Evie had a tantrum...

and I got the giggles. I feel bad about it, because she was so mad and didn't know what to do. It's not her fault that she's so darn cute!

I was on the couch with the heating pad on my tailbone, and she wanted her shoes on. Again. For the thousandth time in a row. So, I just quietly slipped the shoes behind the couch, which made her mad. Then, I slipped off her socks and tossed them over by the basement door so I could carry them down to wash in a little while. Remember, I am still flat on the couch during all of this.

Oh, she was so mad at me. She was already fussing and yelling about the shoes, but the socks were the last straw. She marched over, in tears, picked them up and stomped back over to me. Then she threw them at me, one at a time, while yelling NO NO NO!!! at me. She was so mad, and so cute all at the same time. I got the giggles, even though I tried really hard not to. Poor baby, it just made her madder. It took a lot of snuggling and patting her back on the couch, but I was finally forgiven.

She is having a difficult time adjusting after the holidays - she is once again the Amazing Baby Who Never Sleeps (Except In The Car When You Don't Want Her To Because You Know It Will Just Make Her Even Crankier When You Wake Her Up At Your Destination) She was up again really late last night, then up really early this morning. She came in to sleep with us in the middle of the night, and did flips and twirls and kicks and pokes, and cried whever the blanket did/didn't touch her exactly right, and whenever she lost Muh. (So, due to lack of sleep, I am becoming the Amazing Crankier Mom!) She also gets really mad because we can't see her sign when it is dark out and/or we have our eyes closed. (Have you ever had your eyes pried open at 4:00 a.m. by an angry toddler?)

Let's hope we can get settled back into our normal routine soon.

Christmas!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! This was Evie's first Christmas, as far as we know. (I need to find a Baby's First Christmas ornament for her.) We also got a new tree this year, and she is fascinated by it. We had to stash the gifts in the basement so she couldn't find them and open them before it was time. We put them under the tree on Christmas Eve, and the girls left out cookies and a Pepsi for Santa, and nibbled on some cookies themselves! You should have seen her eyes when all of these mysterious brightly wrapped presents started appearing under the tree!










Richard's parents took the train up from Texas to be with us for Christmas, and to meet Evie. She loves her Nana and Papa! She can say Nana, and loves to sign Papa. Needless to say, they are in love with her, too. Em is having lots of fun with her Nana and Papa, too.










Evie was so excited to rip the paper off of her gifts, and loved to play with the wrapping, too ~ especially the bows, ribbons, and gift bags. I think we all went overboard because it's so much fun to buy for a little one. The favorites? The Learning Puppy from Daddy, the Momo (Elmo/elbow!) phone from Nana and Papa, and the wagon full of big Legos from Grandma and Papa. We had a mountain of presents under the tree, and tons of boxes to recycle and bags of trash when we were done! Emily also made out like a bandit - she got a guitar from Daddy, with the promise of lessons to follow. She also got clothes and necklaces, and Littlest Pet Shop pets and a video game. I got a beautiful Mother's necklace with both of the girls' birthstones on it. I love it! I think Richard's favorites were the calendars - a wall "de-Motivational" calendar, and a desk calendar with stupid sayings.

Evie also loved the Christmas feast - well, anything to do with food is a hit in her eyes! I made a turkey breast, ham, party potatoes, green bean casserole, a relish tray and yeast rolls. We also had apple pie and strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert. Evie ate so many potatoes that I thought she would burst! She also liked the green bean casserole, and she licked all the butter off of her roll before she ate it! I also slipped a slice of her beloved American cheese onto her plate.

Here are my favorite girls! Emily after her school Christmas program, and Evie just being Evie!

Wednesday update!

I called and moved up Evie's appointment with Dr. Paul to this morning. She is doing great! He is very pleased with how things look. He said she had a very big cleft and it was a difficult repair. I think he was not expecting it to look so good! She let him look in her mouth, and there was just a little fussing, but not bad.

We took the nonos off, and she can use a sippy cup again, suck her thumb, and feed herself without silverware. He said she could have a bottle, but I don't think we'll do that. As I type, she's drinking watered down apple juice from her sippy, and playing all of her musical toys at once!

She has now graduated to soft solids - oatmeal, mashed potatoes, very overcooked noodles, stage 3 baby foods, regular yogurts, etc. None of the beloved cheese, though. I guess it's too sticky? Next week we get to slowly introduce everything else back in. He wants to see her back in a month.

The diaper rash is a side effect of the augmentin, and he said it should go away since she's not taking it anymore.

She is in a much happier mood. I took her to Hyvee and bought a bunch of mushy foods for her, and she waved and smiled and charmed everyone. She even blew kisses to the cashier - we seem to get in her line a lot and they get on really well. She is also signing up a storm - all the face signs she couldn't do for a week!

I am so relieved. I knew she was doing well, but I really had no idea what to look for in her mouth. I am so glad Dr. P thinks it went well!

Saturday update

Evie is still doing well. She has caught on to my half chicken broth/half baby food sweet potatoes trick, and is now boycotting that. She has eaten lots of pudding, yogurt, and "oatmeal juice" (the liquid from a package of instant oatmeal after it's been cooked.) She still won't drink anything out of her own cup, but has had tea, water, and a little juice out of everyone else's cups. She is getting really mad when everyone else eats and she can't have any. She really wants cheese, and keeps signing for it. She keeps asking for milk, too, but gets mad when she can't have it in a bottle. She won't drink it from a cup.

She is not fighting her medicine nearly as much, although she still hates it. She didn't have any tylenol today! She did have her antibiotic and ear drops.

The nonos really stink for a little one who communicates a lot by signing. She is making quite a few signs at arm's length, and also uses me or her stuffed bird to sign a lot of the words made by the face and body. She can't sign "uncle" right now, so she is calling him by the "hamburger" sign that he taught her at Thanksgiving!

The hospital and surgery picture post!

Monday night, and Muh has a bath in preparation for the trip to the hospital:






Tuesday morning, bright and early at the hospital
Evie in her stylin' new hospital gown with the McDonald's gang on it:














Tuesday morning, after surgery and in our hospital room #3408












They low-jacked our baby! This alarm would sound an alarm if anyone tried to take Evie out of the pediatric surgical ward. It went off when they tried to remove it when we were leaving!






These show how beat up her little face looked in the hours after surgery:









Drinking pedialyte with a syringe and tube:






Watching the Doodlebops on Daddy's laptop:






Snuggling with Bird and Muh:






Sitting up so we can have apple juice with a spoon:












Evie got ballons from Grandma and Grandpa Hurst, Uncle Jim and Aunt Terri, and Big Sissy Emily! "Thank you for the balloons! I just don't feel very good right now, and mean mama wants to take pictures!"










A picture from Thursday, showing the nonos (arm splints) and how much the swelling has gone down in Evie's cheeks already:

Friday!

Evie is eating!

She has had oatmeal thinned with milk, lots of chocolate pudding, yobaby yogurt, sweet potatoes & chicken baby food thinned with chicken broth, and tea and apple juice. Yesterday she had 3 or 4 popsicles and juice, but not very much else.

She is feeling better - chasing the dog to boss him around, chasing the cats, playing with Grandma and Papa, running all over and trying to jump on the couch.

It's Thursday now and we are home.

After my last post on Tuesday night, we had the nurse from hell. Evie had been getting tylenol with codeine by suppository, but I guess this nurse didn't want to deal with that, so she tried to give the liquid form to Evie by the syringe. It tastes nasty, and has alcohol in it so it stings, so Evie fought and cried. The nurse ended up holding her roughly by her swollen and tender little face and forcing her to take the medicine. Evie was screaming, I was almost crying, Richard was furious. I get angrier and angrier the more I think about it. We didn't see that nurse again after that, and it's probably a good thing. She might have taken an assisted leap out of our 3rd floor window! Nurse Shelly, you told us you were filling in because they were short-staffed. I really hope that your normal job isn't in pediatrics. Evie now screams whenever she sees the syringe, and is even more scared of anyone wearing scrubs.

There was only one little couch in Evie's room, so on Tuesday night Richard and I had to sleep in shifts. Evie also figured out that she could slip out of the nonos if she didn't have a shirt on underneath, so one of us had to watch her so she didn't. She really is missing her thumb - she would (and does) pop it out into prime thumbsucking position, then gets really frustrated! Needless to say, we were both exhausted by Wednesday morning. I don't think either of us got more than 2 hours of sleep in a row, and 4 or 5 hours total. yawn. I'm still tired!

When Dr. P came by Wednesday morning, he thought he would have to keep us overnight again. Evie was moaning and just wanted to be held. She wouldn't take anything to drink by syringe, and I was so worried. Luckily, I got permission to feed Evie with the side of a spoon. I spent most of Wednesday feeding Evie juice, tea, broth, jello, and mushed up melty popsicles. Of course, once she would see the popsicles, she wouldn't eat anything else! We must have watched our doodlebops dvd a thousand times! (really only 3 or 4, but enough was enough!) By Wednesday night, she was in much better spirits. She danced along to the doodlebops, and even jumped on the bed! We got the nurses in to see her, and they let us get her out of bed to walk in the halls. Of course, to Evie walk means RUN! It is hard to keep up with a toddler while dragging along an IV pole! They had fun wooden toys mounted on the walls, with magnets and mirrors, and balls in tracks, and a steering wheel. Dr. Paul stopped by while we were walking around and decided that she was ok to come home!

Now at home she won't take the syringe or a spoon, so we've been letting her drink out of a Nuby sippy cup with the spout cut off. She also decided that she would drink out of a bottle of water. I'm glad that I remembered how much she liked drinking the bottled water while we were in China, and decided to give it a try here. She can't drink with a baby bottle, straw, or regular sippy cup, or do anything that would hurt the roof of her mouth. (that's what the nonos, or arm splints are for!) I saw it when she yawned while I was rocking her - the roof of her mouth now looks "normal", with just a row of stitches up the middle.

She is feeling better today. She hates to take the medicine, and the eardrops sting, but she is much happier at home. She even did her little happy dance when we got here, and had to run around and hug everyone! She is playing with her balloon that Em got her at the hospital, and the ones that Grandma and Grandpa Hurst and Uncle Jim and Aunt Terri sent. I got video, I hope it will look ok!

finally resting?

knock on wood? For a while this afternoon she was only semi-happy if I was holding her and rocking in the rocking chair. She is sleeping in bed now, after watching part of her doodlebops dvd on Richard's computer.

Evie is sleeping now, and seems fairly comfy. She is still upset about the IV and the nonos. She really wants to suck her thumb, but can't quite reach. Richard did tell me that when I went down to the gift shop she managed to get one of the nonos off! She has had pedialyte in a syringe, and has had wet diapers. Always a good sign!

Emily brought up Evie's Bird when she came, so now Evie is trying to cuddle both Muh and Bird. She is also fascinated by the big yellow happy face balloon that Em, Grandma, and Papa bought her at the gift shop. She traces the smile with her finger.

Evie is fairly confused by all of this, and I'm sure she is wondering why we let this happen to her. Poor baby girl. One of the worst things is the big fat tears that roll down her cheeks while she sleeps. It makes me want to cry along!

wow.

The surgery is over. Everyone told us how great she did, how well everything went, what a good and smart baby she is. I am happy with how well it all went. Dr. Paul was able to close everything, and he is pleased with the results.

Recovery is hard. Very very hard. I watch surgery shows on tv and have observed veterinary surgeries, but I felt queasy and shaky seeing our baby laying there motionless, bleeding from her mouth and nose. Evie is so swollen around her mouth, nose, and cheeks. She was sleeping and so so still. Evie is an active sleeper - she tosses and turns and fidgets. Now she is just sleeping there motionless. Also, she has been throwing up blood. It looks like lots of blood to me, but probably isn't. She is scared when she throws up, but they have finally come in to give her something for the nausea. She has a fever, so is sleeping nakie with just a diaper on. She hates the iv, the blood pressure thing on her toe, and the nonos (arm splints) She is not able to sign very well and is frustrated when she is awake, which isn't often.

Our room is up on the pediatric floor, and it seems like a nice place. There are toys in the hallways and neat wallpaper borders in the room. The nurses are very nice. It's a nice place to visit, but we don't want to stay here!

the palate surgery has started

The nurse liason just let us know that Dr. Paul started on the palate surgery at 9:15. It's about 10:00 now. Apparently she did really well, and didn't fuss or cry at all after we had to leave her.

the ENT just called us in the waiting room

Richard talked to Dr. Dvorak. Poor Evie had a double ear infection, and there was a hole in her left ear drum that had a little drainage. He got the tubes in, and prescribed oral antibiotics and ear drops 3x daily. Poor girl kept rubbing her ears - I knew they bothered her, but didn't think they were that bad. Poor baby.

So now they are probably working on the palate.

I think the time on my computer is a lot different than the timestamp that blogger puts on my posts.

We're at the hospital

Evie is in surgery now.

We got up before 5 and got on the road by shortly after 5. We woke Evie up at the last moment. She kissed Sissy and Grandma and Papa goodbye, then we left for the hospital. She was cranky in the room where we waited to be admitted (we had to take a number. We were #5, so Evie kept giving us 5!)

Then we were shown into a little room with a crib bed where we waited for the nurses and doctors to do their stuff. Evie had a blood draw, was measured and had her heart listened to, we answered 500 questions, etc. Evie had fun - I put her green blankie on the floor, then she and Muh sat on it and wrote with Richard's good pen in Richard's work notebook! Somehow, she got ink all over her - face, ankles, shoulder, earlobe! We met the nurses, and the anesthesiologist and the surgical nurse. We also saw Dr. Paul. We taught Evie the signs for Doctor and Nurse, but she didn't sign them very often.

We got to walk Evie back to the OR. The nurse carried her wrapped in a warm blanket, and was very bright and cheery. Evie liked her. They waved to all of the nurse's friends - secretaries, nurses, doctors, etc. Everyone liked Evie's smile.

Now we are in Waiting Room A. Surgery started between 8:00 and 8:30 am. It is only 8:47 now, but has already felt like an eternity. They told us to expect it to take 2-3 hours, but we should get at least one update.

more later? we'll see. It's nice of the hospital to have wireless internet access for us to use.

twas the night before surgery...

And mama can't sleep. I have the bags all packed, and we're ready to go bright and early. We have to be there at 6:00 am. Muh took a bath in the washer and is pink-ish once again.

Evie had a bath and is in her good jammies, because the nurse said to bring her on in like that!

Tonight was her last bottle ever, and she only drank about an ounce out of it. Guess she didn't want to miss out on the fun that Sissy, Grandma, and Papa were having in the living room. I almost cried, I will miss bottle time. Last night she was almost frantic while drinking it, and she looked into my eyes the entire time.

I'll try to update a couple days after the surgery.

Evie's first snow

She stepped outside, looked around in wonder, and signed "cold!" over and over!

She cried when her daddy took her out to play.

Thanksgiving

We went to my parent's house for Thanksgiving. 10+ hours in the car.

Evie got to meet my parents, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Angie, and cousin Logan for the first time, and some extended family. She loved my cousin Kelly!

Pictures to come later!