Severan is 6+ months old

Here we are 1 month post-op.  Sev turned 6 months old and made it through the transition to home from the hospital.

Still in the hospital - swelling begins.

But, still happy!

We went home on Saturday evening - 2 full days after his surgery.

At home.  "You should have seen the other guy."

The scar.

Happy!

Here he is at his one week post-op appointment.

3 weeks post-op.

4th of July fun with the family.

As you can tell, we have a very happy baby!

Before and After surgery.

First time on a swing!

6 months old

Siblings July 2014

We haven't had Sev's 6-month appointment yet - mainly because I called too late and they are really backed up at the office.  I'm guessing that he weighs roughly 19+ pounds right now.  He's a BRUT.  Bigger than some 11-month old babies we know.

He's not sitting up or crawling yet but he can scoot and get around by acting like an inchworm! :)  I think it's time to get the gates out nevertheless.

Getting Severan back into a good sleep routine has been kind of rough.  He was sleeping through the night before he went into the hospital but afterwards he was up every 2-3 hours all day and night long.  I think (hope/pray) that maybe he's getting back into the swing of things over the last few days because he's slept at least 7 hours these nights.

He really is the best baby - always smiling and snuggling and being content with what's going on.  He loves watching his older brother and sister and his favorite thing to do is scream.  Yes, the kid screams all the time, but not a sad or angry scream.  It's high-pitched and funny and he thinks it's awesome because he smiles the whole time.

We've started him on solids but we're not feeding him with pureed baby food like we did with the other kids.  We're just giving him regular food - pear, peach, and banana slices, sausage, chicken, and toast - you name it, he's eating it. (Well, gnawing and sucking on it right now:)  The program is called Baby Led Weaning - it's pretty interesting: http://www.babyledweaning.com/

Not much else to report except that the exhaustion level of parenting three kids is over-the-top.  But Sev is totally worth it so I won't complain... too much:)

Cranio-What? On the Other Side

He came.  He conquered.  And he's STILL beautiful... with a better head shape :)

He was up with us at 4:30 am today happy and laughing and excited to go!  He usually gets up around 7:00 am, so this was unusual, but great!  We arrived at the hospital at 5:30 am and after a bunch of questions and vitals and snuggles, they took him away at 7:30 am.

These pictures were taken this morning, before his surgery, with his old melon.

Selfie time

In his hospital gown.

Hungry and tired, but you'd never know it.

The surgeons, Dr. Wilkinson and Dr. French, came to talk to us as well as two anesthesiologists.  We signed consent forms and then, Erin, his nurse took him back to the OR.  I cried but felt strong and confident that everything was going to go well and I can honestly say there was no fear.  I was anxious to be with him again but I never doubted God's plan for him.  The nurse called several times to update us (which was always good news) and then around 1:30 pm the surgeons emerged and gave us the good news: He was out, it went well, and he (they thought) looked great!  The surgery was just under 5 hours long.  They ended up doing a little more than anticipated.  His eye orbits were really very asymmetrical and there had to be quite a lot of manipulation and cutting to get his face symmetrical again.  Dr. French, the plastic surgeon, came in to recovery (just a little while ago) to see Sev and drew this picture for me on the white board.

The ovals are a rendition of his eye orbits (left and right if looking at him) and you can see how asymmetrical they are. One is practically horizontal and one is vertical The line through the orbits show where they cut and reshaped and how drastically they had to be reconstructed.  She exclaimed that she was surprised at how off they were.  She reminded me that his nose would still be crooked, but I can't even really tell anymore.

After the surgeons spoke with us (after the surgery) we were able to see him pretty quickly and we could not believe the difference!

That is a drain tube coming out of his head and it runs along the inside
of his skin, along the skull.  Weird, crazy, and wow!!  They will take this out in a few
and watch to make sure fluid does not accumulate under skull/

That bump is the drain tube. :(

He is doing pretty well, considering what he's been through.  He has slept most of the afternoon only waking up a few times to eat, which is great news, but then he projectile vomited, which is bad news. He did require a blood transfusion during surgery and he needed extra plasma too so they now have to check his blood every 4 hours, and that is torture for him.

We are hanging in there, trying to figure out what pain medicine is best for him.  We might be headed to some morphine though because he's not responding well enough to the Tylenol with Codeine.

I can't thank everyone enough for the outpouring of love, support, prayers, kind emails, texts and gifts you've given us.  It was so comforting today being showered with so many prayers.  We certainly felt protected today and God was present with all of us.