Grady is doing well

Here is Grady sleeping peacefully in his car seat in his crib on Wednesday night around 10 pm when I was on my way to bed. (Grady was to sleep in his car seat to keep his head properly elevated and to aid in healing). Jonah's bed is right next to the crib and he was sleeping soundly as well.


I went in to the boys' room at 6 am to check on Grady and give him his pain medication. When I walked in, I saw that Jonah was asleep, but in the crib all I saw was the empty car seat and Grady's no nos (arm restraints) splayed across it. He had gotten out of the car seat and the no nos and was happily lying on his back with his hands in his mouth. This really scared me because the surgeon had warned us that the no nos had to be worn to ensure a good recovery. So, I picked him up and took him into Ryan. Ryan inspected him for damage while I went to retrieve the no nos. There was dried blood on his hands which makes us think that he had his hands in his mouth for awhile. The outside of his lip looked fine, but we were scared to check the inside because we thought that we might damage it by lifting it up to check. We're hoping it's ok.

Later that morning when the plastic surgery clinic opened, I called the nurse to tell her about the Great Escape. She just asked if it looked ok and I said that it did. So, hopefully it's fine. Then I asked her about how much I was supposed to be feeding him since we had so much trouble getting him to eat from the syringe when we were home on Wednesday. She asked me how much he usually drank before the surgery and I told her that he had baby food and 24-27 ounces a day of formula. So, she said that we should be aiming for 24-27 ounces of formula a day. Nice.

Jonah had a playdate planned for Thursday. Some friends were taking him to the Museum of Nature and Science. Unfortunately, one of them got sick. Jonah was pretty disappointed about not being able to go, so I ended up taking him (we have a membership to that museum) while Ryan stayed home on formula feeding duty. We did manage to get some more formula in Grady that day.

Grady was feeling much better on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and was much more into playing. We all even went to a playdate with our playgroup at the park on Friday. Here's some pictures.


Honestly, this surgery recovery is really good for attachment purposes. We have of course been working on attachment since China. Children from orphanages have trouble attaching to their families because they might not know how to depend on adults for comfort. He has to depend on us for comfort, rocking, feeding, etc. and he seems to appreciate us even more than he did before the surgery. I was really, really nervous about this surgery recovery, but much like the adoption process, it has been much easier than I expected. Therapy and helping him learn things has been much more challenging for me than surgery. And it is a challenge that I truly enjoy.

The awesome plastic surgeon called on Friday night at 8 pm to check to see how Grady was. It was so nice and so totally above the call of duty! I was in the boys' room trying to help them with going to sleep (I was unsuccessful....Jonah ended up reading to Grady from his bed of his own accord which put them to sleep for which I was so grateful. What an awesome big brother!!!!) Ryan talked to the surgeon and asked if it would be ok for us to feed Grady with the bottle since eating and sleeping have been the major challenges post surgery. The surgeon said that creating suction would disturb the suture. However, Grady never has had suction or used any special cleft feeders. He uses regular baby bottles with a wide cut nipple. He just chews the nipple on the non- cleft side and gets the formula down his throat that way. His lip doesn't even close all the way. So, the surgeon said that we could feed him with a bottle if there was no suction. That has made things much easier, although sleep is still a little bit difficult since Grady wishes that he could put his hands in his mouth.

Tomorrow, Ryan is taking Grady to get his stitches removed. I will be taking Jonah to his first ever dentist visit. Apparently, we are a doctor- going family!! :)

Happy Father's Day to everyone!

Recovery from Surgery

So, while we were in the waiting room where Grady was having his surgery yesterday, I got yelled at by the receptionist. Apparently, I was too far away when they called from the operating room. They just called to let us know that everything was going fine. That same receptionist had given us a pager (the little black circle thingies that they give out at restaurants), and had asked for my cell phone number, but she chose to just yell out "Self" instead.

After that, we were stationed right near the desk. So, we were right there when they said it was time to go see Grady in the recovery room (where people go to recover from being under general anesthesia). It took us awhile to gather up the pile of technology (computer, IPod, etc.). By the time we got back there, we could hear our little guy crying and he did look a lot different. He was also quite mad that he couldn't put his hands in his mouth due to the "no-nos" on his arms keeping him from bending his elbows. On top of that, he was quite hungry from not being able to eat since 6:30 am (we went back to the recovery room at 3:30pm. However, he was happy to have some apple juice. Here are some recovery room pictures:



Ryan and I just realized that we somehow didn't get any pictures of our overnight stay in the hospital room. Apparently we were too busy taking care of our boys. Anyway, Grady actually slept really well last night. Ryan rubbed his head (in his carseat in the hospital crib to keep his head elevated, which was good because he doesn't like sleeping in unfamiliar places) until he took Jonah home and then I rubbed his head for about an hour. He fell asleep at 9pm and amazingly stayed asleep until 3:15 am. (He even missed some pain medication and slept through some blood pressure checks, which is no small miracle.) He had his pain medication and fell back asleep again at 4:30 and stayed asleep until 6:30.

In the morning, the surgeon came by and was happy that he had been drinking some apple juice out of a syringe. We were discharged at 9:15 am. We came home to watch a Bug's Life.



After some sleep, Grady was actually trying to play and read this afternoon.



We're all pretty exhausted and after this morning, Grady has been much more resistant to having formula, juice, or water out of the syringe. In the morning, I'm going to call the plastic surgery department to find out how many ounces he is supposed to have every day to know what to work toward. If anyone wants to pray that he will get the nourishment that he needs for recovery and that the rest of us won't snap at each other out of exhaustion, that would be greatly appreciated.

Jonah played in the backyard today, went to swim lessons, and tomorrow a friend is taking him to a museum. We are so lucky to have such great friends to help us here so we can focus on Grady. For that, we are very grateful.

Grady will be getting his outside stitches removed on Monday and will stay in the "no-nos" for about two weeks. I'll update more later.

The Rest of Our Lives...

In a previous post, I was going to post a picture of Grady with his hip helpers, shorts that help keep his hips close together when crawling and pulling up to strengthen his hips. I haven't gotten a good picture of those lately, though. I promise that I still will! However, I did get a couple of pictures of Grady at his favorite place to play which is pulled up at the bathroom mirror. He has convinced Jonah that it is a fun place to play as well. He also does squats, and goes up and down at the mirror. It's like his own little exercise class.


Jonah is enjoying going to swimming lessons. It is a "big kid" thing. The last time he was in swimming lessons, he was in the water with one of us in the parent/ tot class. Now he goes all by himself (with five other little girls and guys including his friend from playgroup, Solomon). The other exciting thing about swimming lessons is that he has a boy teacher "just like me." He has been in art class, gymnastics class, baby and me class, zoo classes, and classes at the nature center, but he has never had a male teacher. Now he idolizes "Mr. Todd."

Surgery!

We're in the waiting room right now while Grady is in having surgery. He already has his ear tubes in, and is in the middle of getting his cleft lip closed. We will be going into the recovery room while he wakes up from surgery when it's all done.

We were already in there while they were putting him to sleep with the mask. He was crying and then his little eyes closed, but even when he was asleep, he was fighting to put his hand in his mouth (the position he prefers to sleep in). He will not enjoy having his "no nos" on his arms; tools that will keep his arms straight so that he will not be able to put his hands in his mouth and mess with his stitches. He should have those on for about 2 weeks.

After the recovery room, we will be checking in for our overnight stay in the hospital on the 6th floor. They will teach us how to feed Grady with a Breck feeder because he cannot use his bottle. He will be fed through a syringe.

Ryan and I were just talking about how we are going to miss his big open smile. But of course it's all for his good to have his lip closed.

Here are some pictures of us checking in and getting ready to go back for him to be put under anesthesia.

Adjusting to being a family of four

So, everyone wants to know how things are going now. I'm sorry that we haven't been very faithful in continuing to blog. I'm planning to do better now. :) I have just got my head above water enough to continue this blog. Thank you notes will follow shortly, I promise.

We are so happy to be home with our little boys. We are so blessed with our little family. I'm slowly but surely developing a routine, and our kitchen sink looks like much less of a disaster area now (although the laundry room does not!!)

Adoption is such a miracle. God put this little boy in our family, and so far, he seems to be fitting in well. He is a happy boy (many people notice this when we're out), and a giggler. He and Jonah are sleeping well together in the same room at night. Jonah loves to play with his little brother.


I hope that we can be worthy adoptive parents. So many things that we are responsible for. Can we do a good job of passing along his Chinese heritage? Is going to a Chinese church, celebrating Chinese holidays, and attending events with other adoptive Chinese kids enough? How can we celebrate his birth parents and answer his questions appropriately? Wow. What a challenge.

However, we are so very blessed to be in this position. How cool is it that there was a little boy on the other side of the world who needed a family and there was a family here who wanted a child just like him!!

Grady is doing well with his physical therapy which he is receiving through Early Intervention. He has gotten really well at crawling. Next blog, a picture of Grady in his "hip helpers" (to strengthen his hips) and pulling himself up (which he is also getting good at).

His first surgery is cleft lip closure and placement of ear tubes. That is scheduled for June 10.

I promise to keep up with blogging better!

Yaay for Home!

So, we got up at 3:00 in the morning Beijing time, hopped on a plane to Hong Kong, hopped on a plane to LA, and then hopped on a plane to Denver to get here at about 4:00 pm Denver time. Granted, there was a line or two to stand in as we waited to transfer airline companies, gather luggage, board planes, and naturalize a foreign citizen.

Forgive us if today's post is a bit short, but we've been "on" for just too long today, if you can even call it today at this point.

All Good Things...

My apologies in advance for the brevity of this post, but I must pack for our exodus from the People's Republic of China. My wife, having taken some allergy medicine, is surprisingly passed out on the bed as I write this.

To begin today, we all went down to the Guangzhou zoo to have a little peek at the animals, especially the oh-so famous pandas. Katie and I saw the pandas in their Chengdu habitat about eight years ago, and we thought they were the laziest, most annoying mascot the WWF could have possibly picked ("They're too lazy to procreate?"we asked in disgust), but Jonah was interested, so away we went.

All we could say was "Erm... maybe they're dieting, Jonah" as we walked past emaciated animal after animal in their cages on the way to the pandas. Not the most uplifting trip, to say the least. Finally, when we made it to the pandas, there was one just sitting there in the middle of his cage, just chillin'. By then, Jonah had pretty much lost interest, anyway, so we headed back to the entrance, none too impressed.

Cheryl, our good friend from the Colorado via Newcastle, had to catch her flight right after we got back. She was invaluable in helping with so many things, and we were really sad to be saying goodbye to her after spending so much time together and relying on her so much.

In the afternoon, we all packed in to the consulate and swore that we wouldn't abandon our newly adopted child, which meant that the US gov't could give us his visa to enter the country. Having never seen a US visa before, I gotta say that it's one thing the US does right. I mean, you look at the US Dollar vs. the British Pound, or something, and you're, like, "What, creativity taking some time off that day, America?" Not so with the visa. That's something that a foreign national can look at in his or her passport and really look forward to using... until they visit any number of major cities at night, that is...

Anyway, back to packing some luggage. At this point, I'm just throwing crap into suitcases knowing that there is no such thing as clean and dirty at this point, and that we're all really looking forward to getting the Sam Hill home. We make a 30 minute hop to Hong Kong, a 12-hour marathon / skip to LAX, and then a little jump to DIA where our good friend will be waiting to drive us home and subsequently disinfect her vehicle.

Selfcrest, out!