Monday, November 23, 2009

More Before & After

We had a busy weekend full of birthday celebrations and playing nurse to both our kids. After his totally awesome third birthday William came down with croup. He's doin' it up on the couch in front of the Disney Channel as we speak. Here's hoping it's all gone come Thanksgiving break.

Lucy has been doing well. We've cut back her pain meds to nighttime sleeping only and she seems to be doing just fine as long as we're not trying to get her dressed or lay her down to change her. Extreme torture, you know, even for a baby who hasn't gone under the knife. The only other challenge for us lately is that her antibiotics cause diarrhea and so we've been doing major clean-up every. single. day. 'Nuff said on that topic.

Each day that goes by Brian and I cannot get over how different Lucy looks -- and by that I mean for the better. If you've only ever seen Lucy a few times you might not notice a difference. But I keep saying that I never realized how bad her sagittal synostosis was until it got fixed. Everything just seems so much more proportional. Her forehead isn't as long. Her eyes aren't as wide apart. In fact, I think her eyes are even bigger because some of that pressure from her forehead jutting out has been removed. And the doctors say that her final head shape still won't be for another couple of months.

Before - October 15, 2009

Before - November 12, 2009

After - November 22, 2009

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

OOOHHHH,she was always cute before,but now shes absolutely adorable!!Glad to hear shes doing so well!!!love,Nancy and Jim

Ang said...

Just be glad you have those kind of diapers than what normally comes with pain meds...I think that would be way worse! At least she's comfortable! :)

Carla said...

She's absolutely gorgeous... I can totally see the changes you mentioned! Barnabee and I wish William a belated Happy Birthday!! Love to you all!

Ang said...

p.s...I see the difference and it's beautiful! :)

Anonymous said...

She has such an infectious smile. She brings tears of joy to my eyes knowing what an ordeal she went through and soon after to be vibrantly smiling. Truly a trooper. Hopefully it is smooth sailing for you all now. She is very blessed to have such loving and caring parents and a whole lot of others who are supporting you all.

Much love, Lexzi and family

Anonymous said...

Jen and Brian - Lucy's new mellon looks great. You two deserve a lot of credit for getting it done. Happy B Day to William and T-day to you all.

Bees

Catharina de Bononia said...

Hi. I just found you through a comment you left on the Testosterhome blog. I had to check you out after you mentioned that your daughter had surgery on her skull--sure enough, craniosynostosis.

I wanted to write to you from the "other" side. My first babies (identical twin girls) were born in September 2006. At our one-month well-visit, we pointed out baby "M"'s funny flattened forehead on one side. We were immediately sent for an x-ray, and scheduled for surgery at our local Children's Hospital the day before she turned 12 weeks old (what a bitty baby!). Thankfully, we were the first family to have endoscopic surgery done (at our Children's) to correct her craniosynostosis.

Just last week, we had a three-year follow-up appointment with the neurosurgeon, and she's thrilled with how everything is looking.

Like your case (at least, I think... I haven't read your blog extensively yet), there was (and is) nothing developmentally problematic with our daughter--it was purely a "cosmetic" surgery.

Anyway, if you'd like to chat more, or see before-and-after photos, please feel free to email me at jennyredmann at gmail.

Congratulations on getting through your baby's surgery... I look back now (two weeks before delivering baby girl #4) and wonder how we POSSIBLY made the decision to have our 12-week-old teeny-tiny baby operated on, stayed the night at Children's with both twins (because I was nursing both), and got through a year of wearing the helmet. Even having done it, it seems crazy.

Thankfully, God grants you the grace to deal with whatever you have to deal with. Deo Gratias!

Jenny