Things to Do With Grandma and Uncle

Steve's mom and brother arrived on Wednesday. We are all looking forward to it. The kids are looking forward to the candy and Lucky Charms she may bring with her. They are also looking forward to her taking them to the park. I thought I would share a list of things we hope to do while they are here. I have been wanting to write them down anyway. Now you can all see them too.

* Go to Burghley House Garden of Surprise
* Stamford Market
* Lego Land
* Rutland Water and the Butterfly house
* Pet. City Centre
* Springfields Outlet mall
* Possible Stratford Upon Avon

Another Anna Update

It seems as though Anna is finally back to her normal self. The beginning to the middle of last week were really rough as she seemed to be in a lot of pain. She was also waking, crying in the middle of the night about every two hours . It felt like we had a newborn once again. It was rough. By Wednesday or Thursday, she was started sleeping through. Steve thinks she just got herself into a routine and was waking because of that instead of pain. She isn't taking pain medicine anymore, unless she complains of her mouth hurting.

We are also seeing some delightful results from her surgeries. She does seem to be hearing better. She seems to be hearing more of what is going on around her. Her talking has also improved and her voice is even a little softer and sweeter. We've heard from others that her ears would be more sensitive to sound, but we haven't seen that too much though. We took her back to church yesterday for the first time since the surgery and she did want to be held during the worship. I asked her if the music was too loud and she shook her head yes. She didn't plug her ears though.

We are so thankful to have her surgery over with and to be seeing results from it. Thanks again to all who have prayed for her. It is great to have our little girl back to feeling herself.

Anna's Home

We are home from the hospital. We were released around 9:30 this morning, but we had to wait around the hospital for Steve and the kids to get there to pick us up. Annaliese is such a trooper. She is doing really well, quite resilient. She relaxed as soon as we got in the car on the way home and fell straight asleep. We stopped when we were almost home and got a quick lunch. After we got home, we put all the kids down for naps (mom and dad included). Mom and Anna slept for two and a half hours. She's been great tonight, very happy to be at home with her sister. The two of them have been silly together all evening. The doctors told us to keep her on regular pain medicine for three days, because her throat would be sore. She hasn't complained about it too much though. You would hardly know she had surgery yesterday. They also told us to watch out for bleeding. A very small percent of children who have their tonsils out have bleeding between days 3-5 after the surgery. If bleeding occurs, we are instructed to go right to the A&E (emergency room) because they may have to do more surgery to stop it.

Right now our biggest concern is keeping Anna down a bit and we are praying against any bleeding. We are all glad to be back together as a family again.

Now I'll go through the happenings of the last two days.

Anna before surgery in her clown gown we had to wrestle her into. She didn't like anyone doing anything to her and she put up pretty good fights if anyone came near her. Once it was time for her to go in to be put to sleep she had calmed down. In preop, one of us was able to go into the room with her to hold her when she went to sleep. I let Steve do that. They used gas and air and she was out in about 25 seconds. After she was out, Steve left and we went down and got some breakfast. Also, after she was out they then put in her IV.

Mommy and Anna before surgery

Anna showing off her new watches. She didn't want them put on, but she is very proud of them now. She still won't let me remove them. She'll probably have them on for a week or two :)

Anna after her surgery and after lunch. Over here they don't do the ice cream and jello thing after kids have their tonsils out. They say to eat regular, crunchy food because it helps their mouths to heal. For lunch, I got Anna some sausage, smiley fries, jello and applesauce. She didn't seem interested in it as first. Steve headed out to get lunch for the two of us. While he was gone, Anna threw up. The nurses said it was common for kids to be sick after having their tonsils out. They apparently swallow a bunch of blood from the surgery and that upsets their stomachs causing them to be sick. After she threw up, she was immediately hungry. She ate most of her sausage and then proceeded to eat the rest of my sandwich and some chips.

She was wide awake most of the afternoon and sat with daddy while mommy slept in Anna's bed. Anna, finally, fell asleep hard late in the afternoon. We had to wake her for dinner. She didn't eat much, but she drank quite a bit.

Before Steve left, we took a walk out into the garden of the kids ward. They have a playground for the kids. She found a stroller, put her baby in it and took possession of it for the rest of the night. We just walked and walked as she pushed her baby through the whole ward. First thing this morning, we were off to find the stroller once again.

This is a picture of Anna's bed (mine folded down from the closet next to her bed). She was in a room with six beds and five of them were filled. Anna had a great nights sleep, only crying once in her sleep and we upped her pain medicine. Mommy didn't sleep as well. There were two babies that had surgery late in the day yesterday. They had a pretty bad nights sleep. They were crying, breathing hard and their monitors were going off most of the night. I felt so sorry for their moms. I also prayed many prayers of thanksgiving for my healthy children. We are very thankful that Anna is home and doing well. We can't thank you all enough for all your prayers and words of encouragement. We are truly blessed!

Update on Anna

Just a quick note to say that Anna's surgery went well. She was in for surgery at around 9:30am and we were back with her by a bit after 10. She was quite groggy for a couple of hours, but before we knew it she was eating and drinking and talking (a bit). When I left her and Marti last night, she was outside playing at a small playground at the hospital.

Thank you to everyone that was praying for her. We really felt God's peace through the whole process. She should be discharged this morning so I will be heading back to get them around lunchtime. I'm sure Marti will provide a better update once she is back.
-Steve