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OK though today wasn’t a major surgery, I thought I’d post an update anyway.

We were late to the hospital due to a lot of traffic. But it all worked out. She ended up going in at 10:30 (instead of 9:30)… and we were in the car 50 minutes later. Fast I know, but this was minor compared to a lot of things she had done as it was a steroid injection to the tongue to help with swelling from the previous laser surgery.

After Andy left the Operating room to bring ME in, 15 minutes later the Dr. came to see us. He figured he’d examine her mouth a bit while he had her out since she’s not very cooperative when she is awake.

Here are the basics of the convo:

They are taking it easy on the tongue for a while to see how she grows into it. They don’t want to do too much as you can’t add to the tongue size- only decrease it, so they are treading with precaution in order to make sure it doesn’t become ‘too small’. And yes while it still appears quite thick, any surgery to it makes it smaller in length as well. This does not include laser procedures as they affect the surface only.

His next thoughts on working on the tongue is to make an incision to the floor of the mouth underneath the tongue and fix the current problem of it seeming to be tethered to the bottom of the mouth.

Basically this means she doesn’t have enough freedom or mobility because it’s stuck down a bit too much with all the cysts there.

An x-ray will be planned to make an online model of her jaw line in preparation for her future surgery- where they cut the jaw bones on either side, pull it back and lift it up, since it’s displaced. They need to determine the right timing on this surgery and be sure they don’t do it prematurely or too late- I guess it’s an age/growth thing.

This surgery could be a while away but they still need to make the necessary steps in determining not only when it should be, but precisely how it should be done.

So while talking to him about all this, we then noticed the person who recently joined his team and was standing by his side during the conversation was also one of the Doctors that was there in the room for my c-section/EXIT procedure the day ME was born and also aided in her first ever surgery at 7 days old with her old ENT Doctor (the same day she received her tracheostomy). Pretty cool to run into her as she remembered ME & all.

After talking, we went to see ME, and she was already awake and wanting us. We took her home and she napped in the car. She was absolutely fine today, just a bit tired from being up early, not napping that long and then of course having anesthesia today. So she went to bed quite early. And we’ll be headed there earlier too as it’s been a long day!

First and foremost- here are our surgery dates:

    – This Thursday, September 20th Dr. Waner will do the steroid injection. This had to be done 4-6 weeks after her laser procedure on her tongue, which was about 4 1/2 weeks ago. It is an in and out thing, no recovery etc. 

    – Wednesday, October 10th Dr. Burrows will do the sclerotherapy injection surgery. This was the big surgery that was tricky to schedule. They kindly put us in as soon as she returned from being away (she’s back on the 9th).

We are glad to report that she’s fully over the cold or shall I say "runny trach" that she had. And still has been bouncing around and very happy.

She was thrilled to go to the Open House this weekend of the new class she’s taking! She’s going to love it! She officially starts her class on Tuesday (tomorrow) morning. It’s called "The Little Gym". And they do things like sing songs, do some group activities in a circle, play on the mats, climb, jump and tumble.

So we were out this weekend at that Open House, and also out shopping for a new dresser for her. Since she’s all moved into her new room and her big-girl toddler bed, we need to move all of her clothes over now and she didn’t yet have a dresser in there. The new one is ordered and should be here very soon!  

We have some other great plans for her coming up… Her cousin Evan is coming up the first weekend in October and we’ll do some fall/winter baby clothing shopping, throwing in some picture taking of them in their costumes, and we are going to take them to the farm for some pumpkin picking with the grandmas. And of course celebrate Aunt Michelle’s birthday (an eventful weekend of course!). Some great fun to bring in the harvest season and for her to enjoy before she gets that big surgery.

Though keep in your prayers that she remains healthy and we don’t have any more postponements!!!!  

That’s right, we had to cancel! ME is sick- well she’s barely sick but enough to have to cancel. I’m sure it’s because we’ve been at a lot of events lately, but she caught a little cold. And that’s really all it is. No fever, she’s happy, having fun, eating and everything. It’s just a clear mucous runny nose (or in her case a runny trach).

This was a real disappointment for us since the surgery is a big one, hard to schedule and has a long recovery. It was really perfect timing for us to have it done tomorrow. However, there’s nothing we can do. The dr will be gone for 3 weeks. The office is trying very hard to schedule us right after she gets back, the sooner the better as we don’t want it to get too close to November as that’s close to my due date in very early December.

However, Dr Waner was going to do a steroid injection before they did the sclerotherapy injections tomorrow to help with the swelling of her tongue from the last laser procedure. He needs to have that done from 4-6 weeks after the laser. So we might be going to do that next week. That has no recovery time and we’re in and out of the hospital within an hour or so.

I’ll update everyone with the dates as soon as they are scheduled & official. 

IN OTHER NEWS….

ME is now in her big girl bed. That’s right… out of the crib and into the toddler bed. It was beginning to get me nervous as my little girl so easily went to bed all the time and slept very well… and it was very hard to get her in the toddler bed. But just a few days of persistence and she is doing wonderfully, sleeping well and going to bed well in it. She’s such a good little/big girl! 😉 It is a bit harder with nap time but we’ll get there. YAY for ME!!!!

If we’ve been quiet around here it is because we have been doing so many things! If you haven’t noticed, we put up 3 new albums on the photo page – you must check them out from August, Evan’s Christening and Vacations of ’07.

That alone will show you how busy we were. On top of that we had the wedding of my brother Daniel to Amber on Saturday, September 1st. Weather was beautiful, they looked beautiful, it was a blessed day all around! So be on the lookout at the end of September for those photos 🙂
Now both brothers are married and those real big events are over & done.

Of course there will be more, lots of birthdays, a christening, a baby shower and of course the next real big event is the birth of our 2nd child… but that date is still to be determined. Which reminds me, we’re loving all the guesses on the baby pool and are excited seeing each new guess. So, if you haven’t voted yet please do so and read my last update for more info!

Speaking of the baby brewing inside… I hit the 3rd trimester today! WOW time is flying. A nice Charlie Horse cramp in the leg welcomed me into the third trimester this morning. It’s one of the pregnancy things that some girls get… I had a few with my 1st pregnancy and I guess I am going to have a few maybe in this one. All in all though I feel great and things are going wonderfully!

A not-so-fun event coming up is ME’s surgery on September 13th. It’s another sclerotherapy/injection surgery and we are praying for good results once again and minimal swelling & discomfort. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers as it is approaching.

So basically Mary Elizabeth has been having a blast this summer because she’s been
having lots of fun, playing with lots of kids and doing all sorts of
fun things. We haven’t had much time to sit down and work on some
things we want to do… like POTTY TRAINING, which she did tinkle in
the potty once recently (YAY for ME!!!) so we hit a first there, I think being home
more, maybe right after her next surgery will help in that dept.

That’s about it for now… 🙂

So what do you all think???

Andrew Scott Jr. or Natalie Grace, how much will the baby weigh, how long will the baby be, what date or time will the baby come?

Wanna play and answer?

Go check out my baby pool!
(Click Here or go to the main page)
Reminder: My due date is December 4th
(to help more, check out belly shots below and also the info below):

Myself (Jessica)- born on a Monday at 6:27am, 6 lbs 13 oz, 20 inches
(was LATE)
Andrew– born on a Saturday at 10:21pm, 7 lbs 8.5oz, 21 inches
(was ON TIME)
Mary Elizabeth– born on a Friday at 9:19am, 7 lbs 0oz, 19.25 inches (was 2 weeks EARLY – due to circumstances)

Anyway, had an appointment Tuesday and all went well. With some reprimanding to the belly, the sono tech was able to measure the rest of what she needed to. Everything is on target and the baby looks great…. still active as ever. Andy is feeling him/her at least once a day and I’m feeling him/her all day long! LOL.
Here’s our little cutie who kept rubbing its forehead and punching and kicking around in there during the ultrasound:

Meanwhile, my belly is getting bigger and bigger. Quite a difference from the last pregnancy as the stomach took a while to grow but they say it seems faster with the 2nd…. well I guess I’m proof of that. CLICK HERE for my current belly progression

And if you’re up for comparing- you can check out the last pregnancy’s belly progression by Clicking Here.

As for how I’m feeling, I really can’t complain. Pregnancy was easy on me last time around and is once again. Skipped out on morning sickness, don’t have any major pains or gripes. So I feel blessed about that. I hope it continues that way.
At my appointment – once again, we discussed the option of VBAC, and it will depend on a lot but hopefully things will line up so I get to try to skip out on the c-section this time. Hopefully the baby will be in the right position, not be too huge, everything will be ok with me and things like that. My dr didn’t do the c-section last time, so I now have the task of getting the op-report from the OB that did it. (It was done by a different OB because after 30 or 32 weeks I was sent down to see an OB from another hospital to have ME at a place with a more equipped ICU etc.). She just wants to make sure everything went ok that time, which I believe it had.

So that’s that. Hopefully a lot of you will participate in the baby pool. Should be fun to see who gets closest!