Day Four - Heart Failure

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Whew, almost caught up.  Only one day behind now in blogging.  Yay!

The first feeding of the day Mia only ate two ounces and I was worried that it was going to be a tough day. Fortunately things improved and she started eating better later in the day. The bruising is coming out more every day as the bruising from the deeper layers of tissue rise to the top.

Feeling better today, but looking more bruised and battered - bruising under eye on the left and around the nose and lip on the right.

She's noticed a few new things the past two days. One, she's constantly sucking her bottom lip under her top lip and "sucking" it in and out. Of course, she still does not have suction because of her open palate, but she's CONSTANTLY doing it. I'm not sure if it's the feel of the inside lip sutures that has her enthralled or if she's in awe that she can feel her lip going all the way across now.
 

My lower lip-sucking little one.

Number two on the list of new things she's noticed - we are constantly hearing "sniff, sniff, sniff" breathing in and out sounds. She's never been able to breathe out of her nose before because she could never create a mouth seal with her lips and seems to think it's one of the coolest things ever. :) Silly baby girl! Both of those things have been fun new firsts. 


OH!!!  Don't let me forget!  Some time today Mia actually said "ma" for the first time ever!!!  I know it was totally by accident as she was cooing away, but she's not been able to say that before because her lip wasn't connected all the way across.  She's been able to coo vowel-like sounds and sometimes a "w" sound with her little side lips, but never "ma".  I think she'll be saying "mama" soon - Yay!!!  On a sad related note, she won't be able to say "papa" or "dada" until after her palate surgery when she's a year old.  :(  P's and d's are what they call plosive sounds and you have to have a palate to shut of the air from your nose so those sounds can "explode" out of your mouth.  Sadness for papa!  The speech lady gave us a list of words she should be able to say before palate surgery.  If I remember right, she'll be able to do n's, m's and h's along with a few others that I can't remember.  On the list of words, I was thinking maybe she could call Zeus "honey" instead of papa or daddy for now because those are sounds she'll be able to say.  Not sure if we should do that or have her call him "a a" and then add in the p's for "papa" later???  I think it would be kind of cute for her to call him "honey", but that's just me.  ;*)

Tiny scabbed area on each side of her cheek.  :(

After surgery I asked what the little sores/scabs on her cheek were. I finally got it out of someone.  Apparently it's from how they attach the draping to her face during surgery. I asked what they did, did they sew it to her or something and actually stitch it on?!? To which I got the reply, "No, they staple it." WHAT?!?! Yeah, apparently they stapled the draping to my sweet baby's cheeks! Sadness!!!  Made me seriously want to THUMP somebody!  Haven't they every heard of securing things with TAPE???  Hijo su!

My sweet baby girl is SUCH a little trooper!

So, with regards to the "heart failure" title of this post - sorry to keep you waiting.  :)  Well, Mia was attempting to nap in her stroller (propped up on an incline to reduce swelling) which was parked behind where I was sitting on the couch. I kept hearing cooing and grunting and cute little baby noises. After a bit I decided to get her out and snuggle her... you know how us mamas just can't get enough of our babies! :)


Well, I pulled back the blanket that I had draped over the canopy of the stroller and my heart almost stopped! I took in two startling facts simultaneously - one, there on my daughter's stomach lay one of her arm restraints, still velcroed in a little arm shape; and two, that escapee arm was up around her mouth. I gasped and quick pulled her little hand away from her face while simultaneously pulling her out of the stroller to check her little mouth. Luckily there was no new bleeding, but it appears that she knocked out a few of the stitches on the bottom part of her little lip. The skin under neath is still connected and unbroken, thank goodness! Whew... again, deep breath, release slowly...

Yeah, so today was also the day she got out of one of the arm restraints and gave me heart failure, but other than that, we made it through the day with no major blips and with only one dose of children's acetaminophen mid-day. At day one of surgery, I really never thought we'd make it this far. Today she actually belly laughed when Zeus was playing with her and extending her above his head and then bringing her close to his face. It was so incredibly endearing to hear her little laugh again. Of course, we were unable find the video camera in time.


The bouncer has also been a godsend. She's able to safely reach and play, the bouncing part of it soothes her and she's also been able to sleep in it, which she is currently doing. It's nice to be able to switch her between the stroller and bouncer for night time sleeping. They both incline her farther than the car seat and both give her extra arm room as well.

Changed into pj's and ready to go me-me's.  ...Right after I play for a few minutes...

Bye-bye and good night!