A trip to the playground

After having her bottle, we took her to the playground/playroom at the hospital. Very nice setup I must say....she enjoyed the much needed fresh air and also enjoyed the windsocks and other garden items. And thank heavens for the play areas, they were a lifesaver for keeping Brady entertained....which I might add, he did quite well hanging out at the hospital. He loves helping water the garden, grass, etc. around the house, so when he saw the hose that was the first thing he went to, even with all the wonderful toys in the play area.

Ahhhh, the key to happiness and comfort!

Emma was a very happy baby when she got to have a bottle. She didn't have any difficulties feeding from the bottle. She went right to sleep after having 3. She was starving!

Dr. Cuadros initially said that Emma would have to go 7 to 10 days without her bottle after the surgery. When she got out of surgery, she was fed through a zip and feed bottle which was basically a large bottle syringe. Then, as you can see, it was easier to use the medicine dropper, but this did not bring her any satisfaction or comfort. Since Dr. Cuadros told Afton during his rounds that he would send her home with a bottle, Afton asked the nurse why she couldn't just have one now.....so Sweet Nurse Amy went and got her a pack of enfamil bottles. Ahhh, the key to happiness and comfort for our sweetheart.

Does this look very comfortable?

Emma loves to sleep on her side, especially her left side. As soon as she is placed in her crib she immediately turns to her side. She is pretty quick. This is a very brief moment of her trying to get comfortable enough to sleep. Only lasted about 10 mins max!

Arm Restraints - grrrrrr!

Emma needed to be placed in arm restraints so she wouldn't touch her lip. It was so hard to see her in the restraints. As you can tell, she was very uncomfortable and stiff! We were able to take them off of her when we were watching her closely and she did quite well not to put her fingers towards her mouth, but did she ever rub her eyes!

August 26th - A Very uncomfortable day

Dr. Cuadros was quite pleased with the outcome of the surgery and said Emma did very well. She did however have a hard time with the pain meds as her body was metabolizing the medications faster than they could be of help to her. He said they had to keep increasing the meds during surgery. When she woke up she was quite "agitated" (the term the nurses used) It didn't seem as though the meds were helping at all. She cried continuously from about 10:00am to 5:00 pm when she finally fell asleep. Prior to that, she would only sleep for about 10 mins at a time and would wake up screaming and appeared pretty traumatized by the whole ordeal! As you can tell by the looks of the arm restraints, she was not very comfortable. Poor little sweetheart was very miserable. She stayed asleep from 5:00pm to 7:00 pm, the nurse came in and gave her some more pain meds and she woke up enough to receive them and stayed asleep til after 8:00pm. Afton said Emma slept good throughout the night. It was a very long day for her, and very hard to watch her go through all the pain and discomfort and not be able to help her feel better!

Getting Ready for Surgery

I have so much to blog about. This is like trying to catch up in your journal writing ! Does it happen? Well, my journal is going to be out of sequence for a bit so I can update on Emma. We leave for Albuquerque today for pre-op instructions for her surgery tomorrow.

We have to be at Presbyterian Hospital at 6:00am. At 7:30am Afton will have to entrust Precious Lil Miss Priss to the nurses and Dr. Quadros (Her Wonderful Plastic Surgeon) and Dr. Horne (Her Wonderful ENT Specialist). Dr. Horne will place tubes in her ears to drain the fluid she has built up, and Dr. Quadros will repair the cleft in her lip. This is about to make me cry just blogging about it. Everyday when I see Emma, I just start missing her sweet little lip. Sounds crazy huh? It's just that it is "her" sweet little lip - if you know what I mean.

I will try to update through emails and keep everybody posted. PLEASE keep them all in your prayers (from the Dr's to her and her parents, ok, I could probably use a prayer also).

She will have to be in hand restraints for 7-10 days following the surgery, and no bottle or pacifier for the same time. She is scheduled to stay overnight for observation and if all goes well she will get to go home on Thursday. We will return to Albuquerque September 2 to have her stitches removed.

Thanks to everybody for being so loving and supportive! And thanks especially for the prayers!

Turn and burn!

We spent the first weekend in August in Chama for the big celebration of Chama Days. This is something we always looked forward to when we were growing up there. My Grandfather was a rancher with lots of horses and other livestock. We always had the opportunity to ride in the parade horseback. There is one Chama Days in particular that I remember the most at that was in 1976. Whoa, that seems like a LONG time ago, but I remember it quite well. This was a Bicentennial year so it was extra cool riding in the parade. I can still see myself waiting at the beginning of the parade, by the middle school, with my Mom. I have always been so proud of her and all of her accomplishments and how she could outride anybody. I remember thinking, while waiting for the parade to start, if I would ever have the opportunity to ride in a Chama Days parade with my daughters, (ok, I was thinking way ahead) but I really did wonder if everything just stayed the same and that would be my opportunity also. Guess I didn't fully understand the concept of time and change when I was 9.

So back to the present - My Mom was scheduled to barrel race on Saturday. Of course we were going to go to be her Fan Club. She is back again running barrels since her accident in September of 2008. She is one tough Cookie let me tell you! She and my sister Shawna and my Aunts Lisa and Beva are part of a drill team in Snowflake AZ. They perform prior to rodeos. They practice long and hard and do a really awesome job in their performances. Well, one day as they were practicing for an upcoming event, Somehow my Mom and another member collided horseback. If i remember right, my mom's horse was kicked (it gets pretty close for comfort in a part of their routine) anyway, she kinda bucked or jumped (boy I am killing this story) causing my mom to fly forward, with her right leg still in the stirrup, then yanked back and crashing to the ground (Mom, if you are reading this post, please comment and correct this k) anyway, long story short, she shattered her femur in 4 places. She was airlifted to Flagstaff, had surgery, a rod was placed in her leg, HORRENDOUS black and purple brusing on her whole right leg. Very scary. Took time off from work and play to recover, back barrel racing and kicking butt in the spring - early summer?

So, they head for the first barrel and it was a little tough ground, so not a perfect turn, costing her a few seconds. Anyway, she was bummed, but we were all still proud of her. Greg told her he thought she came in fourth, so she was really bummed. She called a few days later and said she took second overall. Way to go Mom!

I have to comment about one more thing before posting this - Ashli works for Graff Orthodontics in Farmington. They all kid with one another about all sorts of things. Well as she was preparing to go to Chama for the weekend, they gave her a hard time about "Chama Days". Who has a Chama Days? What is a Chama Days? People really have a Chama Days? So Ashli told them that she was going to watch her Nena Barrel Race. They asked her what her Nena was. She said, "My Grandma." So they really got a kick out of this, i'm guessing they thought her Grandma was 89 or so and probably visualized her going around the barrels with her knitting needles. Well, Ashli told them how young her Nena is and how she barrel races all over. So, for all interested, here is "My Mom" my "other" sisters Mom, and my girls Nena Turning and Burning in Chama! As my sister Jennifer said in her Blog, "MY MOM ROCKS".

This weekend