Laura's Adventure

We are home from Laura's hospital adventure! Here she is on her arrival yesterday, excited about her trip to the doctor's!!!

Laura spent much of her early months terrorized of doctors and hospitals so it is a big encouragement to us that recently she has taken to loving the doctors. Much, if not all, of this is due to the lollipops she gets at the Pediatrician and the presents she gets at the hospital! Here she is with some of her new presents, including a lovely quilt!

The staff members are very good at helping children understand what is going to happen and giving them time to get used to the equipment. We hadn't realized how long Laura's surgery would end up being. It was nearly as long as her heart surgery! However, the surgeon found nothing unexpected. Laura was born with a hole in her skull at the back of her head which should not be there. Through it came a blood vessel which also should not be there. This left her in danger of a large hemorrhage should she bump her head. In our family, she had a high chance of such an accident!

Laura's surgeon is so amazingly kind, humble, loving, and careful. We also found out that she is the daughter of a hairdresser and so spent extra time carefully combing Laura's hair so she would only need to cut away the very least amount of hair and she made the incision in such a way as to avoid strange parting in the future. Apparently, this surgeon also spends time shampooing her patient's hair to make sure as much of the blue disinfectant as possible is removed before the parents see the child!

 Here is the little baby after leaving recovery and getting settled in our room.

The afternoon was spent resting while Laura was asleep, and tending to her needs when she was awake. Both arms were strapped into guards so she had no use of her arms for nearly 24 hours.

This was Laura's first time for facetime from the hospital. What a great invention! She loved it!

Laura was much better this morning and we spent the morning playing games on the phone or ipad. A friend told us about "Easy Bake" and Mommy could hardly let Laura play because of her own interest in this very fun game.

By noon Laura was ready to hit the road and go home!!!

Once home she had a captive audience while she unpacked all her gifts from the hospital!

Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts for us! Laura is doing so well, although still in pain and probably will be for several days. We are ever mindful of the mercies of these "minor" problems compared to many of the trials faced by those at Riley Hospital. Even Laura's various issues cause us to appreciate all of our children all the more.

And now for some rest, I hope!!!!