Lip Repair

Our pre op orders were no formula 8 hours prior to surgery and no breastmilk 4 hours prior to surgery. My plan was to wake him up and feed him at midnight and 4 am. It is like he knew what needed to be done, and actually woke up at 11:30 pm and 3:30 am to eat. This meant he was going to have to go 5 hours before surgery without eating. That was a long stretch for our big guy and he had only done it a handful of times. I was extremely nervous that we were going to have one ticked off baby on our hands while waiting for his surgery. I had nothing to worry about. We had to be at the hospital at 6:30, so we got him up at 6 and put him in a disposable diaper and then put him in his car seat. He stayed asleep during all of this and did not wake up until we had been at the hospital for about an hour. When he did wake up, we got him out of his car seat and he was perfectly content to watch all the other kids. They called us back around 8 and asked us all the pre op questions about last time he ate, is he taking any medications, etc. We answered these same questions for probably 5 different people. We met two nurses, a social worker, the CRNA and the anesthesiologist. We changed Ephram into his tiny hospital gown and walked him back towards the OR.

On our way, we actually saw our surgeon, fellow and resident arriving. Dr. Smith told us he had had his breakfast and coffee and he was ready to go! The OR nurse took Ephram from me and headed back to the OR. I saw her showing him off to everyone on her way back. They told us they never get tired of seeing the babies and always want to oh and ah over them. She told us if they were still going at 9:40 she would call us. I did really well handing Ephram over and was so proud of myself for keeping it together. Charles' expected me to be a hot mess, so I think he was pretty proud too! My mom arrived at the hospital right after Ephram went back for surgery. The three of us decided to get some breakfast and coffee at the hospital while we waited. At 9:40 the nurse called to say it would be another 20 minutes or so. About 20 minutes later, Dr. Smith called to let us know he was out of surgery. We headed over to recovery and he showed us a picture of the repair before he covered it up with the tape.

He answered Charles' questions about stitches and some other things I wasn't really paying attention too. Then we got to go see our sweet boy. He was awake from the anesthesia and he was not happy. They had us feed him with the syringe and he took almost an ounce of breastmilk and then he was back asleep in my arms. This is when I lost it. Ephram looks like a completely different baby and it has been really hard to get used to. Almost 2 weeks later, I still look at him and marvel at how different he looks. We were in recovery for almost an hour, and then we were taken to our room. The care at Children's was wonderful. The rooms are not. Our room was very small and had one chair that stretched out to a twin size bed and was extremely uncomfortable. We had to ask for extra chairs and there was no table. I thought it was really strange that the sleeping arrangement was for one person. Charles and I had both planned on staying the night, but due to the sleeping options, we decided he should just go home to sleep. Ephram was given morphine, Motrin and Tylenol with codeine for his pain. He was also given three doses of an antibiotic. At one point, the IV that was in his foot came out. Since the antibiotic and morphine were given through the IV we had to have it put back in. This was probably the worst part of our stay. They tried in his right arm and couldn't get it. They eventually got it in the left, but it took a long time and there were lots of tears. It felt like we were back in the hospital after his birth because they came in frequently to check how much he was eating and his wet/dirty diapers. The next morning our resident came by to check on us. They said his eating was good and we were cleared to go home. We stopped at the pharmacy on our way and were home before noon.

Discharged!

Ephram had to be fed by syringe until Sunday. This was the part we had been dreading and it was as awful as we anticipated. He ate 2-3 ounces by syringe every 2-3 hours and screamed and cried the entire time he was eating. It was hard on all of us! He was so happy on Sunday when he got his bottles back and so were we!

Yay for bottles!

Tape fell off, but nasal stints still in.

Our post op appointment was the Tuesday after surgery. His taping had fallen off on Sunday, so they just had to remove the stitch and nasal stints. Dr. Smith looked at him and was pleased with the results. They gave us some cleaning/treatment instructions. For the next week we were to clean with a hydrogen peroxide/water solution and then use something like aquaphor on the scar. After the week is up, we will start massaging vitamin E oil onto the scar and finish with a scar fading ointment they gave us. We are supposed to do this twice a day for four months. Ephram has a follow up scheduled for 3 months post lip repair. It has been almost two weeks and it is amazing how well he has healed already!

1 week post op.

2 weeks post op.