We are free!

We saw the surgeon today. She looked in Sadie's mouth, said everything looked great, and then proceeded to take off her arm restraints. I wish someone had been there to take a picture of my face and the utter look of disbelief followed by sheer joy! She asked me if I wanted to keep them for Sadie's baby book (uhhhhhhh...baby book? No, thank you) and then got rid of them. I could not believe it. I asked at least 4 times if she really could go without them (You know she'll put her fingers in her mouth, right? And toys?) but she assured me it would even be ok if she managed to get a pencil in there.

And then I was in for more of a shock when she said she could eat anything. (Anything? Not just soft foods? Crackers? Cookies? Are you kidding me!?) Yup - you have complete freedom, she told me. And Sadie and I didn't waste any time. We stopped at Target on the way home for some Puffs and Yogurt Melts, as well as a new sippy cup so she could drink all by herself again. You should have seen that little girl glow with happiness.

How in the world?

Twice now Sadie has accomplished this in her sleep (or at least we though she was sleeping!). Her arm is out of the restraint, but it is still safety-pinned to her sleeve and velcroed closed. How am I going to explain that one to the surgeon?

Baby squash vs. Kid squash

Sadie is finally willing to be fed through the syringe - yay! Sam was happy to get in on the squirt cream feedings, so he thought he would try the syringe-squirting too. He was pretty happy when it was yogurt in there, but was in for a surprise when she was eating some squash babyfood. He opened up wide, swallowed, and then grimaced (while trying to keep it down).

Sam: That was gross! I don't like squash!
Me: Yes you do, Sam. You like squash at grandma's. You just don't like it as babyfood.
Sam: Yeah - I don't like baby squash.....just kid squash!

He was kind enough to reenact it for me so I could post pictures.

Three years ago

at just about this moment of the day, Joe and I received the phone call telling us that Sam's birthmother had chosen us to be his parents. Joe was at work and I was in Minnesota at my parents' house, as my dad was scheduled to have heart surgery that day. (Side note: Each time we have added a child to our family, my dad has had heart surgery just before it. My mom says no more kids. Joe says no more heart surgery!)

We were told basic facts about his birth parents and the pregnancy, as well as that his due date was January 7th (my brother's birthday). We immediately said yes and started getting ready as fast as we could. I bought a crib and pack and play that night and managed to squeeze it into our car for the ride home to Muscatine. We didn't tell too many people what was going on - we wanted to make sure it really happened first! I remember sitting in church that Sunday, grinning from ear to ear, and Joe's leg shaking with excitement. Little did we know that Sunday morning that we'd get a call that afternoon to come to Chicago - Sam was coming early! (He arrived early in the morning on the 2nd.)

I have been thinking a lot today about how much has changed and how much Sam has grown in these three years, but I think I will save those thoughts for another day. Right now all I want to say is "Thank you." To God, for our son. To Sam's birthmother, for trusting us with her baby. And to Sam, for making us the luckiest parents in the world.

Dinner with friends

Since we didn't venture to Iowa for Christmas (We decided traveling with Sadie that soon after surgery was not wise......) we had Christmas dinner with our friends Bryan and Michelle and their kids. Michelle is a wonderful cook and made the most delicious turkey I have ever eaten. And her sweet potato/banana casserole was quite impressive too (among other things). We managed to hit mealtime during Sadie's nap, so we all got to eat together. (Well, except her, that is. We have been taking turns eating while the other person takes her to the basement to play so she doesn't see the food we are eating.....otherwise she becomes completely hysterical about not getting to eat what we are.)

Michelle carving the aforementioned turkey.
Jayden and Bryan
Bryan, Michelle, Ryan and Joe - Sam had already finished and was off to play with his toys.
Sam getting a nice overhead shot of Jayden.
The kids - Sadie has just landed, Ryan is mid-leap, and Sam is just staring at the TV. I never thought the day would come when Sam was the still child in a picture! It gives me hope for Sadie.....
The kids....all seated this time.

Christmas morning

Not wasting any time - tearing right into the presents!
Sam proud of his new Star Wars shirt. Not that he knows what Star Wars is, but I am sure the same uncle that bought him this will teach him all about it in time.
My attempt to capture Sadie's always impressive bedhead. Her hair is so fine it is a bit hard to see.

Sadie enjoying her new teapot from Uncle Matt and Aunt Elisa.
Joe with the kiddos
Joe saying "cheese" for Sam and his new camera from Uncle Matt and Aunt Elisa. We did have to set some ground rules pretty quickly for when and where it is ok to take pictures, after he walked into my bathroom soon after I had stepped out of the shower and I heard a click.

It is 12:36 am and Sam is reading books to me

This was not in my plan for tonight. The kids were going to be in bed by 8, I was going to do some cooking for tomorrow, post a few pictures on the blog, and be in bed myself by 10. Sam had other ideas. He was pretty pumped about all his presents that we didn't even try bed until 9. I laid there with him for about a half an hour before I finally gave up and sent him into our bed with Joe, figuring they'd watch tv until they both fell asleep while I got things done downstairs. About 10:20 I heard the door open and expected to see Joe, but I heard Sam's voice instead. I obviously greatly underestimated the excitement of Christmas - and we don't even do Santa Claus!

Mom?
What Sam?
Mom?
What are you doing, Sam?
I think we should just leave Daddy alone. He needs to sleep. He can sleep by himself without me. I'm coming down.

And instead of fight it, I gave in. He's helped me make green bean bundles, painted me some pictures, and is now reading me books as I type. Now I just have to decide if I am going to attempt to download my webcam driver and Skype with him by my side (so my family can all videoconference Christmas in the morning) or if Joe is going to get to do that when he wakes up. We'll have a couple hours - Matt and Elisa are in California so I have time zones working in my favor. I think maybe I'll make the 2-(but almost 3) year-old go to bed. He has to be tired now, right?

Christmas Eve fun

Me and the kids, home from church and ready to get on with the Christmas fun. Mother-daughter Christmas socks. I actually bought these on clearance last summer to give to my sister-in-law and niece for Christmas this year, never dreaming we'd have our own daughter home to wear them with me. Sorry Stacy and Molly, but I kept them for myself!
Reading the Christmas story - the Toddler Bible version.
Reenacting the Christmas story
Posing in their matching pjs - see, I did put the restraints back on!

It's a race - who can get it open first!And race again!
New pillowcases - "Love you bunches!"
Enjoying the new dollhouse from Grandma and Papa

Sam gave Joe a Batman bath set. He picked it out himself. Wasn't that thoughtful of him?

Ready for church

Every year we use the timer to take a picture of ourselves at Christmas. It's getting a little more difficult now that we have 2 that don't sit still so well......but we didn't do too badly.And some more fun ones from the afternoon - don't tell the surgeon I took the arm restraints off! They just looked a little tacky for the pictures. I did put them back on before we left for church.

Squirt cream for supper!

Sadie has become increasingly frustrated with her liquid/soft foods diet and the fact that she is not allowed to feed herself. She has been eating less and less - yesterday the only thing I could get in her was some Pediasure through the medicine syringe and some yogurt drink in a special new cup Grandmommie bought her. Today neither of those were very effective, so I resorted to a can of squirt cream I had in the fridge. It was a fun enough was to eat (squirted directly into her mouth) that she forgot about the fact that it was me feeding her. I figure it's kind of like drinking milk, right? And Sam had to get in on the action, too.

Thankful for Grandmommie

Joe's mom has been here the past couple days helping me make it through while Joe has been back to work . I have been able to deal with Sadie, and she and Sam have had a grand time together! Plus she's been doing laundry, cleaning, and cooking, so I have been in heaven! You couldn't ask for a better mother-in-law.

Does the state of Illinois not own any snowplows?

So - we made it the plastic surgeon's office in downtown (usually a little under an hour trip) in a stellar 2 and a half hours. Interstate 55 was so snow-packed I swear they had to have trucked in snow to get it that way. And I did not see a single snowplow working until I entered our subdivision. What is it about this place? As I believe I mentioned in an earlier post, does it not snow here every year?

The surgeon told me what the resident and nurse had told me on the phone - everything in Sadie's mouth is ok. Yes, she did manage to get a couple of stitches loose in the front (hence, the flapping I saw going on). She probably did it with her tongue - the surgeon said that a lot of times when the kids are older (palate surgery is usually done around 9 months old) they are able to run their tongue up there and mess things up a little bit. Not to worry - she says it will heal just fine. The main part of the repair is in the middle and looks good. The stitches around the edges are looser anyway. It was nice to have somebody actually look at it in person and tell me not to worry, though, despite the treacherous travel conditions to get there.

They told us not to look!

When we left the hospital Friday morning, the plastic surgeon's nurse's last words to us were "Do not look in her mouth!" She explained that once the swelling goes down after a palate surgery, it can look like things are moving around in there even though everything is ok. And besides the moving around, everything just looks really, really gross.

So Saturday I was changing Sadie's diaper (and she was screaming) and I couldn't help but see inside of there......and I saw something flapping. Now I know they told me things would be moving, but no one ever mentioned flapping. I kind of freaked out, and called the plastics resident on call. She assured me that though it wasn't normal, it wasn't abnormal. (Ummm....what?) I was slightly calmed by this response, but vowed to call the actual surgeon's office ASAP Monday morning.

Our nurse Linda (the one who told us not to look) reiterated this morning that I WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO LOOK IN THERE. However, since I had and had lost any sense of calm I had on Saturday, we are headed in tomorrow morning just to make sure everything is ok in there.

Cinderella

The things princesses have to do these days.......

The laundry
Vacuum
And do a little grocery shopping

Princess Sadie videos

We are opening a few presents early

So - we need a little distraction around here so Sadie doesn't focus on the fact that she is hungry and Sam doesn't focus on the fact that Sadie is getting all of Mom's attention......Grandmommie decided we could start opening a few presents from her early, and then when packages arrived from Aunt Amanda and the Arntzens we ripped into those too.

Lots of fun princess items
Sam and his Diego rescue boat-thingee
Hmmm....this looks like an interesting shoe
All decked out!
Under their new warm Christmas blankets
Cheese!

Today's feeding fun

So - the medicine syringe didn't work wonders this morning like it did yesterday. Seems like each "meal" needs a new trick. After an hour of screaming this morning, I managed to get yogurt into Sadie only after I let her stand on an overturned toy bucket in the middle of the family room while watching a video and playing with the telephone. Only then was she distracted enough to let me squirt some food in. I wonder what tomorrow will bring. Thankfully my mother-in-law came tonight so she can keep Sam entertained.
(And I have to say a belated thank-you to my parents for being here for the surgery and couple days afterward. It was only because of them that I survived the 3-hour cry-fest for Saturday morning's feeding. And they are also the reason I am still sane by taking the keep-Sadie-from-giving-the-dog-kisses-so-she-doesn't-get-some-weird-illness-
from-being-licked-by an-animal-that-has-been-known-to-eat-his-own-poop variable out of our next couple weeks. Not really good to be licked by a dog right after having surgery on your mouth. Gus is on a nice Christmas vacation at Grandma and Papa's house.)

They could be in a Flow-bee infomercial

Sam is not a big fan of getting his haircut with the clippers. Judging from the vacuum fun today, we should invest in a Flow-bee. (Please tell me someone else out there remembers those infomercials.) The second video is the better one, in my opinion........

It's a little crowded in the stable

Sam has really been getting into the Christmas story this year. He knows that is it "baby God's birthday" and that the wise men brought him some presents. I showed him all the figures in our nativity scene and he looked at them in awe.

Then one day I heard him talking to himself in the living room. Happy that he was entertaining himself, I kept cleaning up the kitchen. Only later did I go investigate - and this is what I found.
Apparently, everyone wanted to get really close to baby God.


Over the next couple days, Sam played with the scene a lot. Here's a few of the things I overheard:

From a wiseman to baby Jesus: Hi, baby God. Where are your clothes?
From one wiseman to another as they are departing the stable: That was a great adventure!
From a wiseman to Jesus as they were leaving: Bye bye baby God. See ya later! Have a great day! We'll be back soon.

And from Sam to Jesus, who had somehow ended up behind the stable (it may have been a mishap as Sam was using the top of the stable as a slide for everyone to have a little fun on): Don't worry baby God - I'll rescue you! Here I come!

A few hospital pictures

Here are some pics from the hospital. Excuse any typos or other mistakes......I am beyond tired and not the most careful at the moment.


Here are Joe and Sadie, smiling at 6:30 AM Thursday. Getting her vital signs checked by her nurse. Somebody could make a lot of money making toddler-size gowns. This one could have fit a kindergartener.
Hanging out in the rocking chair
Sadie giving herself an albuterol treament. Of course, she wanted to do it all by herself. I should have known we were going to have issues in the feeding department post-surgery.
When the anesethiologists (I know I spelled that wrong, but am beyond the point of caring right now) came in and saw that Sadie had a runny nose, they told us we could opt not to do the surgery because of it and reschedule for another time. I thought I was going to cry! Were they serious!? After a bit more discussion, we figured out it probably wasn't that big a deal. There would be an increased risk of infection and the possibility for a cough developing, so we decided to go ahead. If we waited until this girl didn't have a runny nose, I think she'd be 16 before she had it done. It's been running since the day we got her. Hence, the albuterol treatment to open up her airways.

Sadie and I resting post-surgery.
This is how we spent much of Thursday afternoon. Nope, we are not in a bed. It's a chair that folds down into a "bed." When my dad had his heart surgery, the nurse more accurately called the one in his room a "flat surface," as she said "bed" would not be the proper word to describe it. I agree.