Andy finally decided to take the bottle! He took 22 oz yesterday and 8oz this morning! I guess we just had to wait until he was ready. Nana's leaving today....so sad! We really loved having her here and will miss her bunches!
Karen

Here's Andy's new mouth.... Pretty Cool, huh? You can scroll down to a few posts ago to see the before!

Karen

This is Nana writing to tell the real story from Phoenix! Andy is recuperating well, we think he has some serious itching going on, because even with the splints on, he is trying to get his mouth on anything, and we had the worst night last night since surgery (up 3 times), but still not anything like the 3 month surgery. Andy is a happy little guy, until he sees his beloved "Mommy". When Mommy comes into view, everyone and everything falls into the background and he moves like a flower to sunshine! So, Karen is in the spotlight most of the time. Karen said yesterday, that Andy was doing better one day after surgery this time than he did 2 weeks after surgery with the lip and nose repair. Praise God! Katie is also giving us lots of fun and joy, as only a 2 year old can. Yesterday she wanted to go outside, and shortly came back in, saying,
"Brrr, cold like a snowman". It was about 65 degrees out there. Nana got a good laugh from that with the kind of winter I just came from. Katie helped me bake cookies yesterday, we are still cleaning up from that. She is an expert "raspberry" giver, and is loving to put on makeup. I have to be sure to put mine away, after we use it. Karen is feeling better after a bout of laryngitis and a cold. She needs to be healthy, there is a lot of energy used caring for 2 little ones. She and Jeff make a great team with the two of them. I don't know how she does it when Jeff travels!! Good chatting with all of you. Nana(aka) Diane

Andy was a little needier today, not convinced how much of it was just that he is getting used to all this attention, and how much of it was pain. Still refuses to drink much but eats babyfood and yogurt fine. We got our first good look in his mouth today, and it looks amazing. I tried to get pictures but he wouldn' t cooperate. Imagine that!
Andy had his first outing today, we took a short trip to the grocery store, and I think he needed it.
We are still doing pain meds every 4 hours, but we were able to sneak in one dose of ibuprofen instead of the perscription.
Very thankful Nana is here...having another adult has been a lifesaver.
Karen

Andy and Daddy before Surgery

Andy's mouth before surgery!

Andy yesterday getting into trouble...

Andy ate like a champ all day yesterday. Primarily ice cream and yogurt, but who can blame him? He will drink out of an open cup but throws a fit anytime he gets the bottle near him. Yesterday afternoon he started act like he was in pain, so we started giving him half doses of the perscription painkiller which worked well. Last night I gave him full doses and he only woke at 1am and 6am and slept till 7:30. I don't think I could ask for more than that!

This morning i gave him a half dose of the perscription med and he acted like same old Andy. Happy, crawling, and getting into everything he is not supposed to. (dog food and water, the toilet, his sister's toys...)

We feel so blessed that his recovery has been fairly easy on all of us. We were expecting such terrible times and just can't believe how happy he is when his pain is managed.

It's like night and day from his lip surgery! He's still fussy and all, but he is playing and eating and napping and generally pretty happy!
His surgery lasted 2 hours, and from recovery we got a room. Andy wanted nothing to do with eating. He got a dose of morphine and slept a few hours. He was better after that, and we only gave 1/2 a dose of morphine later that day.
I have been a little sick, so I had Jeff stay the night with Andy. Daddy did a great job. He got Andy to eat and sleep in his own bed. It was a good decision, as I wouldn't have been able to sleep. Mommy worries too much, go figure.
I went back to the hospital at 6am. The nurse was feeding Andy babyfood while Daddy was holding him. That was the best sight ever!
He still won't eat from the bottle, we can just squirt it in his mouth though. But he's crawling and playing and only on regular tylenol. So we couldn't ask for more!
I'll post some pictures when I get more time!
Karen

WE'RE HOME!!!!
We survived, and Andy is playing with his toys right now. I will post the whole story later but right now, all is good!
Karen

We went for our pre-op appointment today, all is well. Andy has s0me minor congestion and he stopped wanting to eat from the bottle when he wasn't on tylenol so we also took him to the pediatrician's today. He does have a minor ear infection but we got drops for his ear (easier to treat because he got tubes) and it will not interfere with surgery. The ped said his lungs and breathing sounded clear. Thank goodness.
The plastic surgeon said she might do a little revision on the lip also depending how it feels when she can really get in and look at it/feel it. No suprise, my 9 month old does not sit still like a little angel while you poke and prod in his mouth. So she said she would make the determination when she got him in the operating room. She said it looked like a corner of the muscle is not attached and that's why it's puckering. I guess we'll leave that decision to the professional!
The plastic surgeon is really pregant! She looks so huge! We are just praying that baby stays in in in!
Mom comes thursday afternoon and friday at 7:30 am is the surgery...We will update when we can!
That's all for now...and that's enough!
Karen

Andy's feeling better..just a runny nose and a cough left. Hopefully it will be gone by friday! We have to go in tomorrow to the plastic surgeon for pre-op pictures. Im really starting to get nervous about this whole thing....
Thanks for checking in!
Karen

Andy is sick. Trying not to freak out and just hope he is better enough by friday morning to do the surgery. Last night he had 104 temp, but tonight it's only 101 degrees.
To top it all off, I asked the plastic surgeon's office how our plastic surgeon was doing with her pregnancy, and they said they were just happy she made it 32 weeks. Apparently she has been contracting since about 20 weeks....hope that baby doesn't decide to come out this week!
I guess if it's not meant to happen yet, it just won't. But it's hard to not worry!
Karen

So I have been slacking in the picture department....here's pictures for all you Andy and Katie junkies!

He just loves his puppy!

Are they hams or what?
She has plants in her blood!

Her favorite car....we washed our cars today together! I dont know if hers or mine was dirtier!

Thankfully everything is quiet around here, not much to report. Kids are being good and staying healthy, knock on wood...

Our good news of the week:
Andy's surgery was approved at the in network level. Thank goodness. One less thing to worry about. Finally the insurance company got their heads out of their rears....
Andy's surgery is scheduled on the 16th. That's 2 weeks from tomorrow. Yikes!
I don't have any new pictures on this computer, I will post some later.
Karen