Been a long time!

So it has been an eternity since my last blog post. Of course there has been a lot going on in the life of little miss Charlotte, who today is 5 months old! I'll start with the major event that occured in late September. Don't know if you took notice to many of Charlotte's previous pictures, but she was born with an extra digit on her left hand. Not a full digit really, but more of a skin tag type deal. And on her left hand there was a "nubbin" as the doctor called it. When Charlotte was just a month old we went for a consultation with a pediatric hand surgeon, who suggested we wait until she was at least 4 months old to get the surgery because she would have to be put under anesthesia. So...time went quickly, and on September 24th it was time for her surgery. It was an interesting evening before the surgery as she had to fast for several hours. Since the surgery wasn't until 8:30am and she had been eating at 7pm and sleeping 10-12 hours, the surgeon suggested we wake her up around 2 to feed her so she wouldn't be totally hysterical. Wake a sleeping baby, are you nuts lady?? Needless to say, we didn't sleep all that well that night as we had to be at the hospital at 6:30 am for the 8:30 surgery. Here is the reason we were going through all of this (look at her left hand)...



When we arrived at Fairfax Hospital's outpatient surgery center, we parked in the garage, loaded her in the stroller and wheeled our way in. We checked in at the desk and received a pager to let us know when it was our turn to come back. As we were checking in, I saw my Mom walking in. I knew she was planning on coming, but didn't think she'd show up at 6:30 am...but who am I kidding, how could Nana stay away!! We were called back very soon after we arrived and were taken back by a nurse who took Charlotte's temperature and weight and gave us this cute baby-sized gown and pants combo to change her into. I am so bummed that we didn't bring the camera to capture this look, but we got to keep the clothes! :)

By this time it was only about 7:00am (remember surgery isn't until 8:30). We were shown into the pediatric surgery waiting area and were the first arrival. Charlotte was in remarkably good spirits and actually fell asleep for a while (thanks goodness for the rocking chair they had in the waiting room). The anesthesiologist came in the room at some point to talk with us about the procedure, and then when it was time the surgeon came in and marked Charlotte's hands. At this point there were about 4 other families in the waiting room - 3 of the kids were getting tubes in their ears, and the other (a 1 month old) had a hernia. One of us was allowed to go back to the operating room with Charlotte, so I suited up in this lovely yellow gown and blue showeresque cap and carried her back. We went into the brightly lit operating room to the awaiting team of nurses and anesthesiologists. I lay her down on the table, still no crying from Charlotte! The nurses put the mask over her nose...this is when the crying started...from me, not Charlotte! They escorted me out to the waiting room, after grabbing some tissues that is.

The surgery only lasted about an hour, then Steve and I got to go back to see her in the recovery area. She was awake by the time we went back, chewing away on her pacifier. She was pretty groggy, but I was able to feed her a bit, then after about 20 minutes or so they gave us the go-ahead to go home. Charlotte had a sleepy rest of the day and slept through the night. Right back on schedule.

Here is the poor little thing with her hands bandaged...





Since Charlotte is really into chewing on her hands these days, we had to cover her bandages with socks so she wouldn't get them too wet and stinky. This is a pretty pitiful look!



She didn't seem to mind too much though!



She only had to keep her bandages on for a week. After a few good baths, the rest of the sutures came out and she has healed up really well. Just have to go back for a final follow-up in early December.