We made it!

 March 29, 2011

Last Tuesday was Cooper's palate surgery. Monday Coop enjoyed a lovely visit with his Great Grandma and Grandpa from Las Vegas. He rarely gets to see them due to distance, but shares his giant smile when he does. With Coop unable to eat any table food for the next 3 weeks, we stuffed his "little" belly to it's max at Red Lobster.  He ate 3 Cheddar Bay Biscuits to start out, then had some salad, munched on every one's lemon slices, potato soup, and a heaping variety of dessert. Believe it or not, he could have kept going. Boy can he eat!

By the end of dinner, it was his bedtime and G.Grandma & G.Grandpa gave Coop lovins. It is truly impossible to sleep when knowing my child will be enduring a fairly serious surgery when we wake in the morning. To say the least, it was a rough night. 

Morning came bright and early, and Joel and I enjoyed breakfast at the hotel while G.Gram & G.Grandpa spent some time with little Coop. Check in for surgery was at 9, and it approached very quickly! Unlike last time, we were taken back to prep for surgery within minutes of checking in. Coop gowned up and of course was mistaken for a girl again by the nurses. " Oh, she's so beautiful! Look at her eyes!" or, "She's sleeping so soundly." It really doesn't help his case when given a gown with pink elephants on it ;) (There were blue ones for boys but both times we got PINK) 

Anyway, Grandma got to wait with us at bedside and Coop took a well needed nap in her arms. Before we knew it, we met with all the doctors participating in the surgery. What differed from the lip surgery was that the anesthesiologist took Cooper straight from the room rather than me getting to walk him back. Everything happened so quickly, I didn't even realize it was actually showtime.

In recovery, right out of surgery.

Surgery lasted from 10:30-12:40. Oddly enough, my mind didn't think about what was actually going on at that time. It was really quite blank. As soon as Coop left for the OR, we spent most of our time in the cafeteria. My mind shut things down, yet my body didn't allow much of an appetite. Nerves obviously were running wild, and physically I felt it.

My expectations of how Coop would be in recovery were already set from our previous experience. I thought I'd be handling a wired, croaking baby, that would blast holes in my arm from excessive gas. This time he wasn't given morphine, due to the side effects last time. The morphine had a reversed affect on Cooper previously. So he was given a pretty heavy pain killer apparently. There was no gas and no croaky voice. (From the tube placed down his throat) He slept through the afternoon, and most of the evening. It was the complete opposite from our previous stay. I was worried, that he was sleeping too much. This time around, our nurse gave permission for my mother to stay the night and help me out this time. Our roommates were discharged in the evening, so we had the room to ourselves. I must say, it was a major blessing to have a second set of hands. Though neither of us got any sleep that night, we were able to trade off and give our arms a break. (Coming out of surgery, the baby is much heavier due to all the fluids and swelling.)

Cooper had his ear tubes replaced, complete palate repair, and they fused his bi-uvula together. 

Swollen 

Early Wednesday morning, the assistant plastic surgeon came in to check on their work. She reviewed his vitals, intake/outtake, and said that we'd be discharged right after breakfast. Thank you God! See, Wednesday was my birthday and my wish was to go home with a happy, healthy baby early in the day. Well it came true. Our morning shift nurse David was our initial nurse from the first surgery. He drew up our discharge papers and we were good to go by 8:30am.

Thank you UC Davis Children's Hospital. All the doctors and nurses involved were so amazing, and made the experience the best it could be. Cooper is a little over a week out of surgery and is doing AWESOME. He acts like nothing happened. It's mind blowing how resilient these young babies can be to such extreme procedures. 1 day after, he was back to his rambunctious self, climbing all on everything, and belly laughing his heart out.

Can't sleep in crib, he likes to chew on the rail

My heart melts for this child, and I am so blessed to have been given this opportunity. It is not a misfortune, these things happen for a reason, they test your patience, determination, and will. I know I have a beautiful, special son who is going to grow up to be such a strong and amazing young man. He's already proven that to be true.

I'll leave you with my sweet boy just a few days ago....

2 Days Post-Op 

 Beautiful Day at the Lake

Having a conversation with Dad