Surgery Rescheduled

Just to let you know, the hospital called and needed us to reschedule Molly's surgery.  It's now set for July 1st.  Please keep praying for our sweet girl!  God is answering our prayers! Her ulcer is now completely healed:

Don't you just want to kiss her??

My First Mother's Day

Nathan did an amazing job for my first Mother's Day!  It was full of fun and relaxation-- two of my favorite things.  He started things off with a huge bouquet of tulips on Saturday.  There were so many tulips--40-- that I had to split them into 3 vases!

Sunday morning was a great time at church.  It was very surreal to stand up when they asked for all of the mother's to stand.  VERY surreal.  I was almost waiting for someone to tug me back down to my chair, but alas I received some beautiful roses instead.  Also at church, they sang "It is Well With My Soul".  It's rare that we sing hymns, and this one is the song we've been singing to Molly since she's been born.  She seems to love it; it always calms her right down.  She's also learning that it means time to go to sleep :) It was a sweet moment for our little family. 

After lunch from one of my favorite restaurants (hello ham & brie sandwich from Bronte), we headed out to spend some time with Nathan's extended family.  Molly did great as she met all of her great aunts and uncles.  We were so glad she got to spend some time with Aunt Jean.

Then we went to my parents' house to spend some time with my grandmother who was in from Florida.  My dad also surprised me with beautiful red roses.  My house looked like a flower shop all week long!  I loved it.  We took the opportunity to snap some four generation pictures.

Nathan also put together a wonderful gift bag for me full of all kinds of little things to help me relax and enjoy myself (and the bag itself was beautiful too)!


My biggest Mother's Day gift is still to come:  having a beautiful old opal reset into a more modern setting.  I can't wait to get it back from the jeweler! 


I hope all of my mommy friends were as blessed as I was this Mother's Day!

me and my sweet girl on Mother's Day

Surgery Date

Hey guys! 

I just wanted to let you know that Molly's next surgery is scheduled for June 24th.  This time they will definitely be lasering her entire hemangioma.  Please keep praying for her sweet little face!

Springtime Fun

I don't know if it's the fact that Molly is so little, or what, but this Spring seems to have been the busiest one I can think of in a long time.  Here are a few thoughts and pictures on our recent happenings:

Easter-

We had a wonderful Easter.  We were relieved that Molly's surgery went so well.  We took Molly to hear Bebo at the Shell on Easter Eve.  Nathan and I love Bebo, particularly when he is playing his acoustic sets.  We were both excited to take Molly, because Nathan sings her quite a lot of Bebo when he is bouncing her to sleep.  It was nap time and she was a bit fussy, but it was still a very fun evening. We were also celebrating Mom's birthday!

 

After church on Sunday, all of our family (sans Michael and Emery and Rebecca) came over to our house for lunch.  The moms did all of the cooking.  It was delicious!  

Molly's first Easter basket :)

 

 

I also took her out all by myself for the first time-  a short drive over to Granny and Pops house so Molly could meet her Great Granny, nothing too ambitious.  

Daddy came and joined us after a while

Nathan and I had our first date night Saturday-  Spamalot at the Orpheum.  It was a bit raunchy-but fun- and it was nice to be out just the two of us! 

 

Nathan did such a great job with Mother's Day that it deserves it's own special post!  Look for more soon :) 

update on Molly

Sorry it has taken so long to write out an update. It has been crazy since we got back from Little Rock!   Molly's surgery went better than expected.  Dr. Buckmiller did not laser Molly's entire hemangioma, which gave Nathan and I a great sense of peace.  That means we are not facing any extra risk of scarring.  Selfishly, I was also excited that she didn't have an ebony and ivory look going on for Easter!  Dr. Buckmiller only lasered the ulcer by her mouth.  She also gave Molly a steroid shot at the ulcer, which we didn't know she was going to do until about 30 minutes before her surgery.

Molly has been pretty irritable ever since we got back from Arkansas.  I'm not sure if it was the steroid shot, the round of antibiotics they put her on, or the increased dose of her propranolol that they gave her, but she has had a lot of tummy pain/ reflux.  She has also not been sleeping very deeply and wanting to nurse more frequently.  The nice 3 hour schedule I had her on prior to surgery is out the window!  She nurses every 2 hours, often for an hour or more.  It is like she is a newborn all over again.  It has been a little disheartening to make such a retreat (particularly when it comes to nighttime sleeping), but last night she went 6 hours between feedings, so I got a wonderful 4 hour stretch of sleep!  Hopefully we are turning a corner as the steroid and antibiotic work their ways out. 

On the plus side of things- the surgery clearly helped!  There is a significant amount of fresh, new skin growing inside her ulcer.  It also seems to be much more shallow the past couple of days.  We cannot wait for her ulcer to be healed, so that she can play an explore with her hands.  Right now we keep her swaddled for the vast majority of the day, which is so sad when we unswaddle her and see how much she enjoys stretching and swinging her arms around.  Inevitably though she gives her ulcer a big swipe and it starts bleeding and she screams, so we will keep on with the swaddling until she's all healed up. 

Also, the increased dose of propranolol is making a huge difference.  Her hemangioma looks better every day.  It is also bringing the swelling around her eye under control.  She has both of her big beautiful eyes open most all of the time now.  It is so wonderful to see! 

Molly with a big round belly right after eating!

Thank you so much for all of your prayers.  They are working!  God is faithful and merciful.