A Big Week

Last week was a big one for us as the oldest and youngest members of our tribe both had surgery - Makenna kicked off her first Halloween with an early morning in the OR and my dad had one of his batteries replaced (yes, he really is Frankenstein) the Friday before.

So this being our second of this kind and third overall you'd think it would get a bit easier every time but that wasn't quite the case for me, although it was more familiar now that we know how this goes,I'm not quite sure handing my baby over will ever get easier. Luckily our little peanut handles it all with such grace an patience. Despite getting up at 4 and spending 2+ hours in the waiting room with ZERO food, she didn't shed a tear and walked happily down the hall when the nurse took her away.

Light reading in the waiting room with Duck & Goose

THIS KID DOESN'T SLEEP. No seriously, people usually give me the 'yeah, all parents go through that' look when I say that, but I think we're bordering on the extreme here with surgery day being a prime example. Not only did she wake up from anesthesia BEFORE the doctor finished briefing us, she was also discharged within a fraction of the time they estimated. The doctor was SHOCKED to see her in the hallway being so alert (despite the demeral) and said 'Wow! Now this is what the face of recovery should look like!' They also tell you that the baby will sleep off the anesthesia most of the day-not so! She took almost a 2 hour nap (1.5 hours longer than she EVER naps) and that was it for the day, then it was on to the Halloween festivities. This kid doesn't want to miss a beat!

No idea why we were smiling - this was not fun

The littlest patient of the day

Nonna entertaining a hungry goose

About this surgery: They usually start patients at an intensity level of 8, but Makenna started out at 11 and they bumped it all the way up to a 13 this time because results weren't what they expected last time. She had more bruising and a harder time recovering from anesthesia but not too much discomfort, or at least she didn't show it. We're in the process of scheduling the next one while trying to coordinate it with getting an MRI on the other side of the hospital of her spinal cord while she is under to prevent having GA yet another time. So please get the prayers started early on this one -we are praying her spinal cord is ok!

Luckily she was feeling well enough to carve her first pumpkin, or at least play with the guts, and hop into her strawberry costume for a couple minutes that afternoon to at least get to celebrate a little bit of her first Halloween. My hometown is know world-wide for their strawberries so we thought this would be a great fit for her.

The sweetest strawberry

Pilates for strawberries

In other goose news, she's still a peanut hanging steadily around the 25th percentile in both height and weight. But don't let her petite size fool  you, this kid is tough, and by the bumps, bruises and scrapes on me, you can see she is pretty strong too. Just after she turned 7 months, with absolutely no interest in crawling, she decided it was about time she started standing and pulling herself up on everything and more recently cruising. She has also mastered the wave but the only person she finds worthy of it on a regular basis is that cute baby in the mirror. She's also very verbal, talking, singing, rambling on an on throughout the day, and I am almost positive she speaks Italian based on some of the inflections in her voice and the authority she commands when she decides she needs something.

We've also been lucky to get some amazing Fall weather here, and that means beach time! We've been spending early mornings before work and late afternoons after just enjoying the beach.

Thanks for all of the love and support you have shown us the past couple of weeks. These surgery days, and the days following are so unbearably hard on us sometimes, but made much better by your love. THANK YOU.