December 11

You had a hard recovery from the osotmy reversal. I was expecting you to sleep most of the first 48 hours or so, and for the pain meds to take away any other pain you were having. But you didn’t sleep almost the entire first 24 hours after your surgery. Until your bowel sounds started up again you couldn’t be fed and you were miserably hungry. Before when you were on no feeds they at least had you on TPN which made you feel full. This time you were completely aware that you were starving and as a result you only slept 15 minutes here and there. You were just exhausted on top of being uncomfortable.

You also had an allergic reaction to one of your meds. It was an antibiotic, epidural, or the combination of both. Over the course of two days you took turns breaking out in a rash, whelps, and rough patches on your face along with bright red hands. It was a scary time for us, since you haven’t had any sort of reaction like that before. We never did figure out what was the cause, but we need to know by your next surgery so it doesn’t happen again.

Your catheter, epidural, IV's, monitors and two incisions made it hard to hold you. And Daddy was sick too, so he couldn't hold you anyway! He had a sore throat and headache and lots of sniffling and sneezing. It was a rough few days!

Now we are home and everyone is doing much better. You are still getting (and needing) your pain meds every four hours, ut as long as you are being held you don’t complain. The worst thing for you so far has been diaper changes. You scream and wail whenever we change you, which is often. The surgery and stitches by themselves would give you a reason to hurt during a diaper change. But on top of that, since your bottom isn’t used to being dirty, your skin hasn’t toughened up and is fresh like a newborn’s. We are slathering cream on you; still, your skin is super sensitive as it is and it is hard to keep it from getting diaper rash. I thought a nice warm bath would make you feel better tonight. Boy was I wrong. Usually you love to lounge in the tub like Mama, but not this evening.

As for your abdominal incision, it looks great. It is about three inches long, horizontally. We change the dressing a couple times a day because it is still weeping a little. You don’t care to sit up and put too much pressure on it yet, but I can tell it is healing quickly.

Yesterday was your first snow! Mema was over and I went out to move the car and saw little flurries coming down! I ran inside, grabbed the camera, bundled you up, and we went to the front yard. You just had to experience the snow, if only for a minute. You are so warm natured, I think you enjoyed the brisk weather! Later it got cold enough for the snow to stick a little, but then you were in bed. So even though you can’t see the snow in this picture, you and I know it was there.

We took a picture of snow in your hair for more proof.