Update on Baby E

I think I am going to end up jumping back and forth between past stories and life right now--I guess it just depends on my mood and what I have to say! This has been a pretty crazy weekend, so I will re-cap.

Friday morning I went in to get my wisdom teeth pulled. I have been needing to do this for some time, and it just happened that the only time it worked out was days after baby E's surgery. Things went really well, and I was back home recovering before I knew it. My husband took over all of the kiddo duties, and I was able to get a great nap in.

Little E's foot dressing was able to come off Friday morning, so before we left we for my surgery, Lorenzo re-wrapped it to protect her toe from being hit. Little did we know the chaos that would ensue! Saturday morning we took our gauze off her foot, only to find this:

What the heck? Her removed toe is underneath the pink band-aid, so we were immediately concerned with the red rash that was forming on the other side of her foot. We called the on-call doctor at the hospital, but they never got back to us; off to the Naval Hospital ER we went.

It turns out that E had an allergic reaction to the adhesive in the medical bandage. We were told just to watch the foot for signs of infection. As I emerged from the ER with E, Lorenzo and Morgan were pacing back and forth in the waiting room, "ugh-oh IPad brokened" I heard M say. We tell her the IPad is "broken" when the battery has died, but it turns out it was really broken. In a fury M had thrown the IPad to the ground because "Bunge,Bunge, Bob" would not play on Netflix due to the lack of wi-fi.

On our way home we stopped and got Mexican food; are there any problems some guac can't solve? I was feeling better, and the kids were calming down. As I walked past the bathroom later that evening, the scale caught the corner of my eye. I figured getting oral surgery would be a good way to help me kick the last few pounds of baby weight--wrong again! Not only had I not lost weight, but I had gained about 8 pounds! Well, that was depressing.

I finally got to bed early for the first night in weeks. Then, at 1 am E woke up screaming. My amazing husband stayed up all night rocking her back to sleep over and over again. This morning when I finally got up, I went to change her out of her PJ's and got a peak at her foot:

The poor girl has been miserable. This blister has been harder for her than the surgical wound it seems. I am nervous it may pop and cause an infection, so we have been very careful. To top things off we are struggling with a diaper rash that I can't seem to kick. Her doctor confirmed it wasn't yeast, but I am paranoid about letting any diaper rash get too bad with her.

So, I slathered her bottom in coconut oil, gave her some Tylenol, and gently put a sock and zip up PJ's on little E and got her ready for bed.  Here is one last picture of her actual surgical area--we go in on Tuesday for her post-op appointment:

Here is to hoping your weekend was less eventful & that the 8 pounds I magically gained will slide off as easily as I packed them on!

Baby E's Big Day

Yesterday was a very big day for our youngest daughter, E. Eight hours after she was born, I was shocked to learn from her pediatrician that she had 11 toes. Now, I know that this really is a minor thing, but that day was such an emotional roller-coaster that the news caused me to have an absolute meltdown. A lot of things ran through my head, including thoughts that this was a sign that she could have something majorly wrong with her developmentally. If this had been the case I know we could have coped, but thankfully she seems to be a normally developing baby so far.

The doctor's advised that we should remove her extra pinky toe when E got a bit older because its placement would cause pain which could potentially effect her walking/running when she got older. I struggled with the thought of my 6-month old baby going under general anesthesia, but I also knew that taking care of the extra toe before she learned to walk would be ideal. A month after she was born we had decided to go forward with the surgery and it was scheduled for February 5th. 

As we drove through the dark marsh on the way to the city to get her pediatric orthopedic surgeon, I started second guessing our parenting decision, "Are we really doing the right thing here?" E was not allowed to eat after midnight, and even though it was only 4 AM, I already feared the moment she awoke and I would have to deny her the bottle she so desperately wanted. 

We made great time to the hospital, with a crazy Starbucks stop at Harris Teeter en route, and before I knew it we were wandering around the hospital looking for the right Elevator. I had taken detailed notes the day before when the nurse called to confirm, but in my nervousness I completely lost all sense of what I had transcribed. At 5:50 AM we finally checked-in. 

They called us back to pre-op at 6, and the moment I had feared all along came to fruition; we were forced to wake E up to get her weight and dress her in the hospital gown. To my surprise the first 30 minutes she was all smiles--perhaps excited to wake up to so much attention! That didn't last forever though, and then they lips started quivering; it was heartbreaking. Daddy came to the rescue and swaddled E up in her fuzzy giraffe blanky, and she fell back asleep until 7:30. 

The last half hour before they brought her to the OR was tough. There were also other people in the pre-op area waiting for surgery. A 3-month old baby boy needing heart surgery,a 12-year old girl getting a umbilical hernia repaired, and another 6-month old baby boy who's procedure I could not overhear (I know, I'm super nosey). I couldn't help but feel like the worst parent ever looking around the room at children who absolutely needed these surgeries, and my baby just having a toe removed--purely cosmetic some might argue. 

E did wonderful, and she has already bounced back and acting normal today. I am sure she misses her beloved jumperoo though :) At the end of the day, I am glad we had the surgery to remove her extra toe. I think that this was a relative easy process for her, and as she gets older it would have been a lot harder on her--especially if her foot was already hurting her beforehand. I know not everybody would agree with the decision, but I guess that comes with the turf of being a parent. I know I may not always have the "right answer", but I think I am like any mom who just wants what is best for my kids.