Surgery Update!

Right now as I'm typing this, Jase is fast asleep in my arms.

Jase's surgery took most of the day (at least the latter part) ...him being gone from about 12:30 until 8:30.  We got updates all the way through, the word always being that things were going well.  The palette portion took the longest, it took about 75% of the time.

The day really has gone much better than what we have expected.  As normal, Jase woke up this morning super happy and playful (praise #1).  The lack of food really was not an issue until about 10:30, while we still had an hour or so to go in the car (praise #2).  He cried a bit, being somewhat comforted by us holding his hand ... however not seeming to understand why mommy did not get one of her snacks out of her bag.  He has learned that mommy does not leave home without some kind of snack ... just for him.  Food is an easy way to facilitate attachment, so I always carry fruit bars and granola bars in my bag (big purse).

When we got to the hospital he was mostly happy until the pre-surgery room, he kept trying to tell me to get a snack out of my bag.  Eventually we hid the bag.  He was not all happy with having to get undressed and put on a gown.  Yet despite his tears, he let us do.  About 5 min. before it came time to go into surgey he really started getting sleepy, and buried his body into mine (going for a close, sink into your body kind of cuddle).  I carried him into the surgery room and while I held him they slowly sedated him using a mask (not putting it fully on him until he was almost out ... praise #3).  He didn't evev blink, and was such a trooper ... compared to his mamma who at this point could not control the tears and was a bit of a sobbing mess ...

Thank you Jesus and thank you all who prayed ... with Faith, a few of us had to restrain her ... her screaming as well as her arms flaring (we only did this once,  out of all of her 8 surgeries).

At this point with Jase, the thing that we kept hearing was how cute he was ... we agreed with them every time ... =)

By sixish, Jase was in the recovery room (which parents don't go into unless a child is having an emotional crisis).  So at this point we sat down with the surgeon who told us that everything went well, and he was able to do all of the work he intended to.  Aside from getting tubes put in, he is not anticipating Jase having another surgery until right before kindergarten ... YEAH, AWESOME (praise #4)!

The other thing that he told us was how well Jase was doing in the recovery room, which he seemed totally suprised at ... he said Jase was watching cartoons. This was the fifth praise of the day ... and this is honestly what we keep on getting told, how well he is doing.  He drank a little bit of apple juice, and has been sleeping for quite a while in my lap.  When Jase first came in he was pretty out of it, and was very unresponsive.  Slowly he has gripped my hand, and let me snuggle him ...  Jase will need pain medicine throughout the night, every four hours.

Jase will also need to sleep with hand restraints, to make sure he doesn't touch his stitches on his lip, or the stitching that is on his tongue (they will take this one out tomorrow and the other one out in a week).

Although Jase seems to be sleeping good ... I am not ready to put him in his bed yet.  I am also thinking that I will not be doing much sleeping ( I am a VERY light sleeper and am very pregnant so sleeping takes some work generally these days anyways)  ...  so what is the point of putting him in his bed ... I might as well hold our little boy as his little body slowly starts to recover from surgery.  We will see how the night goes for everyone ...

We are sharing a room with another little boy, and I would have to say that this mamma is thankful for the many things our precious Jase does NOT have to endure ... like so many children with serious medical conditions have to.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers, we can FEEL them.  Jase's pain and swelling is supposed to peak over the next 48 hours so please keep them coming.  And then Lord willing, it will be RECOVERY AT HOME!!!

Grandma (Sam's mom) is with the kids, and says everyone is doing well ... which by the sounds of it (from talking with them), they seem to be doing!  Jane is a STELLAR grandma, and really devotes all of her attention to our jewels when she is with them.  When we called they were playing cherades ... how cute is that!

Again, THANK YOU ALL for your prayers!  Today was a protected and blessed day!

Today was also my 37th Birthday ... I can't say that I have ever had a Birthday quite like today, it is a birthday I will never forget ... yet one full of praises and thankfulness, despite the difficult and hard!  And it was a productive day from me... I got "almost" caught up on the kid's baby books ... YEAH, I have been really wanting some long un-interrupted time to do this ... I use the same kind of baby books for each one of our jewels, I just tweak them as I need to.