The Tatum Family: Home Sweet Home

Most of my readers know that Hannah came home yesterday after a two night stay at CHOC Hospital. Her cleft was repaired beautifully by Dr. Sundine. There are two open cuts down each side which will eventually fuse together on their own and a line down the center of her mouth with disolvable stitches. We arrived early Monday morning for the big event. Tim and I have had mixed emotions all week about her surgery. It is happy and exciting that we can finally put this issue to rest, but it is so scary as a mother to know your baby is going under the knife. I was also surprised how hard it hit me that my baby would look different. I know to all of you she looks the same, but to me, I knew I'd look in her mouth and it would be different than the baby I had at birth. I wasn't sure how I would deal with that. I know she was created beautifully and perfectly by God, but I also know that fixing her is for the best. I hope Hannah knows that in my eyes she has always and will always be perfect. The morning of the surgery, Hannah was happy and thought it was the best thing ever. She had a lot of attention from loved ones and even got to ride on a bus. Nurses brought in toys for her to play with and she was in heaven. Around 7:30 they gave her loopy juice which was sad but kind of funny. Sweet baby kept trying to clap. (PS. an update from the last post, they weighed and measured her before she went back and she has grown 3 inches in the last few days. Not really, we think the pediatrician measured wrong and she is really 29 inches). I hated having them take Hannah away from me and the waiting game was difficult. Tim says he will always remember that Hannah tried to pull the nurses mask off when they took her away. It made him smile and lightened the mood. After two hours the doctor came out and told me it went well. Thank God! Tim and I went back to recovery where she was very drugged, but looking good. I was really surprised that when she woke up and started crying she didn't even sound like herself. There was so much blood in her mouth and her throat was swollen from the breathing tube that she barked like a seal. They had to call the respiratory specialist over to help her. Ironically he had a four year old daughter named Hannah who was also born on 1-5. We stayed an hour there and were entertained by the man next to us waking up from his anesthesia. Hannah finally got to be wheeled over to her room at CHOC and was thankful for all her visitors. The first day she mostly rested and was on morphine every 4 hours. Day two her happy playful personality was back, but she still would not eat. Hannah had a roommate named Unch. He was a 10 month little boy who had a kidney removed and she liked watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with him. She spiked a 103 fever the first night and 101 the second night, but other than that vitals looked great. Hannah loved how the oxygen measure taped to her foot lit up like her glowworm and she played with it all night long. Mommy and Daddy didn't sleep much but we knew regardless of our accommodations, Hannah was much more uncomfortable and we wouldn't have chosen to be anywhere but with her. On day two, her IV started leaking and they said they were going to have to re-stab her because she still wasn't eating. I think Hannah heard and started eating just then. She still isn't eating much, but it's something. She also cut out the morphine and switched to Tylenol with codeine. Hannah misses having her paci at night time so she sleeps with mommy as her comfort. This means daddy is on the couch. She wears the NoNos to prevent putting things in her mouth, but has already learned to take them off. Three weeks of this should be interesting. I think she will get a little better each day. I am so proud of my sweet angel and she is stronger than I could ever be.

Hannah with the CHOC Bear