With such grace

I think it's safe to sum up Sunshine's surgery with the word "grace." Everything went so incredibly well and Sunshine dealt with everything that came her way unbelievably well. She was calm, happy, relaxed and at complete peace the whole time we waited to take her to the OR. We even got some happy drugs right before surgery, so taking her to the OR, getting hooked up to all the machines, and getting put to sleep was calm and relaxed also - no trauma whatsoever for me or her.

The surgery took a little over 2 hours and went just as it was supposed to - everything was fantastic! It included her complete lip repair as well as nose work. Lots and lots of sutures ... my poor baby girl. Coming out of anesthesia in recovery was a little ... ok A LOT rough ... more difficult than last time. She was so very irate and angry and I was having a difficult time judging whether she was just mad or if she was in pain. So the nurse gave her all the pain meds she could and she still didn't calm down.

Through the fits of crying, kicking, hitting, arching though, Sunshine was able to drink about 5 oz. of juice from her bottle. That's my girl! Because of that, the doctors agreed to let us go home instead of staying overnight. And once Sunshine was unhooked from all of the machines (seriously - wires EVERYWHERE), she calmed down completely and let me rock her and sing to her. I knew then that she wasn't in pain, thank God. I'm not sure why, but she is so over-sensitive to any form of restraint - the wires, blood pressure cuff, no-nos, etc. were all just too much for her. Once they were off of her, she was completely at peace.

Shortly after that, we got her dressed, packed up and went home! She is clearly still in discomfort but is handling it with such grace. I am in awe ... I just have so much respect for this little person that God has given me the privilege of raising. And I sure have learned a thing or 2 from her over the past two days. She is such a strong, courageous, brave soul ... I think more so than I will ever be. Amazing. Truly amazing.

Precious baby girl is definitely swollen but looks so, so, so beautiful. The surgeon is truly an artist! She is really, really, really not a fan of those nose stents - hopefully you can get a good idea of what they look like with the last picture. She is completely stuffed up, uncomfortable, can't breathe through her nose and there's nothing I can do to help her - the stents are just too small for even an aspirator to help. Oh I feel terrible for her!

On the other hand, she seems to be doing ok with the no-no's. Unfortunately though, when she's awake, she's super-active and is scootching, pulling up, and rolling around everywhere. I am so afraid she is going to hurt herself because of her lack of mobility, so I have become her shadow. Good thing she likes me so much :-) And this too, shall pass ... and this too, shall pass ... and this too, shall pass. LOL.

So we go back on Tuesday morning to have the blue plastic surgery sutures removed under general anesthesia (I guess they don't look that blue in the pictures, but I promise they are). The nose stents, sadly, stay in for 3 weeks. Sunshine is going to need a LOT of patience. Please keep her in your prayers - comfort, peace and patience.