One Week Later

Melody's surgery was one week ago today. She is recovering well, although she is having some trouble sleeping. We're not sure the cause, as it could be a number of things. At least she is doing well during the day. She even started taking her bottle again! I am so pleased by this, considering that Julie never touched her bottle again after surgery. I wasn't ready to give up bottle feeding Melody, but I was prepared to do so as a likely outcome. Thankfully, that is not the case! She's also eating stage 1 and 2 baby food now. Sadly, Larry looked in Melody's mouth yesterday and said he could see a hole clear through to her nasal cavity, which means the surgery wasn't entirely successful. We see the surgeon tomorrow so we'll find out more then.

Melody also continues to amaze me with who she is, for lack of a better way of saying it. She keeps taking me by surprise with how in tune she is with everything around her. I had no idea that such a little person could have their feelings hurt, for example. I stand corrected! She is very sensitive. She is also quite aware of the fact that she can't have the food the rest of us are eating at dinner and it makes her upset. Today I firmly told her "no" after she ripped a library book...and then my heart broke as her little bottom lip jutted out and her eyes filled with tears. I have never experienced such a reaction from Julie, ever. Maybe that's why I am taken so by surprise by Melody. She is very different from Julie. I'm slowly realizing that I can speak to her in complete sentences, even though she is only 1. I can actually explain some things to her and it seems to help. That may sound like a no-brainer, but not as much when you understand that my 3 year old can only handle very short, uncomplicated phrases at this point (such as "sit down" or "time to eat"). It gets harder and harder to figure out how to help Julie understand basic ideas because I can't rely on words to do it. Anyway, I've digressed pretty far. I struggle with whether to write about some of this because I don't want to make it seem like I am happier with one of my children over the other. That's not true at all. I adore them both beyond my capacity to explain. However, it is true that one of my children has a disability that presents challenges that aren't easy, and it is also true that I am taken by surprise by my more "typically developing" child's lack of struggle in some of those areas. Neither of those things define my love for my children. Both of my girls are gifts that bless my life deeply.

****Warning*****
I am about to post pictures of Melody after surgery. There is nothing graphic, but if you don't like hospital photos, stop reading here!
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Right after surgery. You can see the stitch from her tongue taped to her cheek. She is also pretty puffy.



The next morning. Quite an improvement! She still didn't want to open her mouth much, which made her "uh oh" pretty funny. We could tell that's what she was saying because of the intonation, but it was basically hummed with a closed mouth.


Day 3...Posing with my surgeon, ready to go home!

And here's my nurse, Katie. You can see that my belly didn't suffer too much. It's still nice and round!

For comparison, here are pictures of Julie from January 2006, with the same surgeon and the same nurse. Julie was 19 months old at the time. I can't believe how little she was. She was smaller than Melody is at 12 months. Wow.