottle again voluntarily I still had to squeeze it and help her , but after she got used to it now she is taking a 4 ounce bottle on her own so no force feeding or squeezing now :) . Most babies only have to wear a lathem for 3 weeks but in Leah's case it's going to be about 8 to 10 weeks but it will probably fly by , I will put a picture of the latham on here after her next visit to have it cleaned , I did however manage to take her for her 3 month picture before her surgery , Leah smiles most all the time , whenever I see her beautiful smile it makes me smile no matter what kind of day we are having , she actually smiled once right after her surgery but that was before the anesthesia wore off . GOD BLESS everybody and thank you for your prayers ......Dawn.

Happy Mothers Day

Our Easter Sunday

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday , we started our day by reading the Easter story of course and after that we listened to a sermon ( The hoax of good Friday : by Pastor Anderson ) one of my favorites . We still have not found a church yet , after the sermon we sung hymns and then went to my parents house for dinner . We had such beautiful weather , Riley and I played on the swing set together and spent most of the day playing with caterpillars one of Riley's favorite bugs :) . Update on Leah - we went for our first visit to the hospital in Chattanooga , they have some of the best surgeons in the world there and people go there from all over the world , when I looked at some of our surgeons work that he had done I was amazed , he is not a people person , he doesn't talk much but he is serious about his work and very good at what he does and that's all that matters . I liked it there , Everybody was so nice . I am very thankful that they pay for our motel room and gas , Leah's first visit was just to plan what they are going to do , we found out that her cleft / palate is unique and she is not going to have her 4 front teeth , but they can fix that when she is a lot older , she also has to have a lathem which will pull her gums together and line her jaw up before the surgery . I love Leah's face , I will probably cry after her face changes , they say a lot of parents do . I hope everybody had a good Easter as well . I am not able to leave comments on blogs right now , either my computer is messed up or my Internet , I don't know what the problem is . Leah has been such a blessing , she is such a good baby , when she does not have a belly ache she just smiles and laughs all the time , sometimes when we are in bed she just looks up at me and smiles before she goes to sleep , I really get behind on the house a lot where I sit and hold her , I lose all track of time , Riley loves being a big sister , she wants to help give Leah her bottle and change diapers and she loves to help give her a bath , well here's some Easter pics and God Bless .....

Leah Is Finally Here .....

I am sorry it took me so long to post , I have been resting when I can and busy when I can't . Leah was born on Feb. 24th , I had woke up that morning with a fever and aches and pains , I knew I had come down with something , I told my mom that I hoped I didn't go into labor that day because I was so sick , but Leah had been pushing down all that day . By the time evening came I was in so much pain , I didn't know if it was labor pains or pains from whatever sickness I had , I couldn't decide whether to go to the hospital or not . I believe it was around 9:00 that night when I realized that the pains I was having were about 5 minutes apart , I said a prayer before leaving the house , hoping that this was the real thing .

My contractions were not that bad on the way to the hospital , I was thankful for that because my husband always obeys the laws of the road , even when a woman is in labor :) . When I got admitted into the hospital , they said I was definitely contracting , I couldn't believe how mild my contractions were , but the next thing I knew the nurse came in and said the Dr. wanted to get things rolling and to get this done , she said they were going to break my water and give me pitocin , I had never had this done and couldn't understand why they were going to do it , unless it was because I was sick , well to make a long story short Leah was out in under 3 hours , I was so relieved , and I just fell in love when I saw that face .

I had to stay in the hospital an extra day , to make sure Leah was eating enough , she could not latch on to nurse so I have to pump and give it to her in a special bottle , it takes her a while to take a bottle because she has to take breaks , she gets tired . Here are some pics of her first day at home , I will post some more soon ....Thank you for all your prayers and God Bless .