Three Weeks Post Op

This morning as I was nursing Lucy one of the knots from her stitches came out. There are four knots total. One by each ear and two that meet in the middle of her head. This was one by her ear. It just fell right into my hand without any pulling or tugging.

Then when she woke up from her afternoon nap I noticed the knot by the other ear was loose and when I touched it, it too fell right out. The scab from her drainage tube also came off.

Because both of those knots came out the stitches are really loose and pull out from one another with ease. So now I've become obsessed with her stitches like you'd pick at a bad scab. She was in the bath for an extra long time tonight while I picked and gently pulled. To help my weird habit Lucy could care less so I can meddle to my heart's content.

Most of the side stitches are now out but the ones on the top of her head are still pretty tight so I've left those alone.

Her incision looks amazingly well. Tomorrow we go to Gillette's for her follow-up appointment and I'm sure she'll get gold stars across the board. I'll post here tomorrow on that.

I've received a few elbow jabs to post some recent pictures of Lucy so here there are. Take note that these were taken before her stitches started coming out.

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

Hey Don't Forget About Me, Guys!

It was a certain someone's birthday today. Lucy did a great job at letting the spotlight shine on her big brother for a little while. We swam, we ate pizza and cake and opened presents. Then we came home and we all fell down.

Happy birthday, William! It has been a supreme privilege being your mommy these past three years. We love you!

Day 5

Last night was pretty good considering it was only her fourth night post operation. She woke up a little after midnight needing some pain meds. They take about a half hour to kick in so she and I wandered downstairs and watched some DVRed "Ellen" and "Oprah" until she started to feel more comfortable. There was something soothing about being awake in the dark and quiet of my own home with my baby girl.

She awoke again around 4:30 a.m. and this time Brian went to comfort her. Again she was in quite a bit of discomfort which is really difficult to watch. She has a tiny whimper accompanied by the biggest crocodile tears you've ever seen. That's how you really know they're hurting. When they can't even muster a cry.

When she got up for the day today I noticed the swelling has gone down quite a bit. We put her to sleep on an incline in her crib and she prefers to sleep on her side. Each time to we put her down we make sure she's on the opposite she was before. This means that her eyes alternate being swollen . It's pretty funny. First she's winking with her right eye. Then she takes a nap and when she wakes up she's winking with her left.

One of the biggest challenges we've been dealing with is that Lucy is currently on a ton of medication -- five, to be exact -- and she hates every single one of them. If she can manage, she spits them right out and into our face. So today I got a little creative and mixed four of them in warm apple juice and some baby cereal. She gobbled it up. So I think that will be the trick from now on.

After her dish of cereal I took some more pictures. These photos are more for me than anything else so that I can see the progression of change in her head but I thought you all would enjoy them as well.

Home!

Lucy finally had her own jammies on. Here she is with mommy ready to bust out of that hospital.

"Let's go, Dad!"

Saying goodbye to the nurses

Grandma welcomed us home with a big roast dinner with Uncle Jim's potatoes and some butternut squash. Goodbye hospital food! Lucy resumed her usual place at the dinner table.

And now for just of taste of the proof that this whole ordeal was worth it. Here's Lucy's before shot on September 17, 2009.

And here she is this evening just three days after surgery. The most noticeable spot is on the back of her head. Her neck, face and scalp are still quite swollen. We are told all the swelling should be gone in three weeks and her final head shape will appear within two to three months.

Both the kids are in bed and Brian just opened a bottle of wine. I think we'll settle in and watch our favorite Thursday night shows. Ironically, it's the exact same thing we did on our first night home after William was hospitalized. Getting back into the swing of things always feels so good.

Horray!

Neuro just gave us the OK to go home! They have to get some paperwork together and take the port out of her neck so it might be a while but it's definitely nice to know we'll be on on our own turf by the end of the day.

Thank you again for all your prayers. I just know Lucy would not have recovered as well and as quickly without all of you.

Therapy Dog Visit

Trooper visited Lucy this morning! He's a golden retriever therapy dog. I really wish William would have been here but Lucy thought it was pretty cool too.