Surgery Update

Praise the Lord, Andy was able to have his surgery. Tuesday morning began for me at 1:00 in the morning when I woke Andy up for his last feeding before his surgery. For a child who loves to eat (and who only recently began sleeping through the night), he was very difficult to wake up to eat. After feeding Andy, I bundled him up and put him in his car seat to finish sleeping because I didn't want to wake him up when it was time for us to go. I went to bed and then set the alarm for 4:00 a.m. We left the house at 4:30 and arrived at the hospital at about 5:15. Unfortunately, Andy woke up when we took his car seat out of the van at the hospital. At 5:30 we went back to the pediatric ambulatory surgery unit. The triage area was really nice, and while most patients (there were at least five while we were there) were separated by only a curtain, Andy had his own little room with a hospital crib. Shortly after we arrived, we had to strip Andy down for them to weigh and measure him. Then he had to wear this itchy hospital gown -- sorry I didn't get a picture of him in his gown. The hardest part in waiting for his surgery was not being able to nurse him because he wanted to eat to fall back asleep, and when the lab technician came to take his blood for a hemoglobin test.
Mommy, I don't know what is going on! Please feed me! I am trying to be content with my fist.
Here is Andy after his surgery now. They took him away from me at 7:30, and then he was brought back from recovery at about 9:30. I'm thankful the time was relatively short. The whole time he was gone, I just wanted to see him. The surgeon came out to talk to us at about 8:45 to tell us the surgery was over and that Andy had done very well.

When Andy was brought back to the triage area, he was not a happy baby. He was hungry, groggy, and disoriented. Thankfully I was able to try feeding him right away. The nurses had already discovered that he is not a pacifier baby -- He spits it back out and gives you the horrible glare as if to say 'You honestly want me to suck on that thing? Give me my fist!' Anyways, he had a little bit of difficulty probably because of the anesthesia, the fact that his mouth no longer stretches as far, and because he had gotten himself all worked out. Finally Andy calmed down enough to eat and fall asleep again. I was really thankful to have both JA and my mom there with me to help encourage me.

Here is Andy in his hospital crib right before we were dismissed. He didn't want to be put down at all after he was finally brought back to me. JA bought him this little bear from the hospital because the bear looked like it had a cleft. We are so thankful for how the Lord allowed everything to go. Andy has been a wonderful blessing in our lives, and we are excited to see how the Lord is going to use this in both our lives and in Andy's life as he grows.

I do want to thank Julie Brownfield for the wonderful encouragement you have been to me for the past four months since we found out about Andy's cleft.
And thank you everyone who has been praying for Andy and his surgery. For his recovery, the stitches will dissolve, and the glue over the stitches will fall off like a scab once the stitches have dissolved. Andy will have a bright red scar between his mouth and his nostril for about a year and then it should fade into a white scar.

I will post more pictures of Andy as he heals.


As for Valentine's Day

This is the wonderful present that my husband bought and assembled for me for Valentine's day. I've always admired armour's, and when we saw this out furniture shopping back in January, JA bought it for me as an early Valentine's present, but I just got it on Saturday.