One week post-op

Her shirt may say "Daddy's Little Girl" but don't be fooled -- this baby is a mommy's girl all the way! (At least for now)

There are those blue eyes peeking out! You can see how much the top of her head is still swollen, but that's to be expected. Our plastic surgeon even said that she may still have swelling at 3 weeks post-op when we go back to see him.

I know I have said this before, but I can't believe Lucy's surgery is over and we are a week post-op. I mean, this time last week she was so swollen and bandaged that we barely recognized her. And although she is still very swollen in the front top of her head (basically where they were cutting and moving things around!) she is starting to open her eyes more and is sloooooowly but surely getting back to her old self and her old routine.

That has been the major challenge of being at home. I knew it would be, thanks to the other blogs of cranio parents. I hope my blog can be the same kind of roadmap for other parents just finding out their baby has craniosynostosis and that surgery is in their future. The hardest part of being home has been that she has been very needy and her sleeping schedule was all out of whack. Last night she didn't want to go to sleep until almost 1:00am and then only because I just put the swing in her nursery and let her swing for a while and she finally fell asleep and then I moved her to the bed. She wants to be held constantly and even when she is being held she is very fussy. I haven't had to give her too much Tylenol -- just about 3 times in the 3 days we've been home, so I think that is pretty good. Today she didn't seem to be in any pain at all. She took better naps today and tonight she went to sleep around 7:30pm and has been asleep ever since (it's 9:30pm now). But my favorite thing is that her little personality is returning. Her happy smiles and babbling and laughter is all I need to reassure me that she is doing fine, regardless of the swelling and scarring and all the other scary things about her right now.

These past few days, for the first time since Lucy was born, I can finally imagine a time where Lucy's head is not a thing of concern. Where trips to the doctors are years apart and only for regular check ups, not for emergencies or surgeries or anything. Any other cranio moms reading this know -- you literally can't think of a future after the surgery until it's over, and then it's like all of the sudden your whole life seems to stretch out before you and it's exhilarating.

I'll keep posting pictures every day so you can see her pretty eyes opening and the swelling going down. I think it's great to have all this stuff written down for posterity -- not only for other cranio parents who are going to go through the same thing, but so we can look back a few months from now, or a year from now, and see how far we've come!