handsful

In case you were wondering, no . . . my wife has not left the country, taken a vow of computer silence, or forgotten how to type.  handsful.com is going through a pretty major renovation (new hosting site, new look, new features / functions), so she has “been on the shelf” for the past few days.  Figured I had better post this before someone alerted the authorities.

The Good News:  We are almost finished with the new site !  Woo Hoo !  Within the next day (or two at the most), handsful will have a fresh new look.

The Bad News:  In the middle of this, our internet router croaked, so D can’t get to, well, anything.  No internet, no email, no chatting.  I gave her the number for a local support group.

No real “theme” for this post, just tid bits on what we’ve been up to. Since Lainey can’t get in the pool, we ran the sprinklers for the kids to enjoy. She wasn’t quite sure what it was, kinda just stood there and let the water spray her face. Abbey and Marley tried to show her the “ropes” of sprinkler fun!

Lainey has a new best friend…a white tiger. She swiped him from Abbey’s huge stuffed animal collection and there’s no sign she’s giving him back anytime soon. Tiger HAS to be there at nap/bedtime, HAS to ride with us in the truck (though, she’s fine to let him nap when we get where we’re going), and she HAS to hold him when I hold her.

A few pics I took while we all hung out in the driveway yesterday…

It can’t be summer without?some time sitting in the grass, doing hand rhymes.

Good defense, Payton!? Yes, that’s a big dumpster in our driveway. We’re having a new roof installed.? It’s been miserably dry here for weeks and weeks, hardly any rain to speak of. So, what did it do today?

Torrential rain, buckets and buckets. It rained for literally hours, with lots and lots of wind (see the roofers broom that blew off the roof and into the pool?). Randy saw them trying to put a tarp down and the wind nearly carried one of the men off…yikes. Funny thing is, when we got the roof job scheduled, Randy said THAT was when the rain would come. The roofers might not have appreciated it, but I know our grass did.

Tomorrow is our last day of regular school, and I promised the kids a trip to TCBY (yum). Thursday, Lainey has her 2-week post-op appt with the surgeon and we’re really hoping that she can take off those no-nos. I guess we’ll fine out then :)

the blue laundry basket!

I got some comments/questions about the picture of Lainey in the blue laundry basket, asking did I REALLY have it long enough to have pics of all my kids in it. So, I went looking through my albums and here ya’ go. Forgive the photos, this was before the age of digital (how did we ever survive?)

Here’s Abbey, my 12 year old, enjoying some playtime in the basket? It took years for her to grow into those cheeks.

And, here is Payton, Marley and Ethan (l to r) all squeezed in together! Payton looks concerned, Marley looks content, and Ethan looks like he’s thinking of something naughty to do.

I’d love to know exactly how many baby clothes have passed through this basket…so far! :)

Who me??

We’re never sure which one we’re gonna get these days! I know I mentioned in an earlier post that Lainey has been a little edgier than normal. Well, it’s still true. I have to imagine that her little self is getting a wee bit tired of all these restrictions on her freedom…the poor girl can’t bend her arms, swim in the pool, or play with spoons (she loves dishes…). But, the hardest thing for her has been the loss of control over her food.

She has to totally depend on us to feed her, which means she can’t choose which thing she’s eating first, how fast she’s eating it, etc. She gets REALLY frustrated with us. If the syringe with milk is heading toward her mouth, but she wanted the sweet potato? You’ll get the “Lainey show” of crying, combined with throwing the head back in frustration! And, to make things even more interesting, she might throw a fuss about NOT wanting something and then when we push it away she lurches towards it like she’s DYING for it?!?! Oh, it’s fun, don’t you all with you were here??

She LOVES sunglasses…

The good news is we’re on Day 8 and she only has a week more of her no-no’s…that is, as long as the surgeon okays it on her 2 week follow-up on 6/12. We’ve been told we can now give her full-fledged baths (we’d been standing her in the tub, washing her from the neck down, and then lying her on the sink counter to wash her hair. Big pain!). She’ll love that she gets bath privileges back! She still can’t swim in our pool until the surgeon approves it on the 12th. We’ve cut back on her pain meds, and she seems just fine. And, her sleep is much better, taking naps and sleeping through the night most of the time. Whew.

One of her fav activities…having the kids push her around the tile floor in the famous blue laundry basket. Why is it famous, you ask? We have pictures of the other kids as babies sitting in it…one, with the triplets in it at one time :)

Lainey completed day 5 of her cleft palate surgery recovery today…9 more days of no-nos. Not that I’m counting. And, honestly, Lainey doesn’t seemed phased by them at all. I anticipated all sorts of crying, whining, and down right fit-throwing with them. When we dress her in the morning and have to take them off, she’s fine to put them right back on, even offering her arms to me.

We need to raise the counters up a little…

Feedings have been pretty easy, too. We either use a disposable cup or syringes with a short bit of rubber tubing at the end. Everything is pureed very smoothly, to a “pouring paint” consistency. Nothing like mac n’ cheese with chicken and veggies that will squirt through a syringe. Yum. She’s loving it. Her favorites have been mashed potatoes and gravy and cream of chicken soup. Tomorrow, we can be a little more adventurous, going to “soft foods”…things like scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, over-done pasta, etc. Things that require very little chewing.

Another first; painted toes! She’s helping me blow them dry. She can now blow air through her mouth! Look out, birthday candles!!

Her sleeping has been slightly disturbed with her recovery…she didn’t nap AT ALL yesterday, just played in her crib for 2 hours. Today was better, thankfully! She’s woken up a couple of times during the night, but has gone back to sleep. We’re still waking her to give her Motrin around 3am and she’s been much happier in the morning. We’ll wean her from it over the next few days. Others have told us that they kept their kids on pain meds for the first week.

So, we’re pretty much getting back into life as normal. The big kids have a little more than a week left of “full school” (all subjects), then they have their testing a week from Friday. After that, we’ll keep plugging along with math and grammar through the summer, just a few days a week. We’re all feeling the pull of summer and those 4 July birthdays around the corner! Three 10 year olds, and one 2 year old! I better stock up on candles…

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