We are 18 days post surgery and Grace is doing SOOOO much better.
She is smiling a little more readily, although still not as much as she was pre-surgery.
She is eating (she is only allowed soft foods) but she is very picky about what she will eat. Her diet has mostly been... yogurt, banana baby food, applesauce, and cream of wheat. That's. about. it. Everything else she downright refuses. EVEN ice cream! She still will not drink from her bottle. Or drink from a sippy cup. Or drink from a regular cup. So, we are still syringe feeding her liquids.
I'm thinking she just might be a little stubborn. :)
We had a follow-up visit with her surgeon yesterday. Thankfully, he palate is looking really good. There are still quite a number of stitches that have not dissolved, he said that could take another couple of weeks. There is a small hole where the hard and soft palate meet, but he expects that will close on it's own.
Most likely she still has quite a bit of tenderness in her mouth. If you could have seen what the inside of her mouth looked like. Oh my. I can't imagine how much it hurt.
The surgeon did make one small revision to the outside of her lip.
I'll see if you can see it...
Before...
After...
If you can see past the drool (oh the drool! it doesn't stop!)....
The cute notch. It's gone. When the surgeon told us after surgery that he was able to repair the notch on her upper lip. Both Steve and I were a bit sad... We're going to miss that cute notch!
But, I also understand that she will be grateful NOT to have the notch when she is 15.
So onward we go... Four more weeks of soft foods. Praying the palate continues to heal well.
There were moments early on that I worried that our bonding would suffer because of the surgery. Is she going to look at me and think about the pain she went through? Thankfully, quite the opposite has been true.
One of Grace's most favorite things to do....
find her blanket laying on the floor somewhere and then walk over to me and raise her arms to be picked up. I pick her up and she pulls her legs up underneath her and lays her head on my shoulder.
Nothing better I'll tell you. Nothing.
ahhhh syringe feeding.. been there girlfriend-- noah would only take liquids via a spoon (do you have any idea how long it takes to spoon feed a cup of milk???!) from the time we got him (June) until October maybe?? oy.
ReplyDeletebut i so hear you on missing her notch (and i can see the difference!!). i LOVE noah's slightly off kilter nose-- it's cute, it's endearing.. it's noah.. and in a few years they'll fix it:( but just like you said-- not sure how endearing he'd think that is when he's 15!!!
she looks beautiful!!! God Bless and oh how i hope to be on this journey one day~
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your surgical journey! It is nice to know what to expect when Emily has hers. Glad to know that Grace is doing better!!
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