Major Developments!

Tonight Brenna hit some MAJOR milestones in her development. In chronological order (because mom is kinda nerdy): she ate some squash, held her own bottle, CRAWLED, and pulled herself into standing position by climbing mommy! We finally got her to eat some squash by dipping one of the nipples from her bottle into the food and letting her put it in her mouth, so we may do that for awhile until the spoon is more of a friend. Then, we went to eat a bottle after making a mess with squash and she held it all by herself - and continues to do so with her bedtime bottle. After dinner, we were playing with the book that Jason loaned us (his favorite bee puppet book) and Brenna decided to crawl around. We put the book just out of reach and made the bee buzz and she went right for it!! We were so excited and took video after video. After the big crawling show, she crawled over to mommy who was sitting on the floor and climbed up into a standing position. We could not believe how many milestones were hit all in one night! Guess we better baby-proof before she takes off walking tomorrow =)

Big new toy!

As you can see, Brenna continues to recover very well! She went back to daycare this week and is making the adjustment to being on a schedule again. Her sleep patterns got a little bit messed up, so we are paying the price, but hoping she'll get back on track soon. The glue came off of her lip on Sunday night revealing the scar - which is still healing, but looks great. I don't have a great picture of it just yet, but will try to get one online soon. She still has the nasal conformer in, we hope it is doing it's job and that it'll come out soon.

We've started giving her food (spoon fed food) again, but she doesn't seem to be a big fan. The sweet potatoes aren't going over really well, but the applesauce is better. Her eating pattern seems to be disturbed lately too, so we are just trying to adjust altogether.

Mom and dad bought her a new toy this weekend and she really likes it. She can play standing or sitting - it plays music and has fun peek-a-blocks with it too.

12 days later . . .

Brenna is still recovering extremely well and we couldn't be more thankful. The arm restraints are off and she seems pretty happy about that. We still have to clean out the nasal conformer, which she REALLY doesn't like, but that will only be for a few more weeks. We went for her follow-up appointment with Dr. Beals today (that's him in the picture) and he said that she looks great. We think he is amazing and have been very happy with the wonderful job that he did! We go back to check the nasal conformer again in 2 weeks. Meanwhile, Brenna has been hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Pearson at home. She has been so lucky to stay at home with family the past 6 weeks. Before the surgery (to keep her healthy) she was home with Grandpa Dave, thenGrandma Diane, then Grandma Ann and mommy and daddy off and on. It has been so much fun! We are all looking forward to getting back into the old routine, but are so thankful to have family and friends that help us out so much.

A New Smile

Brenna is doing wonderfully following her surgery. Almost immediately, her personality came back and she is behaving very normally. She is eating well, and wants to play all the time. She is making noises (baba, mama) with her new full lip and is trying to figure out why her tongue doesn't come right out of her lip like it used to. Although the arm restraints cause her some trouble when trying to reach her toys, they aren't stopping her too much and she is doing so much better with them than we anticipated. Her smile and giggle have also returned and we are so grateful that she is handling this so well.

One down . . .

Brenna had her cleft lip repair surgery today - after 2 cancellations/postponements, we were relieved that it could happen. Grandpa Dave, Grandma Diane and Grandma Ann were all with us at the hospital. She weighed in at 18 pounds, 15 ounces and measured 27 inches long - pretty good sized for a 7 month old! She went into the OR at about noon and around 2:00, Dr. Beals and his partner Dr. Sing (sp?) came into the waiting room to tell us that she had done perfectly and that it had all gone well - there wasn't really anything significant to report it had gone so well. Of course, we were very relieved! After she woke up, Justin and I got to go in to see her in recovery and the picture below is what she looked like at that moment. We had been so anxious to see how different she would look. She was very groggy and drugged, but looked beautiful to us! She had her lip repaired, surgical glue is what you see on the lip, and a nasal conformer in her nostrils - to help reshape her right nostril after repair. We got to leave for home about 30 minutes later and are now adjusting to the recovery period. She seems to be doing ok - just groggy. We haven't had her eat yet, she's just not quite ready, but we'll start with water and see where we go from there. We'll keep you all posted as we travel down the road to recovery! She will also have her cleft palate repaired in a few months - we don't know any details yet. Now that we've been through one, we definitely have a better idea of what to expect. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, they really have meant a lot to all of us!