One Week Down...

Okie dokie ladies and gents...sorry it's been so long since my last post about Natalie. It was much easier to post while Natalie was in the hospital!

After a long couple of days for Natalie in the hospital on Wednesday and Thursday, she really started to do much better, and by Friday morning, we were confident enough to take her home. At the time, she was not eating much...or I should say, she wasn't eating at all. I guess it really didn't surprise me because she wasn't a big eater before the surgery, and with all of the pain and drugs, I wouldn't feel like eating, either!

When we got home on Friday night, we tucked her into her little hospital bed in the living room. It's the perfect size for her and it fits just right by the picture window so she can feel the sunlight while she recovers.

Under the covers, you can see that she has quite the cast---it's called a spica cast that goes from her ribs to her ankles, with an opening for a diaper and a bar to keep her legs apart. That bar also comes in handy for picking her up and holding her.

I know it looks uncomfortable, but Natalie seems to be handling it really well for the most part. She actually really loves sleeping on her side, so this position is very good for her---she usually sleeps the best when I get her positioned this way. I've learned the fine art of pillow sculpture to help keep Natalie comfortable.

One of the most difficult things is keeping her moving around. We can't let her sit in one position for too long so she doesn't get sores underneath the cast, so I move her from front to back and side to side every couple of hours. Of course, she moves around more than that because I hold her quite a bit or put her in her modified wheelchair, but this also means that she needs to be repositioned at night. Needless to say, I feel like I have a newborn, because I'm waking up four to five times a night to make sure she is repositioned! She enjoys tummy time quite a bit, which is strange, because she has never liked it before.

Pain management and feedings are the most difficult aspects of this whole rehab...at least it is for me. Nat is on hydrocodone, which helps with the pain, but also makes her sleepy. It's my goal to make sure she has as little pain as possible during this recovery, but she has been so reluctant to eat as well. Keeping her sleepy means she isn't interested in food, but she needs that food to stay healthy! She's slowly requiring less and less pain medication and her appetite is reappearing, so I will continue to pray that her little tummy can handle all of this.

So, it's one week down and three or four to go. We won't know until Dr. Haasbeek tells us---and our first appointment with him is September 8th. Hopefully she heals well before then and he can give us good news about when her cast could possibly come off. Thank you for your patience and your prayers!

Melissa