Day Two - Released to Go Home

Friday, November 12, 2010

Since Mia did great (all things considered) through the previous afternoon and throughout the evening, we were cleared to go home Friday morning, though we didn't end up hitting the road until about 1 in the afternoon.  Tyler, the darling little boy we met our first day there when we were admitted also got to go home.  He'd had a unilateral cleft that was repaired in China prior to his adoption.  An American team had done the repair and it looked absolutely wonderful!  Tyler (18 months) had his palate repaired with the same doctor right after they finished Mia's lip repair surgery.  Being older than Mia, he had a really hard time understanding why he hurt and was such an unhappy little guy.  Unfortunately for his sweet mom and grandmother, along with the nursing staff, Tyler's way of  trying to make sense of everything was to get angry.  Poor little guy ripped out his IV, got out of the arm restraints, refused to eat or drink anything and did not want any of the nurses around him.  Luckily for Mia and Tyler, strolls in the hall seemed to comfort and calm them both down.  Tyler's mom and I spent a lot of time walking the halls together with our sad little ones during the previous evening and night.  Thankfully we all made it through!

Morning of day two, still some swelling - especially in her cheeks - and underneath her eyes are starting to blacken.

Mia cooing with her papa the morning after surgery - our happy little one just couldn't help herself!

IV line got taken out. I thought she would have a hard time with it, but it didn't phase her at all.

Chilling in her bed/stroller. :) Oh, and why I call her "Toots".

Tia Bertha, mama, papa and Mia - ready to head home - yay!

Packed up and ready to head home - and out like a light for the whole three hour trip!

The cool Shriner's symbol on the side of the hospital.

Thank you Shriner's and Shriner's Hospital for Children of Houston for taking such great care of us!

The next time you see a Shriner, would you mind thanking them for us and for all of the children and families they help?  I'll never see the little tasseled cap gentlemen the same way again and have a new found respect for them an the organization they belong to!

The Rose Story


Zeus's mom Lina loved roses, so for her birthday this past May I bought a rose bush for our house in her memory and we named it RosaLina. We still have not transplanted it and it's almost died many times and hasn't bloomed at all since we got it. Well, when we got home, Zeus saw that our rose bush had sprouted a beautiful red rose. We decided it was a beautiful little sign from Zeus's mom that she was watching over Mia during surgery and that everything was going to be okay.

gorgeous red rose on RosaLina

RosaLina, papa and Mia

It was SO good to be back in our own little home!

Mia chilled and napped in her swing...

...and read some stories with papa.

Mia must have recognized that we were back in our own little house because her appetite kicked back in (for the most part) and she's slept 10 hours straight again since we've been home. We continued the pain meds through until bedtime. They had prescribed liquid Lortab for her, which is what she was on in the hospital. We were going to give it to her through the night if she woke up a lot and needed it, but she didn't wake up so we didn't end up giving her any more.  Does this mean we are almost out of the woods on our way to recovery?  We sure hope so!

Baby Mia the Acrobat

We went into the specialist on Tuesday, February 22nd to find out more about how Mia was doing. The doctor last week was worried because they couldn't see the line across the upper lip on Mia and were worried she might have a cleft lip and or cleft lip and palate. Here are the pictures we got from the specialist. It was so fun to see Mia again and to see how quickly she is growing and changing!

At first the doctor couldn't get a look at her little face because she was turned around and had her hands up in front of her face. That seems to be one of her favorite positions. :) It was snowing that day (yes, I am STILL in Texas) and so they were short staffed. Since Mia wasn't cooperating, the doctor left to finish with another patient while we waited to see if Mia would turn or not. Zeus and I were shaking my stomach trying to get her to move around. :) I also turned to the different sides for a little bit at a time and we took turns rubbing my belly. That must have done it because when the doctor got back in Mia had changed positions. We felt a little bad when we saw her new position because it didn't look at ALL comfortable as you can see below, poor thing!

For those of you who have a hard time seeing anything besides static in an ultrasound, this picture above has Mia's head on the right, her bum on the left, and her feet stretched up over her head! We have decided she must be some kind of acrobat and that she has her momma's flexibility. :) Because of the angle to get her profile, you can't see her little arms in this pic, but they are ALSO stretched up over her head, almost like she's playing with her toes. We now refer to her as Mia the Acrobat.

Here's her little face looking directly forward, head on the right and torso on the left.

Here's Mia's little profile picture. In this picture you can see that her little upper lip isn't defined under the bump of her nose. We found out that our sweet baby girl does indeed have a cleft lip and palate. The term for her kind of clefting is called a bi-lateral cleft lip and palate. This means that she has two clefts, one from each nostril. I think we were a little in shock at first at the news. We knew it was a possibility, but to see the evidence and to hear it specifically diagnosed was hard to hear because we wanted everything to be perfect for our little Mia. It breaks our hearts to think that our sweet little baby girl will have to undergo surgeries and be in any kind of pain, but are grateful that so much is known about these issues and that they know what surgeries to do, when to do them, etc.

The specialist also said that with these babies that have the clefting, there can be other things going on with them to - a lot of what they call mid-line issues with other things along the midline also having problems. They checked her little hands and legs, fingers and toes, heart and brain, head, etc. There can also be something else called Trisomy something that can cause lots and lots of problems too. Everthing looked good so far with Mia and we are SO thankful for that!!! We will still go into the fetal specialist once a month too for full scans to continue to monitor Mia and her growth. It will be fun to get to be able to see her so much, because you usually don't get that many ultrasounds. They will also be doing 3 and 4D ultrasounds so we'll have a pretty good idea of what her sweet little face will look like before she's born, and to find out more about the clefting. There will also be a team of specialists to evaluate her shortly after birth who will be able to do a full evaluation. I asked about feeding issues, and the doctor said that quite often these kiddos are still able to nurse, I guess because of the flexibility of the human breast they are able to get the nipple far enough back in their little mouths so that the milk doesn't go up into their sinuses. She also said that it's about the best thing for them too. We're hoping and praying that Mia will be able too. It will be so good for her, and also make it one less thing we have to be juggling. Cross your fingers for us!

Zeus and I have been reading up on things and looking up pictures online and though it was hard to see in some ways, it was so reassuring to see what great things they can do to fix the clefting. The specialist who let us know that it was indeed a cleft lip and palate was so extremely comforting and sweet. As she was talking to us about things and reassuring us, she would keep putting her hand on my arm and rubbing it or stroking it as she told us everything was going to be okay - that she would still be perfect and beautiful and that it was really such a small thing and it can be so easily fixed. She showed us some pictures of what babies can look like that are born with clefts like Mia's to help prepare us for what our sweet baby girl face may look like when she's born. Such a sweet compassionate lady and I feel grateful to have such great and caring doctors! She said that we would be in her thoughts. I really like her.

We're not sharing this so that any one will feel bad for us or our sweet Mia, but to include those we love on this new journey in our life. Zeus and I are SO excited to be welcoming baby Mia into our family!!! We can hardly wait to meet her and to kiss her little face and snuggle her in our arms! We love her so much already and know that our love for her will only get stronger and stronger! We are so greatful that she is being sent to a family where this news doesn't change in the least the excitement level with which we welcome her to our family, in how much we will love or cherish her or in how she will be treated or cared for.

We love you little Mia Angelina Moreno and can hardly wait for the end of June when we will finally be able to hold you in our arms and snuggle you to pieces!!! :)