handsful

Mom holding Lainey and her new friend, Speedy Cheetah at the hospital

Lainey slept all night! I went in to check on her around 11pm, when I was heading to bed, and was astonished to see one of her no-nos off! No idea how long it had been that way, but she was sleeping and we saw no evidence of fingers in the mouth. Lesson learned…wrap those things a little tighter next time. She woke up at 8:30, after getting to bed (late!) around 10pm. She was fussy! We didn’t wake her to give her Motrin during the night, so I think she was both in a little pain and very hungry. After breakfast (pureed banana and cinnamon spice oatmeal) and a dose of Motrin, she was a happy girl again. She played well today, kept her no-nos on, had a big lunch of pureed sweet potato, potato soup – left over from last night – and applesauce) and is now taking a nap. We’re pinching ourselves that this has been so much easier than we expected. And, at the same time, bracing ourselves for the bottom to fall out :) lol…

I’m home!!

She grabbed a plate and cup from “her” cabinet, turned this bucket over, sat down and began scooting herself all over the kitchen. Creative, huh?

This pic is from today, playing with her puppy and cheetah

Abbey had a fun night with her Jr. High group from church…a fun WHOLE night. It was called Insane Insomnia and they basically went from one activity to another ALL night. It started with a banquet at church, then to the Jr. High pastor’s house for games, then to a food eating contest, swimming at a pool, bowling, laser tag, and it all ended with swimming and breakfast at the beach. She had a wonderful time! Can’t you tell??

Looks like Abbey is pretty happy to be home, too!

Randy and Lainey, surgery-day afternoon

We’re (finally) home. Our surgeon has a habit of late discharges, but we were hopeful…nope. We finally left a little after 8pm, and that was only after we told the nurse that we didn’t need to see him and would be fine with her getting the discharge instructions by phone from him. He agreed. We felt fine with this, having spoken at length with the cleft palate clinic coordinator the day before, and she filled us in on all the feeding instructions, etc.

Surgery day…tired mom, miserable Lainey

Let me back up a bit and catch you up :) Last night, Randy stayed at the hospital with Lainey while I drove back home to stay with the girls (they had stayed at the house together all day, while the boys were still at their friend’s house). I have to tell you what my big girls did. I walked in the door and they were grinning from ear to ear. They walked me around the house, showing me all the work they’d done that day. They did dishes, made beds, folded clothes, washed counters, made sweet “we missed you” signs, etc. I hadn’t told them to do any of it! They said that they knew I’d be tired when I got home and wanted to take care of it all for me. I absolutely cried with joy and hugged them like crazy!!

I drove back to the hospital this morning. I was thrilled to hear that she was taking more liquids by mouth, her drooling/discharge was WAY better (no more bleeding!), she slept well last night (which means Randy got a few zzz’s, too), and she was acting more like herself. As soon as I walked in, I got a smile from her…way to melt a mom’s heart!

This morning, playing in her bed

We spent the day playing a little in the playroom, pulling her around the halls in a wagon, filling her up (constantly) with clear liquids, and she took a good, long nap from about 1-4.

Today, ready to cruise the halls!

We’d been told by several moms who have been through this surgery with their children that the change from day 1 to day 2 was significant. We’re amazed! She’s doing so well. God truly designed this child to roll with whatever comes to her in life. Everytime we’ve wondered how she’d handle this situation or that event, we end up watching her glide through with grace and courage. We are so blessed by this child and I think we’ve learned more from her than we’ve taught her so far.

I’ll post pics of her homecoming tomorrow! Until then, here are a few more (totally out of order) pics that we wanted to share…

changing her into her hospital gown, she looks at it like “what are you putting ON me??”

Just a little while after she was wheeled into her room

Getting her whale and dinosaur gown…

Lainey is currently sleeping on her daddy’s chest in the rocking chair, so I thought I’d write a quick post about her surgery. Yes, we brought Randy’s laptop to the hospital :)

We arrived around 7am, and were sent to a succession of 2 waiting rooms/play areas, the 2nd in which she received some “make Lainey loopy” medicine. The nurse said it was awful tasting, but in true Lainey fashion, she downed it and signed “more”. After meeting with her surgeons, her OR nurse walked us to the big double doors and told us to give her big hugs and kisses, she was taking her from here. So, choking back tears, we said goodbye and she was gone, no fuss and no crying (thank you, loopy medicine).

The tubes took literally 10 minutes and the ENT said it went fine, no problems. It was then about 9:30, so we went to eat breakfast. Returning to the waiting room, we were greeted by a good friend of ours from church, Julie and her adopted daughter from China, Cherish. So, what could have been an excrutiating wait time turned into great conversation that kept our minds (mostly) off what was going on behind the big double doors. Thank you, Julie! At around 11:30, the surgeon came in and told us all went well, no complications other than it being “a little tight”…which, our cleft clinic coordinator (who left a minute ago) told us meant that he didn’t have a lot of excess muscle/tissue and so had to pull to get it to close the cleft. She was in recovery about an hour and arrived in her room just a little after we did.

It was emotional seeing her like that, obviously in pain and probably extremely confused (and angry) about what just happened to her. She’s been in and out of sleeping, crying out fairly often but not as much as we expected. She’s on morphine and motrin and they’ll be weaning her off the morphine tonight. There is a lot of drainage and we’re told to expect that for a few days.

Reaching out for her puppy…

It’s my turn to hold Lainey, so we’ll update again when we can. Thanks for the prayers!!

Today is Lainey’s surgery day…we’ll update as soon as we get home on Friday. I can’t help but notice, it was exactly 3 months ago today that we took that LONG trip home from China!

Thanks so much for the prayers, we very much appreciate them!

We crossed off 2 “things to share with Lainey” this long weekend…the beach and the boat. We took the kids to the beach on Saturday. Lainey’s reaction? She stared at the ocean as I held her. I put her down and she held her toes up like “uh, what is this I’m standing in??” She touched the sand, then held her hand out for me to brush it off (see above picture). When we walked her down to the water, though, we could see her thinking ”yep, this is more like it”.

She loved the water, loved it splashing up on her, loved the waves, wanted Randy to take her farther and farther out. In the beginning, she wanted someone holding her hand the whole time, but she got braver as time went by.

All the kids had a great time…Ethan spent most of the time with the boogie board, Payton likes using the shovel digging big holes, Marley stays pretty shallow in the water and hates the sand (like her momma), and Abbey loves swimming deeper, into the waves.

We made the decision to keep Lainey in her bathing suit/swim diaper on the way home. Bad decision. She decided to “use” the swim diaper and we had to pull off the side of the road and change her. One car full of girls yelled “yahoooo!” at us as they passed. Not sure what that was about! Once changed, she spent the ride home licking the salt water off of her feet. lol…

Today, we took our ski boat out…finally, as Randy would say. This is our first time out on it this year…guess we’ve been busy? Lainey enjoyed when we went fast (big shocker there, the girl loves anything fast), didn’t like having to sit still for long, liked waving to the boys when they were kneeboarding, and wondered why everyone else was swimming and she wasn’t. Someone forgot to bring the packed diaper bag, complete with swim diaper. So, no swimming for Lainey Q. Here are a few pics…

She wasn’t thrilled with the life jacket, but she does look pretty cute in it :)

She hardly ever takes a bad picture…

The guys…you can see Ethan’s healing face. Last week, he dove too close to the underwater step in our pool and scraped his face in 4 places. I’ll try and remember to post a close-up of it. Yes, we realize how fortunate he was.

She likes riding in the boat, but doesn’t much like kneeboarding or tubing like the other kids. Did I mention that she’s like her momma?

We found out on Monday that Lainey now has a surgery date…May 29th. Yep, NEXT Thursday. Sooner than we anticipated, but we’re glad that she’s getting it done now. She’ll be all ready for birthday cake in July :)

They plan on trying to close her whole palate in one surgery, and the ENT will place tubes in her ears. She’ll be on various levels of a liquid diet for 3 weeks and have to wear arm restraints (www.snugglewraps.com) for 2 weeks. They don’t want ANYTHING to go in her mouth during those 3 weeks…fingers, sippy cups, forks, spoons, etc. The restraints will keep her arms fairly straightened out, keeping those fingers at bay. We will be feeding her with a syringe and tube set-up and/or a regular cup. She’s enjoying her cup lessons, as you can see above.

Her recovery period could be rough, but we’re trusting God. Lainey is one very resilient little girl, she has handled more in her young life than most and has come through it shining. God will be with us, as we help her, and she’ll be talking our ears off in no time :)

Today . . .

. . . Gotcha Day

3 months since Gotcha…since we heard “here is the one from Bengbu” and we turned to see her coming through the door. Hard to believe the difference 3 months can make. Gotcha day was an amazing day, but the time since has just been extraordinary.

Enjoying her first playtime in the rain today…she marveled at the raindrops hitting her face and arms. We missed a lot of her “firsts”, but the ones we are having with her are extra sweet.

A few notes on Lainey…

she’s no longer scared of Jack, but doesn’t exactly love him. She’d just as soon block him on the head with her shoe as pet him. It’s an interesting relationship.

loves: shoes, pencils, the recycle bin, my purse, running, and food on other people’s plates.

hates: getting licked in the face by Jack, wearing her shoes in the truck, keeping her hair clips in, long rides in the truck, not being picked up when she wants, and just plain hates being still.

she loves helping around the house…she hands me the laundry from the dryer for me to fold; unloads the silverware and throws it in the drawer; holds onto the broom vac while I push; and LOVES throwing her diaper (or anything, really) into the trashcan.

she loves anything that can function as a stool, especially her cube toy (she doesn’t play with this, it’s ONLY her stool). Anything that can make her a little bit taller (and, therefore have access to MORE items on the table) is good with her. Not so good with mama.

she sleeps…I hate to even say this…perfectly. She goes down for her nap and bedtime without fuss, usually waving at us as we leave or just snuggling with her pillow/blanket. She also wakes without fuss…no cry, no demand to get out of her crib. She simply waits until it’s time for us to come and get her, and she smiles as we walk in the door. Effortless. Now, I fully expect this to change as we go through her surgery recovery. For now, I’ll enjoy it.

her favorite activity to do by herself is playing with the plastic cups/plates/bowls in her “allowed” cabinet. She lines them up on the window sill, pretends to eat and drink from them, and loads them into her grocery cart. She also has her own kitchen now (thanks, Angie!) and loves to play there.

she’s making lots of progress in communication! She still uses her signs regularly, but is beginning to copy sounds and mouth movements a lot. Her favorite right now is a growl, when she sees a stuffed animal. So cute! It’s so good to see her opening up with this, and being so willing to try. Receptively, she understands more and more everyday. She knows what so many words mean…for example, she hears “diaper” and she pats her bottom and runs to where we change her. She knows her hair, nose, eyes, ears, bellybutton and understands up and down. It’s such fun to watch her learn!!