Yes believe it or not, Hannah Lu just had major surgery this past Tuesday. She had a palatoplasty or had her cleft palate fixed. A lot more complicated than I had thought. It consisted of taking tissue from another area in her mouth to close the hole. But they also moved muscle for speech purposes. I can't imagine what her mouth feels like. After her surgery, it was horrible. Everytime she would cry, which was practically the first 8 hours after, her tongue would obstruct her airway and she would turn blue. So they would have to put a mask on her face until she calmed down. But of course that didn't last long. Poor Shawn couldn't stand the sight of her being so upset, so he spent most of the time in the waiting room until they moved her upstairs to her own room when she was more stable. Apparently she had to learn how to breath, swallow, and figure out where her tongue is supposed to go, all over again. On top of that her mouth is swollen. She is getting the breathing part down, but the swallowing not so much. She has been a slobbery, gooey wet mess. She had restraints on her little arms so she can't put her hands or anything else in her mouth. These were invented my a mother. They are made out of soft fabric with popsicle sticks in them. She doesn't mind them, as you can see in the picture above she is quite happy! The next day when Shawn and I went to the hospital she was a whole new baby. She was rolling around and playing in her crib. It was a relief. They decided to send us home that afternoon. She is doing well, and seems to be comfortable. The Loritab that they gave her has been making her sick so I am just going to keep her on Tylenol. Everything should be healed in six weeks. Thank you for everyone's support and keeping her in your prayers. With everything that she has been through she is the happiest, sweetest girl. We are so blessed that Heavenly Father gave her to us.
I decided that Jackson and Garrett were going to be Mario and Luigi. Hannah Lu of course is a lady bug, and well you can see what Penny is. My mom came down to help with Hannah Lu's surgery and so this was her first time being here over Halloween. We had lots of fun. My mom carves the best pumpkins, and that is one thing that I have missed being so far away from home. So we went out and got like 15 pumpkins, and my mom carved pumpkins like it was going out of style. Below are just a few of the pumpkins that she carved. Shawn isn't really big on doing holiday stuff, and he was excited about the pumpkins too. We went trick or treating, and everyone loved their costumes but for the second year in a row Penny has stole the show. People wanted to take her picture. So until next year....
Scary pumpkins!
