Meet Doggy

This is Cassies FAVORITE stuffed animal. When I started my 2nd trimester I went baby shopping with my Mom and Grandma, I thought he was so cute, soft and plush I had to buy him for my baby. Well....she loves him. He goes with her everywhere. On playdates I have had other babies take him away from her and she has burst into tears. She gives him big hugs and open mouth kisses. She sleeps with him every night, her little arm hugging him tight. He came to the hospital for surgery, was brought back into surgery with her and stayed with her all during recovery. At the end of our hospital stay he was smeared with blood from her mouth and nose. He is now washed and good as new. Hope to God we never loose this little guy!!

Post-Op

Cassie is doing so well after surgery. Yesterday she pretty much slept all day again. Today she seems back to her normal schedule,however we did put her to bed 30 min earlier than normal because she was sleepy. She is playing with toys and eating normally.

Kissing her doggy

She even took 15 sips from her cup today!! I am sure she won't be as cooperative with that tomorrow because she doesn't care for her cup...we'll see.

Pulling on her doggy



Petting her doggy


She also already sounds different! She already made some new sounds today and just the tone of her voice is different since the air doesn't escape thru the cleft...its amazing.

We are praying for good healing and that no fistuals(holes) develop. In 2 weeks we go back to see her surgeon so he can see how its healing. Its going to be a LONG 2 weeks. Its actually alot of work to be in her face to constantly make sure she doesn't put anything in her mouth but its better than the alternative of her screaming and crying because the restraints are on.

Her socks (restraints)

Clapping today

Pucker up

Just up from her morning nap

Sitting on Daddys lap

Surgery

We are home!! Cassie had her cleft palate repaired yesterday. We had to be at the hospital at 6:30 am, Cass decided to wake up at 4am so she helped keep us on time. They had to give her a sedative because she is not a happy girl if she is seperated from me. It finally kicked in when we were in the surgery holding area. She was still whimpering and her head kept falling unto my shoulder, her eyelids kept closing - she was pretty pathetic looking. I gotta say I cried when they took her. Its so hard to see your little girl being taken away knowing she is going to be in pain.

Surgery took 2 hours. I was called back into the recovery room and she was crying and holding her arms out to me to pick her up. Her voice was kinda raspy from being swollen and the breathing tube had been down it. We got up to her room around 11:00 and she was given some morphine. She slept the entire day and night till 6am!! She did amazing. We acutally took off the arm restraints when she first woke up and started crying, once we took them off she reached for her beloved stuffed doggy and fell asleep. We are just putting socks on her hands so she can't get her fingers or toys into her mouth and she is tolerating that just fine.

We got home this morning, she ate a Yo-Baby Yogurt and is now napping. Her surgion is just amazing! Her palate looks great, you would never even know she just had it fixed. He said she can create suction in 10 days!!! The things we take for granted like suction!

Pre-Op Appointment

Today we had a pre-op appointment at Childrens Hospital. We had to get Cass up bright and early but she was a good sport about it. We met with a nurse and had her weighed. She is a peanut! 30 inches long and 17 lbs;6 oz. Had her blood pressure, temp and her blood oxygenation level taken. All were good. She cried and screamed the whole time, she just does not like doctors and nurses, I don't know how they were able to hear her heart beating with their stethoscope with her screaming.

They also told us what to expect on surgery day. I have already gone thru this once before so I know the recovery room is not rainbows and puppies :o)

They also had to take some blood from her. This was so hard to watch. They couldn't find a vein and once the needle was in they had to adjust it a couple of times. Cass had huge tears rolling down her face, screaming, her face was all red and she was getting sweaty. The blood is needed in case something happens in surgery where they need to give her blood. They have bands on both her legs that have to stay there until surgery is over


Sporting her Blood Bands

Elbow Restraints

We got the elbow restraints in the mail yesterday and I tried them on Cassie. Lets just say she was not thrilled at all.







We want Cassies recovery to be smooth as can be as well as safe. Her screaming at the top of her lungs can't be good for the palate repair either. When we are with her we will take the restraints off so she can play and do her normal things. When they are on she can't bend her elbows to grab her toys that are near by - its just going to infuriate her. The object of the restraints is go stop her from putting things in her mouth but as long as we are there we can do that.


Fortunatly Cassie is not a thumbsucker and doesn't put her fingers or toys in her mouth alot. Bedtime will also be tough. I have watched her for the past night and naptime and she never puts her fingers in her mouth. We may put her to bed without them while I stay in there to keep an eye on her until she is asleep. Once she is sleeping she is out like a light. Now if she was a thumbsucker we could not do that.

I am stressing out because I want recovery to be safe yet not traumatic on her. We'll just take it a day at a time and see how it goes.

This is the week!!

I am getting cabin fever! I have not gone anywhere the past week because we are trying to keep Cassie healthy since surgery is Friday. Matt doesn't even want me going out to grocery shop because if I were to get sick that would be bad as well; Cass will really need me at the hospital after surgery so that would not be good if I were to get sick and couldn't be there. I can't beleive this Friday is her surgery. I woke up at 4 this morning and thats all I could think about. I know recovery is going to be pretty rough. Hopefully we will be discharged on Saturday because it makes such a huge difference to be at home rather than at the hospital.


I did take Athena for a walk today, it was nice to get out. I didn't even need a coat since it was pretty nice. We watched the Packer game and that is about it.



Cassie has been pretty high maintenace lately. She REALLY wants to walk and can if we are holding her hands, so she gets very frustrated if she wants to walk somewhere and will cry and fuss until we come and help her. She just has to get this balance thing a little bit more and she will be able to walk all on her own.

1 Year Old Today!

Today Cassie turned 1 year old!! Its amazing to think back what we were going thru a year ago.

7:39 am - Born!


Discovered there was a problem - the white plastic in her mouth is her oral airway, it prevented her tounge from flopping back and blocking her airway.



Being transferred to Childrens Hospital


At Childrens Hospital- we were there for about a month

To celebrate Daddy took off work and we celebrated with just the 3 of us. We opened presents, had cupcakes and went for a quick walk (it was way colder than we thought outside!) Can't beleive she is 1 year old!!










HAPPY 1 YEAR BIRTHDAY CASSIE!!

A year ago today...

On this day a year ago we went to church and I was as big as a house. After church I decided to go outside and rake some leaves...in the hopes it would kick start labor. Well...it worked. I had sat down in a lawn chair for a breather. I started feeling crampy but it never crossed my mind it could be anything labor related. I got up out of the chair and felt a gush. YIKES! I stood frozen in place. I went into the house to investigate what had just happened. Let me tell you when your water breaks it doesn't stop. I didn't expect that. I remember starting to shake. I called the hospital and they told me to come in, they would check me. We got to the hospital and the nurse didn't even have to use the test strip to verify my water broke...she could tell right away. Let me just say how surreal it is to realize you are having that baby! That it is time. I got my gown on and my hubby and I paced the hallways, it was actually alot of fun at that point. I didn't feel much and we were so excited!! It is an amazing experience awaiting the birth. Things changed once they gave me pitocin. The contractions started to get more intense and my goal had been to go thru labor without any meds. I did well, but as the hours passed I got more tired, my body was shaking and I remember at one point just putting my head on the bed because I couldn't focus anymore. I ended up getting the epidural which is AWSOME!! However...I have to say that I don't remember what contractions felt like anymore so I proubly could have gone thru labor without anything. BUT Epidural = Awsome...at least in my case. I was able to SLEEP and relax. I still was shaking and thats because my body was working so hard per the nurse. I slept, woke up, and it was time to push. I was able to push just fine and within 30 min Cassie was born. My labor started at 3:30 in the afternoon and I had her at 7:30 in the morning the next day. Tomorow my little girl turns 1 year old!!

Today my parents and aunt stopped over. My aunt had a gift for her. Tomorrow we are having a special day of fun for our birthday girl with just Mommy and Daddy, Daddy has taken off work so it should be a nice day!


Mommy, Cassie and Daddy

Mommy and Daddy

Here Mommy - eat some cake




Big Present!

Showing off her Birthday Card

Stuffed Bear from Grandma and Grandpa Hadovski

Book from Mommy and Daddy (I had this book as a kid and had to get it for her)




Just wanted to show a pic of the waves in her hair...

Change of Plans

We were SUPPOSED to have Cassies 1st birthday party this Saturday, however we are now going to re-schedule it. We didn't think Cassie would have surgery on the 23rd so we scheduled her party. Now that she is going to have surgery we need to keep her as healthy as we can. Alot of people who were invited to the party are not feeling well and we also figured we don't want to risk her getting sick with tons of people over....stuff is going around. My play date was canceled today because my friend and her son are sick. Its a bummer because I was looking foward to it, but truly the party is more for us than her....she won't remember it. We will have the party in November once she is recovered from surgery.

Tonight was also rough. She must be cutting another tooth. She went to bed at 7:00 and woke up at 8:00 crying bloody murder. This went on till now....so 2 1/2 hours. There was nothing we could do. I gave her tylinoyl, stuff to numb her gums, changed her diaper,she didn't want to eat so I finally just paced the hallway with her. She is FINALLY sleeping. Holey Teething!!! This was the worst its ever been. She was like this earlier today but the tylenol kicked right in, this time it didn't. If she is going to be like this on Saturday its a good thing we are changing the date of the party!!

Thursday

Today we pretty much just stayed home. We ran to the grocery store in the afternoon and that was about it. We were able to sit outside today for a while since it was kinda nice out. Cassie played with the leaves and I threw the ball for Athena. Here are some pics








Mommy and Cass


Athena

Athena waiting for Cass to throw the ball....