Dr appt today, stiches out, they look really good. Now she can take a bath (good because the odor of sour milk and baby acne takes away from the adorableness a little!) except we are waterless in wyoming right now! Anyways the dermabrasions are still early to tell I guess you have to wait till they are totally healed and basically see if they look like normal skin or do they look brown like mole still. And the balloons... he still wants to wait to inflate at least another 2 weeks to make sure they are fully healed. So nothing really new to report in terms of her surgery we are sort of in a holding pattern. Praise God for the good healing though. In terms of her fussiness the nurse thought in may be gas so after a weekend pumping her full of Mylicon drops with no change they are now going to try her on Zantac thinking she may have reflux. So hopefully she starts feeling better after she eats (because the screaming for 5 hrs straight we experienced Sat night is NOT fun). Anyways I will leave you with a sweet picture of her when she is being low maintenance (it reminds me of that cute pampers commercial where they are playing Silent Night and show all the sleeping babies, super cute!) and ask you to all please have a Merry Christmas and spread cheer to your loved ones and cherish every minute with them and thank God for sending his precious baby Jesus to earth for us! Amanda and company

Just wanted to post some cute pics, nothing new to report! Dr appt Mon, will write more then. The pics show Sadies way of bonding, cuddling for a nap!

Three pics from her 1 month (time flies) on Thurs.

And the big meeting with Santa, I almost felt like a normal person going to the mall. Thank goodness for snow days and Craig will be home for 17 days straight!

Post op appt

Hello all, the Dr appt on Thur went well. His exact words were, "I couldn't be more pleased, everything looks great. " He also said that he had been praying for her all week, we had never really mentioned anything to him about our faith except for in response to all his comments which makes me think that they are genuine. It's a pretty awesome concept, a Dr. that prays for his patient. Its a blessing and a challenge. Anyways it is not time to start injecting the balloons yet, they are still healing. And the dermabrasion is healing fantastically but it is too early to tell if it worked. So we are going back to his office on 12/21 and at that point we may be able to take off the bandages and begin moving forward. She hasn't needed any Tylenol in a few days and although her personality as a bit of a fussy kid had emerged several days before surgery at least I know when she is screaming its not due to pain! Seriously we had a few BAD days this week but then Thur, Fri and Sat night have all gone amazingly well. She is starting to be able to go to sleep with a little bit easier time. Which makes mom and dad much happier. Last week Craig almost missed work one day because we over slept from being up most the night with Sophie and it has been a little rough on me as I seem to spend ALL day holding her but like I said she is starting to mellow out a little more. This weekend we even went on some outings, three stores, dinner and the library. Have I mentioned it is only my 4th time out of the house in a month! Talk about cabin fever. Well I continue to appreciate all the prayers and notes. I guess a continued request is getting her adjusted to sleeping and awake times. Starting soon I think we will have to adapt her positioning especially for the balloon in the back. Love to all, Amanda

A few more pics

Post op day 1

Hey everyone we made it through. I know many of you at least on my side of things have been updated by my mom but here is somethings I wanted to share. The day before surgery I made myself really busy and didn't even think about what was coming and I didn't really do it on purpose but in retrospect I think that was a huge answer to prayer because my normal self is a worrier. The night before was a little tough, I'm not going to lie, Sophie was not to happy about having to fast. Again in retrospect even though she was crying I held her and rocked her for two hours and now its a little harder to hold her so tight so that was good. At the hospital a couple from church met with us and prayed and I had a lot of peace going in to the surgery, the worst part was right as they went to take her away from us or as Craig says rip her out of my kung fu grip (if you have seen Meet the Parents you should giggle) she started crying again and that was hard for both Craig and I. During surgery my parents served as excellent support and distractions and I dare say we had fun and the time went fast. We were probably the only group in there chuckling and making friends. A woman saw Craig reading his bible and asked him to look up a verse for her, we struck up a conversation and her little 5 year old boy was diagnosed with brain cancer at 1 month old and has had countless surgeries and procedures. It sure makes you think. After surgery the surgeon came out to talk to us, in the front there is an expander, and incision, and three areas of dermabrasion. In back there is an expander, an incision and one small dermabrasion. The dermabrasions he is doing in areas where the mole looks very surfacy because while painful if successful the healing will be much easier and quicker than the expanders and it will create more healthy tissue. Anyways I really liked what he said, there are three stages and each require an equal amount of prayer, the first is the actual surgery and we are through that already, the next is the immediate post op and last is the long term plan of expanding and preparing to replace the tissue. I praise God again for a surgeon who emphasizes prayer. So we went back to see Sophie. This was another tough spot she screamed at the top of her lungs for almost 2 hrs. She wouldn't eat either by nursing, a bottle, or a little sugar water solution. Her sweet little face was so swollen and she kept trying to find her hands to comfort herself and kept bashing her self in the head with all the tubing and splinting for the IV in her hands. We went up to a room and it wasn't what they told us originally where we would have a private room so I could stay with her and have privacy and the nurse that we had initially was very robotic and would answer my questions like she was reading from a textbook and kept asking me what I thought should be done for Sophie. Like I knew, this is the firsttime I ever had a my two week old baby require major surgery!?! And Sophie was still screaming! It was like 1 pm and my head was starting to pound as I was extremely hungry and tense and did I mention Sophie was still screaming! I had praying on and off in my head ever since we got her in are arms again and I was about to send Craig to get me food although I was petrified of the thought of him leaving me there with my screaming child and an unhelpful nurse when Sophies meds kicked in finally and she quieted down and a tray of food came in for the mother of the patient. God is good. Hospital food never tasted so good and within moments my headache was gone and after I ate Sophie nursed! Praise God! As the afternoon wore on Craig had to leave for awhile to transport Grace from babysitter 2 of the day (Grandma) to babysitter 3 (Aunt Angel) and there were still rough patches and Sophie would intermittently cry out and her little throat was so hoarse sounding and as the afternoon wore on the cries turned to moaning and whimpering and late that night it almost sounded like hiccups. Craig came back around dinner time (didn't help that we are in the middle of a blizzard so the roads have been slick). My mom and sister were praying for a night nurse that was more emotional or "our style" as I called it although that first lady bless her heart did arrange for us to have our room alone so we would have privacy. But my night nurse was FANTASTIC. At 5 pm Sophie drank one ounce from a bottle but then after that wouldnt eat. Each time I would try nursing first, when that wouldn't work I would pump and then try to give her a bottle and then would give up as she just slumbered on. The good thing is she gradually seemed less and less in pain as I described the changing cries above but she just was zonked out. I got a nap from 8 pm to 10 pm and Craig went home from 11 to 5 and slept and cared for the dog. And Angel graciously (no pun intended) took care of Grace. All through the night Sophie slept soundly and by this point wasn't making any crying noises just fast asleep. One difficult thing is I selfishly want to hold her but feel afraid to, there are few areas on her trunk that aren't affected and its hard to know how to hold her. In a week or so that should be a lot easier. In the morning the parade of Drs started, all the plastic surgeons came in none of which appeared to have any experience in pediatrics but Craig and I suspect they had a curiousity to see the once in a million nevus baby, but had no real answers in terms of her not eating. Finally we got her to eat another ounce from a bottle around ten and then our Dr came in around 11. The surgery stuff all looked fine but he wanted her to eat one more time and for us to feel comfortable before we went home. And praise God at 12:30 she gulped down a 2 oz bottle. We got home about 2:15, Grace was still with my parents who took her off Angels hands this morning. And at 4 pm Sophie woke up, looked around at me with eyes wide open for a few minutes, NOT CRYING. She took her medicine and started nursing! Praise God! Just then my parents showed up with Grace and we had a nice visit and dinner with them. She is still very sleepy but wakes up on a regular basis to eat. She isn't crying too much and when she does its not a severe pain cry which is awesome. She is a bit easier to handle now without the tubes and stuff and in her real clothes and lovees. So that brings you all up to speed. As you can see many answers to prayer along the way and please continue to pray for this phase 2 recovery period as the Dr described. I have been so touched by the outpouring of love and emails, my parents forward all the emails they get to me. I have to say my dad's One America family is most impressive in there sending of prayer! The prayers are working, God is so good. I am attaching pictures so you can see little Sophie brave boo-boos. Love to all, more in a few days. A weary Momma