Right on Track

It has been a while since I have given an update, but two little girls sure do keep me busy.  Evelyn is 9 weeks post-op and doing GREAT!!!  Her swelling has gone down even more and we are a few weeks away from all swelling/changes being complete.  Her hair is growing back, but blonde and not her dark brown as it was  before the surgery.  We continue to be amazed with her beautiful new face :)  She is very very laid back, no interest in crawling or rolling too much these days.  She is content to be in mommy's arms or sitting with a pile of toys.  It has been nice having a "lazy" baby as opposed to Ella who was walking around furniture, speed crawling and taking first steps soon.

Ella continues to surprise us with the things she says and does.  Her sentences and words are really taking off and now we really have to be a bit more careful these days with what we say :)..She is doing great with the potty training still and has no accidents even when we are out and about.  Here are a few pictures of the girls, hope everyone

Doing Great!

Evelyn met her two wonderful surgeons again this week and they were thrilled with the progress.  Her incision is a bit wider than hoped and there is less hair in front of it as well so now the only thing is her scar may be visible always or for longer than hoped.  She has slown down a bit developmentally, but as to be expected.  Here are a few pics of Evie and some of Ella playing in the rain last week.

My girls

The incision looks great although this photo is a bit too blurry to get a good look.

We still are amazed at how DIFFERENT she looks.  Unless she smiles, it is hard to see "old" Evie.  She is as happy as ever and we just can't stop kissing her new forehead.

Ella loves her sister sooo much.  Evelyn isn't sure what to make of this  "Gig Gug" as Ella calls it (Big Hug)

Our little helper...she got so wet, she almost didn't need her bath

Back to normal...mostly

Evelyn continues to improve and her lovely head is deflating each day...and we can sometimes see the complete outcome.  She is soooo amazing, sweet, laid back, happy and beautiful.  Her hair is coming in blonde so I guess Dave and I are going to have a blue eyed blondie after all.  I will post new photos soon.  I hope to keep the blog updated often.

Ella continues to potty train without a problem.  No real accidents and in panties all the time.  She is the best medicine for Evelyn and we are amazed watching them interact.  All is well here and we hope to see everyone soon.

More pics

Here are some of Ella and her biggest accomplishment...loves chapstick as a reward...works for me.  

10 days post-op

We have had a nice time being home.  Evelyn is almost back to herself.  We are trying to wean her off the pain meds and just use tylenol which is going ok.  She is still not eating or sleeping completely normal, but that is to be expected.  She is such a sweetie and I am enjoying every day with her watching her "return".  She loves being close to me so all my babywearing things are getting a work out and instead of moving her to the crib now..she is back in bed with me.  I just feel so protective of her now and I am going to wait to move her.  Ella continues to do great with the potty...day 4 and no accidents.  My girls continue to amaze me!  Here is a photo of Evelyn from today.

A bit about Ella

Ella has decided to make my life a bit easier.  We have been doing a little bit with the potty for a few months now, but three days ago she refused diapers and used the potty all day.  She stayed dry when we went out and has been doing great now day 3.  She got to pick out big girl panties (Dora) and is doing great.  I am so proud of her and less diapers to wash...yeah!!!  We are going to continue to stay in the next few days and do the naked baby thing and hopefully she will continue, but I have committed to this and no more diapers for her.

We are doing great at home.  Ella is amazing with her sister and loves her so much.  Ella is also the best medicine for Evie.  It is still hard to see Evie when I look at her, but she is in there and each day the swelling goes down more and more.

Recent photos of new Evie

We had a pretty good night home.  She started to vomit again, but did keep formula down over night.  We joke that she will now refuse her formula after drinking 38 oz of Aunt Mel's good stuff.  She had a lot more coughing and we went to the doctor today and discovered she has bronchitis.  She started on an antibiotic for five days so hopefully it resolves itself and we don't have to worry about RSV or anything more serious.  I have posted some pictures of her first bath from the hospital before we left and some pictures from home.  It is still hard for me to see Evelyn with her head still being so huge and the baldness is really throwing us.  We think Evelyn got her hair before any organs were developed so it is weird to see her so bald.  She is smiling at Ella all the time and loving being home.  Ella is sooo great with "sister" and is so concerned over her boo boo.  We were worried she wouldn't recognize her, but she immediately kissed her belly and did all her tricks to make Evie smile and they worked.  It is great to have us all together again.  I am sure I will continue to post more photos everyday.  Love to all

It's official...we are out of here!

Evelyn is doing so great that they are letting us go home. We just need to get her prescription filled and we are ready to leave. We couldn't be happier with how she looks and how well she is recovering. The doctors even said that she is doing better and looking better then many other babies do when they leave. Our little Evie is so strong! We will continue to keep you updated as she recovers from home.

We are going home!

Evelyn has made such a recovery in the past 24 hours that they are releasing us today....I can't tell you how excited I am to get her home, see Ella and sleep in a bed.  I feel sad for the moms and dads who have been here so long and will continue to be here.  We are truly grateful.  She is back to her normal eating schedule, laughing when I tickle her and seems to be great on her oral meds.  We are waiting for discharge orders and all the other things that will most likely take all day.  She is a bit anemic from the blood loss, but they are not too worried about that.  She is also coughing now and we will have to wait and see if it is a cold or from the intubation and dry air.  She is sleeping now and I get to give this stinky stinky baby a bath when she wakes up.  The George Clooney doc (Dave just loves when he comes by) wants me to wash her incision really well with soap and water.  I have to find even more strength to do that.  I am attaching a few pics of the nice view from our room.  I couldn't sleep much last night after holding her for hours and then just anxiously awaiting to talk to the docs....so I realized our nice view and attempted to get a pic or two.  AGAIN...thank you all for your support, thoughts, prayers, visits, lunches and dinners...we love you all and I know it would have been so hard without everyone behind us through this difficult week.

More good news

I love today!!!  Evelyn is really interested in anything she can get her one hand on.  She sits up assisted of course and I will probably be wearing her for the next year non-stop...:)  She has taken a total of 6 ozs of yummy milk and has kept it down...thanks Aunt Mel. Don't worry,  I am sure I will remind her one day it was her fault my boobs don't work..I really am just kidding.

She opened her eyes

Minutes with her eyes open and she is going for the wires

What a great 24 hours.  She opened her eyes up at 11:00 today..took a nap and then woke up around 2:30 and grabbed for the wires, talking and played with her toy within minutes.  She pulls the pulse ox off immediately so now we are hoping a sock stops her.  She still isn't eating, but we will see how the rest of the day goes...Enjoy the pictures of her beautiful face and a peak of some pretty blue eyes.

A New Day

Evelyn had a pretty good night and is actually still sleeping!  Her swelling has decreased so much and we are starting to see Evelyn in there again...we are hoping her eyes open today.  She still doesn't want to eat so they actually decreased her fluids by half hoping she gets thirsty and wants to eat.  Dave took a picture of her yesterday next to the computer and he wanted me to post it and the other pics are from a few minutes ago...Thank you all so much for the thoughts and prayers.  We truly are blessed to have such amazing support.

Evelyn Update

We had an ok night, she was definitely crankier and not sleeping as much.  We are finding the balance between the right amount of pain meds and her being too out of it.  Her bandage was removed today and they saw she was leaking a lot around the drain.  It continued and they told us it was spinal fluid.  They gave her extra meds, removed the drain and then stitched the opening where the drain was.  They say the fluid should now reabsorb and since they caught it on time, we probably won't have to worry much about infection, but they will check her.  She is looking less swollen today.  She still doesn't want to eat her formula, but handles pedialyte ok.  My wonderful sister has pumped for her and just brought us 20 ounces of expressed breast milk.  The docs say she may tolerate that better...so now we have our very own wet nurse.  She took a 1/4 ounce so far and has kept it down.  Love to all!