Pre-op appt.

Annika had her pre-op appointment with Dr. Mann's office this past Thursday. I took a half day of work and made the trip to Grand Rapids with Annika in the morning. The nurse, who always pronounces her name wrong by the way, was updating her charts, and she said, "so this is her first surgery coming up, huh?" And I replied, "No, but if a nurse who works in this office can't tell she's had a first surgery, then the Dr. really did the first one well!" Her first surgery has truly turned out fantastic so far, and our reservations about the next are much less because of that. Anyway, the rest of the appointment went pretty much as planned. The Dr. looked at her and explained a little bit about surgery and after. The only suprise was that he said there is a VERY SMALL posibility that, when he takes her into surgery and looks at her mouth, he may start doing some palate work as well. He actually said to not even plan on it, but that we needed to know it was possible. We've been planning on palate work not starting until at least late winter, early spring, so this as great news! Its difficult to not think about it, but we also don't want anything rushed.

We won't find out the time of her surgery until a few days prior, but she is set to have it done Friday, November 12 with the plan of staying at DeVos just one night again. I will update with the time once we find out.

In the mean time, please begin praying that conditions are right for palate work to begin. This would mean so much as far as eating baby food, getting started on speech, and so many other things I'm probaly not even aware of. Also begin praying for the surgeon, anesthesiologist, and the surgical team as the day draws closer. And mostly, pray for Annika as she's the one who will be in the physical pain for a few days, but also the frustration of dealing with arm restraints. With a girl so close to crawling, not using her arms is going to be tough.

On a side note, a few developments since last post:
~ Annika has 3 teeth and a possible 4th on the way! Two are on the bottom and one on the top in her little nub area.
~ She sits up all the time and is beginning to stand by things. She's not pulling herself up yet, but once she is propped into standing, she can do it on her own.
~She's decided that 5:30-5:45 is an appropriate time to wake up every morning. I've asked the advice of too many people to count, and nothing seems to break the cycle.
~She wants to crawl SO badly! She scootches around on her butt right now, but if she's not crawling by surgery date, I would be suprised.

Thanks again for checking in, and for your conitnued prayers!

Change in lifestyle + Surgery info

Greetings from our busy little family! Life sure has changed since the last post. A month ago, Annika and I were spending the majority of our days in comfy clothes and bathing suits, taking naps at our leisure, and trying to find things to keep us occupied. Now, I'm back at work, which meas no more comfy clothes or naps for me, and I am certainly not looking for things to occupy my time! The transistion from home to work has been a good one overall. After many tears the night before and the day of my first day back at work, we all seem to be adjusting well. Annika spends 1 day a week with Grandpa and Grandma Kruithof (along with cousins Kirstyn and Erika), and she spends the other 4 days at Lakeshore Little People's Place at Providence Church in Holland. Annika loves daycare, especially because my sister, Katie, works at the daycare and visits Annika often. I think she may get a bit of special attention over there! Her caregivers say she's a very happy baby (and Katie says they wouldn't lie to me). For Ross, the adjustment comes with less shock factor than for me, but he's had to do some adjusting as well, getting up a bit earlier so we can all be out the door on time, getting things ready with me the night before, and helping with things I used to do during the day. We're finally feeling like we have things under control for the season!

Also, we got the official paperwork today for Annika's upcoming surgery! Her surgery is scheduled for Friday, November 12 with a pre-op appt. on October18 and post-op appt. on November 18. We're not nearly as anxious about this one, because we know what to expect in general this time around, and this surgery is actually less invasive than the last one. This time around, they will only be touching the lip, but not the gum areas.

Finally, Annika has made some fun developments since last post! She can roll from back to tummy, but not the other way around yet...we're beginning to think she may never learn that part. She's also sitting up almost completely independently! She makes some VERY loud noises, and we're still trying to figure out who she gets that from. Finally, she has developed an attitude even further than it was before; she refuses to drink her whole bottle (something we used to be so prideful of), she fake burps, so we stop bothering her, and she grunts when she sick of playing with something. In all seriousness though, we have a very happy baby on our hands. All it takes is a smile at her and a "hi" and she's wiggling and laughing and squealing.

Unless something dramatic occurs, I'll update again after her pre-op appt. in October. Thanks again for keeping up to date with Annika's developments and for your prayers for her surgeries. We can all start praying now that she doesn't get sick just before her surgery!

6 Months!

Its so hard to believe that Annika will be 6 months already tomorrow! Somedays I feel like she's just been with us forever, while other times we still feel like such new parents, still questioning our parenting decisions daily!

Since I last posted, Annika continued to recover well after her surgery. She is sleeping regularly at night, and has adjusted well to feeding from the other side of her mouth.

Last time I posted, we had just gotten into cereal. Annika seemed to tolerate the food for a maximum of 10 bites and then she would get mad. After about a month of frustration on both my and Annika's part, I called her specialist just to see if this is just a normal baby phase or if it could be her palate keeping her from eating. The nurse just said, "Oh yeah she probably won't really eat solid foods until after her palate surgery." This would have been nice to know!!! Just a note that palate surgery is not until late winter at least. She also said to keep giving her solids whenever possible to keep her familiar with the texture, but not to expect Annika to get any real nutrients out of the feedings. Since that phone call, I feel much less pressure about feedings. We feed when we can (maybe every other day). And we do some cereal mixed with peaches or bananas. She's actually doing better than before, so I just feed her until she gets agitated and then we stop. Thank goodness she takes bottles so well!

We also got a tentative surgery date for Friday, November 12. This surgery will be her stage 2 lip repair. Dr. Mann will be closing the other sie of her lip. In the first surgery, he attached her outter gums to her right side gums and did her lip. This surgery will be just the lip. Dr. Mann plans to leave the other side of her gums open so that later in life when she has to have dental work, the dentist will be able to move and adjust the gums easier. Also, the date is only tentative as of now because DeVos Children's Hospital only schedules surgeries 3 months in advance, so we should hear if this date is solid in the next few weeks.

Annika also had her 6 month check-up with her pediatrician. These are Ross and my favorite appointments because we can guess how much she has grown. Yesterday Annika was 14lb. 12oz. and 26in. tall. This puts her in the 25th percentile for weight and 63rd for height. She is on track developmentally, and the doctor said everything looks good!

Finally, my dad was able to take Annika's 6 month pictures for us last Saturday. Annika can sit up for about 10 seconds right now, so my dad bought a very handy little helper for her so she could still sit up for pictures. Here are 2 of our favorites!

Good News!

Annika had her post-op appointment with Dr. Mann yesterday, and he seems really pleased with how things are looking! All of Annika's skin glue fell off Sunday night in the bathtub, so Ross and I were really able to get a first look at what the surgery did, and we think she looks great. Everything seems to be healing well! He also said we could get rid of the arm bands! This is good, because Ross and I made a parental decision to stop using them Friday already :). Dr. Mann also said he's going to go ahead and schedule her next surgery, and I can expect a letter in the mail giving me the dates. He said it will be between 4-6 months from now. I'll let everyone know once I get that date, but I don't anticipate hearing anything for about a month.

Also, After a week's worth of seemingly sleepless nights, Annika slept 11 hours Sunday night and took a few big naps yesterday....I think she's back to her normal self!!! I can't describe to you how much this excites me. I also notice a huge change in her mood too...still spoiled, but less crabby!

Finally, at Annika's 4 month appt. with the pediatrician, her Dr. said we could gradually introduce her to solids whenever we're ready. I was going to wait until July, but I picked up some rice cereal at the grocery store yesterday and then couldn't resist trying last night already. She looked confused the whole 10 bites she took, but she didn't scream, so I am taking it as a good sign. It's difficult to fit a small spoon in her mouth with her gum area still sticking out of her mouth (there's not much of an opening), and since she can't close her mouth all the way, I anticipate solids being a bit more messy than normal, but we'll see once! If anyone has any suggestions on how to keep it from drooling out of her mouth, please let me know!

Is this what most babies are like???

Ross and I have always known we were very lucky to have a good sleeper. Annika has been sleeping 10-12 hours through the night since she was a little more than 2 months old. On top of that, she's generally been a good napper too....it only takes her 3-5 minutes to fall asleep.

Since surgery and these awful "no-no bands" (as they are called at the hospital) on her arms, Annika has not been such a good sleeper. She wakes up at least once in the middle of the night and it takes her at least 10 minutes to cry herself to sleep. Naps have also become almost non-existent, causing Annika to be less than her happy self. To many parents, this might seem like a normal baby, but to us it is a whole new world. We know now more than ever how very spoiled e have been. We can't wait to be able to get rid of these no-no's!

Enough complaining though. Annika still has her squealing, happy personality for the most part. She's still eating normally, and her mouth doesn't seem to cause her any pain at all. We'll just have to wait out the next week before we can go to her post-op appointment and (hopefully) trash the no-no's!!!

Photos

Still pretty out of it here.

Daddy helping Annika fall asleep Thursday morning

Annika and her sweet set up in her crib!

Not too grumpy for a girl who just had surgery 12 hours prior.

Wednesday afternoon as Annika started to be a little more alert and ready to eat!

HOME!

Just wanted to let you all know that we are home! The Dr. gave us the OK to go home already at 7:00 this morning, so we were more than excited. However, Annnika had just fallen asleep, so we decided to leave her alone until she woke up. After a few errands, we got home at about 11:00 this morning. All of us were able to take a little nap (which was MUCH needed) and now we're ready to just relax being home.

As far as our night last night, Annika started being more alert and ready to eat around 4:00. She's only really been fussy when pain meds are wearing off or when she remembers she had arm bands on (these are too keep her from touching her face). Annika normally soothes herself and puts herself to sleep by chewing on her fingers, so these restraints will probably be the hardest adjustment. And since she can't suck on anything, a pacifier is only do-able if someone is holding it in her mouth! This is really the only set back from surgery we have noticed. We got a few smiles and squeaks already last night, and today she is much more herself.

I'll post a few more pictures at some point, but for now, it is time to enjoy the beautiful day!