She's three!!!

Happy Birthday to our 3 year old....Janessa Faith.

 Her life started with my most horrendous pregnancy yet, followed by a pretty terrible delivery. (labor was fine...delivery....not so much). 

She was born on my cousin David's 14th Birthday and he was so happy about that, he even came to see her in the hospital! We still do big family parties for the kids so here the "then and now" picture.

Shortly after she was born it was discovered that she had a cleft palate which was repaired right before she turned one...at which point she also had ear tubes put in because until that point, she could barely hear due to fluid.

He life started in kind of a whirlwind and although she was our easiest baby for the first year...she has since become a very....um....energetic?  young lady! We should have known by her hair as a baby!!

She only naps a couple of times a week for me now (despite my NEED for her to nap every day!!) Recently...I put her down for a nap in Keira's bed (because she shares a room with Levi, I separate them at nap time)...I went to check on her a while later and she wasn't there. I searched the house top to bottom and couldn't find her anywhere. I finally found her on my bed behind a huge pillow and pile of laundry I inteded to fold later. Keep in mind we took the pacifier away months ago so I am now sure where she found one! 

When she woke up, she said "ha ha ha ha ha...I twicked you and moved to mommy's bed!" She keeps me on my toes even when she's sleeping.The thought did cross my mind that if I let her have the binky back, she might take more naps!!

For anyone out there that has seen the Despicable Me movies, we liken Janessa to being our little minion....and oh how she loves the minions!

Janessa is the first one to get up every morning...she seems to sense when I am about to get up "early" to have some alone mommy quiet time and manages to wake up 5 minutes prior to that every. single.day. haha. We have already had two family parties for her and so this morning when I said. "Happy Bithday sweetie!" she replied, "My Birfday Again?" haha. I love her.

Here is the cake from one of her family parties this weekend (a friend made it...she makes awesome cakes!! check out her facebook page here!)

It really depicts who Janessa is right now....her "minion" personality...always busy...always looking for something to do or get into...not always choosing the best way to do it....mixed with her girly princess side. She loves to act out the movie Frozen and does so on a daily basis. 

She so wants to be like her sisters but doesn't always know the right way to get their attention if you know what I mean! Same goes for her little brother. 

She is smart and funny and mischeivous and sweet. She is my most exhausting child but brings me so much laughter and joy at the same time. She wants to "help" me with EVERYTHING which in the future I think will be awesome....right now...well...I'm learning patience.

Her laugh is contagious.

Her immediate future could include more surgeries...more ear tubes, possilbe removal of adenoids....possible other cleft palate anomalies stuff....we shall see! 

I cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for this little girl.

Have a happy year being 3 my baby girl!

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Post Cleft Palate Surgery...2 week update

Today marks 2 weeks since Janessa had her cleft palate repaired and also tubes put in both ears.

I cannot begin to explain just how much this surgery has changed her life already and am so thankful that we live in place and time where things like this can just be "fixed".

We have come to realize just how much she could NOT hear before this surgery. With a baby, you don't always realize that they aren't doing the "normal" things that a baby does because they all do things at different times.

Before her surgery, Janessa would dance if she heard music. Now, we realize that she only danced if the music was right next to her or really loud. Now, if there is something faint and in the distance she not only stops to dance, but she also sings along...so precious!

A few days post surgery, we were all in the car and our older two were in the back laughing about something...Janessa mimicked them and joined in...adorable.

She is making sounds she just plain could not make before without the roof of her mouth. goo goo, gaa gaa...normal baby sounds had never come out before.

Before surgery she called us all mama. Now she is saying Hi, Bye bye, and dada....two weeks folks!

She just needed to hear.

What an amazing blessing.

And...on top of it all....food no longer comes out of her nose when she is eating! Yay Janessa!

On Tuesday we go the all clear from the doctor to take her arm braces off and let her go back to "normal life". Here she is walking with her push toy today...she is usually much faster but it is still cute!

1 Week Post Surgery

Sorry for the lack of updates... I will blame it on lack of sleep!

Janessa is doing fabulous! Her healing process has gone much smoother than I expected. She is barely taking any Tylenol or Motrin at this point and is pretty much her normal self. She doesn't seem bothered by her "no-no's" (arm braces) and for the most part she is sleeping...though today she refused to nap! I do think if I could give her pacifier to her, life would be a bit smoother but that can't happen for at least another week!

Here she is today. Emptying my grandma's cupboard and making a silly face for the camera!

She is already a child who LOVES to get into places she's not supposed to...although, I watched her do this one!

I am very happy about her progress and wanted to thank you all for your prayers for us as a family. They were felt and they were appreciated! 

Thank you from our entire family!

Still Here For Now

I will ask once again for a few more prayers on our behalf. Janessa is doing awesome overall. She is fairly happy, when medicated, and starting to blabber and giggle so that makes me happy.

However, she still has not taken a bottle. She needs to do this before we can go home. they turned off her IV fluids a couple of hours ago hoping that she would feel more hungry and thristy...but so far...she just doesn't care.

If she doesn't do it soon, the IV fluids will be turned back on and we may have to stay another night!

I, for one, would love to come home and sleep in my own bed but of course we want our peanut to do the best she can.

The nurses and staff here are great and we feel fortunate to be so close to a great hospital.

On the bad side of things, we lost our ipad in the shuffle of things yesterday and haven't been able to locate it yet. It is in locked and lost mode now so please pray that if someone finds it, they will be kind and return it to us. We had 2 garage sales last summer to earn the money to pay for it and wouldn't be able to buy a new one any time soon!

In Recovery

Janessa is safely out of surgery and being kept comfortable with very small doses of morphine (sounds scary...but it seems to be helping)

Everything went exactly as it was supposed to (once they got started!) and the surgery was almost exactly 2 hours. She woke up from anesthesia calmly which is apparently unusual for a child so that was a pleasant surprise!

She is now in a pediatric room overnight and I am expecting a rough night ahead. There probably won't be much sleeping happening so pray for this pregnant mommy that I don't go crazy! 

Janessa is now snuggling with daddy and resting! 

We plan to be here until tomorrow afternoon at this point!

Again...thank you for all of the prayers...they are/were certainly appreciated!

Surgery Day...So Far

Here we are, waiting in the waiting room for Janessa to get out of surgery. Here is a synopsis of our day so far:

9:30--We arrived at Strong and Janessa played in the waiting room until about 10:00

10:15 am-- the nurse came and checked her vitals...they were perfect!

10:20 am-- Our Youth Pastor, DL, and Worship Pastor, Mike came to visit and pray (they also happen to be good friends)

And then we waited...and waited...and Janessa fell alseep in Daddy's arms before realizing how hungry she was...

11:30 am-- Janessa woke up...and she was hungry...so we entertained her...

...and she continued to be hungry until they FINALLY came to take her at around 1:00 pm

Thankfully she likes strangers and this wasn't heartbreaking!

At 1:30 pm, the ENT came out and told us that she is doing great. Her ear tubes were in and VERY necessary!

That is all for now but will keep you posted. Thank you for all of your prayers!

Cleft Palate Surgery

It's here...well it will be here tomorrow

We will be taking our sweet baby girl into Strong Memorial Hospital at 9:30am to have her Cleft Palate repaired and tubes put in her ears to prevent future infections (or at least many of them!). Prayers are appreciated.

I do plan to update throughout the day on her progress for those who are interested in following along. Right now, we really do not know what to expect in terms of recovery but supposedly it won't be too bad. This worried mama would like to be sure of that!

So....here is a picture that my cousin (Thanks Christi!) managed to capture on accident a few weeks back and it actually allows you to see the hole in the roof of her mouth: (Don't mind the drool)

Tomorrow morning, God willing, her is a picture of what they will do:

Seems simple enough to me. As far as we know, Janessa will wear elbow restraints for 2 weeks to prevent her from touching her mouth or putting anything in it. They say that she will be uncomfortable just for a day or two with soreness and pain but it will be easily controlled with medication. She will be unable to use her pacifier (sad for mommy and daddy). 

That is all we know for now. We will keep you all updated and appreciate the prayers!

New Surgery Date

Janessa's surgeons are awesome. While I was happy with the fact that her ENT was going to do the tubes this week to prevent more infections, they still rearranged their  schedules and the hospital accommodated them. They are able to do BOTH procedures on February 28th (2 weeks from now) so she will only be under anesthesia once. I believe if the same problem happens again, we will not be the ones that are rescheduled so I am thankful for that and am thankful that I trust in the Lord and am able to see that somehow this is his provision and protection for us...


....but man am I tired!

Surgery Cancelled

Thank you all for your prayers this morning, however, Janessa's surgery was cancelled. Apparently they discovered at 6:30am that there weren't enough beds for the surgical patients today so they called us at 6:58 (while we were pulling into the parking garage) to let us know that.

Obviously I am still a little bit angry at how the hospital runs especially after speaking to the man who was in charge of all of this. However, we do realize that this is all in God's hands and for whatever reason, it is in Janessa's best interest to not have her surgery today. I am just upset at how Strong apparently deals with these cases.

I will update when I know for sure when her cleft surgery will be...it is not rescheduled yet at this point but is in the works.

I did however speak to the ENT who was putting tubes in her ears and she will be going ahead with that sometime this next week to prevent further ear infections. She called me at 7:45 this morning and was SOOOOO incredibly nice. She was fine before with waiting to do the tubes so that Janessa could just go under anesthesia once but now that it is delayed, she does not want to put it off any longer.

I am very thankful for her as my biggest concern in all of this is Janessa's hearing.

Again thank you for your prayers and sorry for the false alarm!

I will update again soon...after I take a nap!