Cranio Surgery: Day 1 Post-Op

We left the house yesterday morning around 4:30 am, checked in by 5:30.  Savannah was a champ through all of the traveling and the waiting and the pre-op routine. 

In her sweet surgical gown.  Remember this face....because it looks REALLY different right now!

Her surgery went from 7:30 am until about 2 pm yesterday.  During surgery they called us every hour with updates (which was SO nice) and afterwards we met with Dr. Teichgraeber who said everything went smoothly, as expected.

When we finally got to see her in the recovery room she looked like a little Rocky Balboa after one of his prize fights.

About 30 minutes post-op; she could still see out of her right eye, barely

We knew the swelling was going to get a lot worse, and it definitely has.  Now that it has peaked (hopefully) she looks a lot more like Jabba the Hut than even a really, really banged up Stalone.

In the PICU snuggling my baby...very gently.

We've had some great nurses so far, but the first few didn't have a lot of cranio-kid experience.  Then this morning, Natalie came on duty.  She's cared for lots of cranio-kids and knew about these awesome, cold gel-goggles that really help keep swelling down in the eyes.  Just before she put them on it looked like Savannah's eyelids were going to flip inside out because she was so swollen (not an uncommon thing to happen 24 hrs after this surgery).  Luckily they've worked wonders and it seems like the swelling hasn't gotten any worse. 

Sporting her cool (literally) gel-goggles

Even though we'd seen pictures of what to expect post-op and we haven't been really surprised by how she looks, it's still a little hard to take in.  So I loved when she was finally able to start breastfeeding she would do things like reach up and play with my necklace that let me know it's still my little Savannah under all of that bruising. 

With the blanket Uncle Rico (Erik) gave her

Lily has been a champ through all of this.  Monday was pretty tough on her because we were in various waiting rooms all day and she hardly got to nap at all.  Today was much better.  She got a good night's rest in a Ronald McDonald House room (on the same floor as the PICU), and took 3 good naps in quiet dark rooms we tracked down. 

The babies are reunited after Savannah's released from the PICU. Bonus points for anyone who can come up for a good caption for what Lily's saying here.  :)

My mom wasn't supposed to fly in until Friday, but changed her flight when she found out my Dad would be out of town on business this week.  She flew in this afternoon and drove right down the hospital to love on her little grandbabies and help Rob and me keep up with everything.  We're so grateful she's here!

(A video is supposed to go here, but it won't upload on our hospital wi-fi connection.  We'll post it on Friday.)

So, we're here at the end of Day 1 post-op and I know that every day after this will just keep getting better.  We've had some rough patches today, but overall I've felt very calm and peaceful--which I completely attribute to all of your thoughts and prayers.


So thank you, thank you, thank you.  Very much.  It means a lot to know there are so many wonderful people who care about our little family.   We'll keep you posted on how things go tomorrow.  Dr. Teichgraeber says we should expect to be out of here by Friday....I don't know that I've ever looked forward to a Friday so much in my life!!