MERRY CHRISTMAS (ALMOST)!!!

6 weeks has passed since my last post... not due to any situations or problems, pure laziness is really all I have to blame it on.  In fairness, I did tell you that our lives are not very exciting so really haven't had much to write about. I am so much more productive when I am working - I actually think that I can blame it on the fact that I really haven't dressed in anything other than jeans or yoga pants (oh - and flannel pajama bottoms) in more than 4 months.  I am a sloth.

Enough about me!  Nicole's palate surgery went as expected and all is well.  She was in arm restraints for 3 weeks and has been on a soft diet for the last 5 weeks with approximately one week to go.  All I can say is that she is a trooper through and through.  She recovered very quickly all things considered and was very good natured throughout.  Due to the surgery, we had to take away her "poor mans soother" aka the dishcloth she liked to suck on at night.  Last night was the first night since the surgery that she has slept entirely through the night in her own bed.  All in all though, we have nothing to complain about.  Her speech is starting to come - she says "mama" (not necessarily to me), "meow" (to the cat), "hi" (to everybody), and "more".  Basically all the important words... in the spirit of Christmas she has added "ho, ho, ho" to her repetoire.  We meet with the speech pathologist in early January to find out next steps.

All other development continues to be excellent - physically she is BUSY!  Her hearing was tested 3 weeks after the surgery and all is normal.  She understands everything and seems to love music and art - which is hopefully not a sign that she will be living in our basement until she's 35!!

Alex is loving Grade 2 and is busy with her skating, Brownies and running - indoor soccer and skiing start after Christmas.  She turned 7 last week and is looking VERY forward to Christmas.  She still loves being a big sister although has informed us that since the surgeries "there is nothing interesting about Nicole anymore"!

Here are some pics of the "new Nicole" -

  Nicole was thrilled to meet Santa for the first time!

Palate Day!!

Today is the day Nicole had her palate fixed! Essentially the procedure is to cut the tissue and muscle in her mouth, stretch it across the cleft and sew it back up. She also had ear tubes put in at the same time which is pretty standard with cleft babies. The surgery lasted 4.5 hours and she is currently sleeping it off in Recovery. She is in a humidified tent to keep her mouth moist... We have seen her. She is a little gruesome right now as they are letting the blood drain from her mouth. The only glitch was that they had to take some tissue from her cheek and move it to the top of her mouth, so she has stitches in her cheek as well.

She is in ICU tonight so I will be staying with her. Hopefully we will both get a little sleep!



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Home early with our Thanksgiving Turkey!!

First and foremost - thanks to everyone for their kind messages/ emails/ phone calls etc!  We are so touched that so many people are concerned about Nicole!

Nicole came through the surgery really well.  Tuesday night was a little rough, she was on morphine and in pain and just did not understand what was happening.  Did I mention the arm restraints???  That pretty much added insult to injury!  She came out of the anesthetic about 6 pm and only wanted me to hold her until around 10 pm - not a happy camper... can't say I blame her.  She has well over 100 stitches on the inside and outside of her mouth holding it together.  She is somewhat akin to a Turkey sewn up for Thanksgiving (without the stuffing of course)!

Wednesday morning was a lot better, she drank quite a bit and ate (which she loves to do) so the nurses decided that we were better off out of their hair!  I wasn't about to argue... I still haven't had that glass of wine....

Overall last night went well.  Unfortunately Nicole developed a low grade fever and a cold so we are keeping her comfortable and as quiet as possible with Tylenol and Elmo videos - I know, I know - drugging and throwing a kid in front of the TV probably isn't the answer but I am not very creative.  While she is still not happy with the arm restraints, even less happy with the liquid diet (especially while watching her sister eat yummy solid foods) and still swollen and sore, she is still fairly good natured.  I don't know if I could say that I would be as pleasant given the situation.

Here are some pics of the "new and improved" Nicole - quite a drastic change and we are thrilled with the results.  Keep in mind, most of these were taken shortly after surgery and we are still less than 48 hours out so there is still quite a bit of swelling.  WE ARE GLAD TO BE HOME!!!

Thoughts from the waiting room

Today is the day!  John and I are sitting in the waiting room and little Nicole is in surgery.  She was in fabulous spirits, especially considering she had nothing to eat since last night!  She spent the morning watching Alex run in the area Cross Country meet - on a VERY positive note, Alex came 19th out of 235 Grade 2 girls!  Unfortunately Alex's success on the field was dampened by her having to say goodbye to her sister... She was quite choked up when we left.  Luckily, with the wonders of the modern world, we will be able to FaceTime through the week.

Back to Nicole, she was all smiles in the waiting area and even shook the hands of the doctors as they came to see her.  I figured that if she was ever going to suck up to anyone... These were definitely the guys to suck up to!  She was quite thrilled to be wheeled away to the OR in a little wagon.  I am also happy to report that neither John or I burst into tears as she was wheeled away.  Truth be told however, I could really use a glass of wine right now!  She is 2 hours into a 3 hour operation right now and we will see her in Recovery.  She will likely be out for the rest of the night, I will stay with her and John will go home to stay with Alex and come back in the a.m.

Not much else to report... We are both bored and trying to make time go faster.

Will update more as we know it!

A Video Montage of our Trip to China

Hello all,

Well - 3 days and counting to surgery!!  While we are looking forward to seeing the end result, there is nonetheless a little trepidation about the actual operation.  We thank everyone for their kind wishes and offers of help - it is so appreciated!!

As for us, life has pretty much gotten back to normal (whatever that is!).  Alex has settled into Grade 2 and has started up all of her fall activities and Nicole is turning into quite the little ham!  She is curious and very mischievous!  She continues to be extremely good natured and an excellent sleeper (whew!).

I will update the blog through the surgery this week - Nicole goes in on Tuesday, surgery is Tuesday afternoon and she will be in ICU Observation on Tuesday night.  Hopefully she will get moved to her own room on Wednesday and home on Thursday or Friday.  John and I will be with her the whole time  and alternating nights so one of us will be with Alex and one with Nicole.  Should make for a crazy week!

For those of you that are interested - I have included a link below to view our very homemade video of our trip to China which includes our introduction to Nicole.  It is about 25 minutes long - just to warn you!!  I am certainly not a videographer (there is a reason I work for the Bank), so please excuse any glaring problems (ie music transitions etc)!

Stay tuned!!




http://youtu.be/GtXRlhu4kIM

Surgery has been set!!

Hello again,


I have had really good intentions to update this blog more often, but we all know where good intentions lead!  Little Nicole has continued to transition really well to the North American way of doing things... some notable events and life lessons learned she has learned are listed below (but not limited too!)

1) Why eat 1 plate of pasta when you can eat 4?
2) When you eat too much watermelon, activities are limited the next day (I am too polite to get into details... lets just say it wasn't pretty).
3) Pools are fun
4) Sometimes there are gates in front of stairs that block where you want to go, if you can't climb over them, climb under them.
5) Stairs can be dangerous (refer note 4)
6) You can get into more mischief when Daddy "watches" you.

On the medical front, we have firm dates for the surgeries - her lip will be done on October 2, and the palate on November 14th.  While we are certainly anxious to have these done, there is also some worry attached.  She will be in the hospital for 2-4 days each time.  Nicole continues to wear the tape across her cheeks to relax her muscles and bring things together - it really doesn't seem to bother her which is a blessing.  It certainly does not slow her eating down AT ALL!

As for Alex, she continues to be a great big sister and has been very proud to show off her new toy (oops... I mean Nicole) to all her friends at camp, soccer & baseball.  As one of our friends aptly put it, "you got her a real live dolls" - it is true.  Nicole continues to follow her big sister around like she is a rock star.

I don't know that there will be too much to update you on for the next month or so until the surgery.  We have several appointments through the month to monitor her progress (ie. orthodontics etc) and to prepare her for the big day.

Stay tuned!

And so it begins...

Greetings!

In my last post, I indicated that our regular daily lives are not that exciting and indeed that has not changed.  However, I did promise to update as to Nicole's medical progress and so here is the most recent!

We have essentially been getting back to our "new norm" over the last 2 weeks, Nicole has met most of her extended family (cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents) as well as some friends.  So far she has charmed most of them!!

Here are the girls with Grandma Helen and Grandpa Charles (my family)

and Grandma Sherry and Grandpa Ray (John's)

We also have been on our first bike ride, picnic, splash pad etc!

On the medical front,  Nicole also had a bunch of "firsts".  We started with the pediatrician appointment - uneventful outside of the fact that she has to have all of her vaccinations retaken and had 4-5 viles of blood taken to test for any diseases etc (this is standard for all international adoptions).  She had 2 vaccinations done and the rest will be done over the coming months.  Did I mention the stool sample?? That was my personal favourite....

We had our first round of appointments at Sick Kids this week - they have a whole cleft lip/ palate team  consisting of Social Workers, Occupational Therapists, Plastic Surgeons, dentist, orthodontists etc... we met ALL of them!!  Nicole was not a particular fan of the dentist or the orthodontist (who taped her lip to retrain the muscles, this will hopefully reduce some of the tension on the stitches when her lip gets fixed).  I think she bit the dentist's finger hard - the Dentist was very nice about it but I think that Nicole feigned innocence....  Surgery is being scheduled for 6-8 weeks, she will be in the hospital for 2-3 days depending on how well she tolerates everything.  She will have the tape on until the surgery - it is changed daily - needless to say, she is not the biggest fan!

Round 2 of appointments is in 10 days when we get to see our friendly Ears, Nose, Throat Specialist and she will be lucky enough to get a hearing test!  To top off the day, she will be lucky to see the orthodontist again to check out her lip.  Let the good times roll!