Ella's Ordeal!

Morning of the surgery and she's all smiles!

Since she couldn't eat we didn't even take her downstairs until it was time to go in the car. She even helped me pick out her clothes. She also had to take care of a few more things before it was time to go.

Blow your nose!

Brush your teeth!

Dance with Mickey!

We had to check in at the hospital at 10am since surgery was at noon.

They took us right back to her Pre-Op room where I got her changed into her cute hospital outfit.

They had these cool games all over the place so she kept herself busy with that. Doesn't she look like Yoda in her gown?

Happy Girl!

Getting nervous! Once we got into the room and our nurse was going over what was going to happen another nurse came in and said that they were ready for us early! It really sped things up. My worse fear came true in that I found out I wasn't going to get to be with her when she went to sleep, but the nurse did give her happy juice so she was very relaxed!

After happy juice!

This was the nurse that came and took her back to the OR. She would have NEVER gone to a perfect stranger without screaming, but the happy juice did it's job and she didn't fight one bit! I almost started crying when we walked away from her, but I stopped myself and just trust that she was in good hands.

She went into surgery right around 11 - 11:15. Since we didn't really eat breakfast because we didn't want to be rude around Ella we went down to the cafeteria to have an early lunch. After that it was up to the waiting room. The surgery was supposed to take 2 hours, but after an hour and a half they were calling us down to recovery.

Poor baby girl was not happy coming out of the anesthesia. She really wanted to ripe her IV out so I had to wrap her arm in her blanket. Finally the head nurse came over and wrapped her hand in a newborn diaper so it looked like she was wearing a boxing glove.

That is not blood on the back of her head wrap it's just the antiseptic they washed her head in.   

Once we got into our overnight room she spent a long time on my chest.

She wasn't really resting well though...she kept waking up every 15 minutes or so and freaking out and then she'd go back to sleep. After a while I tried laying her in the bed to see if she would actually relax and go to sleep for a longer period of time.

Here was her crib set up. Those rails go almost all the way up and then if your kid is a climber they have rails they have clear window things that come down.

This was Ella's nemesis during her hospital stay. She pointed to it and said, "Ahhh" aka "Off" more times than I can count. Every time I would say, "Not time" and she would get so mad she would scowl at me and try to hit me.

Finally falling asleep in her crib. See the sippy cup? That became her other best friend...if I tried to take it away she freaked out. She slept with it clutched in her hand almost the whole stay.

My parents kept the boys overnight for us on Monday night so Ella didn't have to be around other kids eating in the morning prior to surgery. My Dad took Tuesday off so he could watch the boys and Michael could be with me at the hospital. After my Mom got off work they came up with the boys. Owen loves being in hospitals...seriously! He loves everything...drinking juice out of those little cups, sitting on the window ledge, going in the elevator, sitting in the bed...etc!

When Owen got in the bed with Ella he immediately decided to give her a raspberry on her tummy and she gave us the biggest smile....it was her first smile after the surgery!

Jack felt asleep in the car on the way to the hospital so he wasn't really in a good mood during the visit.

Pa checking out his Princess!

Eventually it was time for the boys to go home with Daddy. As you can see Jack was none too happy about that!

Ella all settled in for the night! She had a good night considering. Of course she was getting pain meds and they had to come in and check her vitals, but over the course of the night we both got a least 6 hours of sleep total....Ella probably got a little more than that.

The second day is always the worst! Ella decided that after 4am she wasn't going to eat or drink anything. They had unhooked her IV, but had to hook it back up since she wasn't getting anything by mouth. Then she pulled her bandage off her belly and it had to be redressed. She did NOT like it when the nurse came in and did anything with her. I almost thought they were going to keep us another night, but then she finally started eating and drinking again. In order for us to go home she also had to get off the IV meds and onto oral instead. She really dislikes oral meds so we have to pretty much hog tie her.

After she started eating it was like her old self came back. She started acting really silly and playing with me.

"Mama I'll feed you!"

Then she really started moving. I had to put the crib rails all the way up!

She decided it was time to get out of that silly crib and play around for a bit. Since she really made a 180 turn they felt comfortable sending her home. We ended up getting discharged around 3:30pm.

Of course she fell asleep right around 3pm and was in such a good deep sleep. I hated to wake her, but it was time to go.

Walking out of the hospital! Her bandage on her head has to stay on until Friday. Then we have to rub Neosporin on her stitches for 2 weeks and they will dissolve on there own in about 4 - 6 weeks. Thankfully they didn't cut much of her hair and what they did cut they gave to us to keep.

Following Daddy and the Bubbas!

So happy to be bringing my baby girl home! During the surgery I was really at peace and just knew that everything would go well. I'm so thankfully for all the prayers that were said for our baby. In a way I really do feel like she's every one's baby. Ella Grace brings such joy to every one's life. You can't help, but fall in love with her and her personality. We are truly blessed to be her parents!