Skipping the whole 5 on Friday this week. Couldn't think of 5 things to talk about haha!

Back to work now...it's been just as crazy as expected. Haven't gotten out on time yet and I'm back again tomorrow. Partly my own fault for requesting to do 10 hour shifts to ease back in. Well that was a flop because I haven't left at 5pm on any of the 3 days I've worked so far this week. Yesterday I didn't leave til 7:30pm. Everyone seems happy to have me back so that feels good. :) I think pumping also sets me behind too since it takes about 25 minutes from start to finish each time. Oh well, thank god I love what I do!

Giselle had another appointment with the surgeon today and he said she's healing perfectly. :) Moved up a size on her dilation and back again next Friday. He made it sound like we won't have to many more increases. Hopefully not. She is tolerating it much better thankfully.

-----5 on Friday-----

1) We toured 2 preschools this week for Austin (one in Huntertown and one in Auburn), called one (in Ft Wayne) and looked at a couple others online. Almost positive we have made a decision. Austin even picked the one we did out of the 2 we looked at. :)

2) Giselle had another appointment with the surgeon today. I ended up going down a size earlier this week (after talking to his rounding nurse) for her dilation because I was having trouble and she seemed to be in more pain. Thought he would be ticked at me but he said she still looks great and he was able to go right back up to the size he wanted and I'm hoping when I do it tomorrow it'll be fine. He said she will get used to it again and the crying won't last as long. :(  Can't wait until we are done doing it!! Back again next Friday...then maybe can start going every other week again. She still has her stitches and those could take up to 3 months to come out on their own. Fab. She is a strong little girl ...momma, not so much.

3) First family movie night tonight went pretty well considering their age & attention span haha! We obviously rented a kid friendly movie...Planes - Fire & Rescue (90 mins long) and they did awesome for the first half of it then started to get wiggly...by the last 15 minutes they were just running around the basement while Andy & I watched to see how it ended (hey it was a good movie!). Austin loved the popcorn...Mason didn't care for it but ate some. Definitely will try it again in the future.

4) My first day back to work is Sunday. :(  Sadness :( Thankful that I can ease into it by working 10 hour days every other day next week.

5) This freezing cold weather needs to leave!! I can handle winter weather but the sub zero temps make it near impossible to go anywhere with small children!

Giselle had her post op appointment this morning with the surgeon. He said she looks great and is healing well. He wants to resume daily dilations and started that in the office. She was not a fan. At all! :( Back again next Friday to see him. No end date yet for dilations.

She then had her 2 month appt. Pediatrician is happy with her growth and development!! :) She even smiled for her doc. Compared with the boys at this age she is still longer than they were and her weight is in the middle. Her head, unfortunately, is smaller. Girl thing? Petite thing? Her doctor isn't worried about it since it's growing on the same curve since birth. No shots today since they were done a couple weeks ago. Next appt in 2 months...still irks me that the appts aren't going to line up with her age.

Current favorites: being held, looking at books, looking at herself in the mirror, bath time, watching her brothers

Dislikes: being on her back for longer than 5-10 minutes

New skills: has rolled from belly to back a few times...but I think it might just be a gravity thing since she's propped up on her elbows/arms during tummy time to look in the mirror but who knows! She has also been smiling and cooing the last few weeks. :)

Overall Giselle's surgery on Thursday went well. We were admitted on Wednesday late morning to start the clear liquid diet (pedialyte was all that she could have). They started her IV and drew some labs (which ended up lost...). The surgeon's rounding nurse, who is always awesome and on top of things, rounded on Giselle in the afternoon. There was some hesitation with pharmacy about using the specific bowel prep ordered but it was all straightened out quickly and it was decided to start it in the evening instead of at midnight. So they put in the NG (tube that goes from her nose to her stomach) at 5pm and started the prep. It ran over 10 hours and she wasn't near as fussy as expected. Changed a lot of diapers during this time though ha! Labs were also redrawn at 9pm...after I kept asking if we knew the results of the admission labs.

Thursday morning they came in bright and early at 6:30am and said they were taking her to pre-op. I was quite surprised because no one told me that they would come way before surgery and have her wait in the pre-op area. Thought they would just come prior to surgery start time like in the NICU. Communication was lacking a bit during our stay. So I quickly called Andy (he didn't spend the night due to space in the room). He was planning to be up to her room by 7am so he was already awake. He met us in the tiny pre-op room where we stayed til 8am. They took her back on time. We went back to her room so I could pump and when we got back to the waiting area the OR nurse came right out and called us back...the surgery hadn't started due to a missing piece of equipment. They were missing the nerve stimulator that would help the surgeon know where to reposition everything. Ugg!! They had to go to another hospital to get it which of course caused a time delay and then the OR was taken by other cases. Her surgery ended up starting at 11am and took a little over an hour. Surgeon said everything went perfect and he was happy with the results! She was quite fussy when she woke up. :(  He decided to allow her to eat right away instead of waiting til Friday. :)

As you read on facebook she spiked a fever to 101.2 after surgery. We also learned that her white blood cell count was kind of high going into surgery indicating that she was likely fighting off something (she never acted sick prior to surgery). Since she was already on 2 IV antibiotics (started just prior surgery) there wasn't much else to do except keep her hydrated and give tylenol. Her fever finally broke by the 9am vitals check on Friday. Her repeat lab work showed that the white blood cell count only went down by a tiny amount which is ok since surgery is trauma to the body and can cause an elevation in and of itself. It was decided to continue IV antibiotics for all of Friday day and night and discharge Saturday. The packing in her rectum was removed Friday morning and she pooped all day!

Saturday morning the surgeon rounded and said we could go home! We went home on a oral antibiotic for the next 10 days (this would have been the plan regardless of the possible infection she had prior to surgery) and will see the surgeon this Friday for follow up. We will resume the daily dilations after that appointment. Don't know for how long ...hoping it's only for a few weeks and not months. I've read any where from 5 weeks to 3 months post surgery.

I was quite surprised by the lack of visitors at the hospital. I honestly thought people would want to see her. Maybe the illness season scared people away?! Was a bit depressing for me.

Sorry this was so long!!! Sometimes I get wordy so that I have the facts when I look back on past events.

Prayers please as we head into the hospital tomorrow morning to start the preparations for Thursday mornings surgery for Giselle. Pray that she isn't to fussy and hungry during this process. Pray for the surgeon and his team. Pray for Andy & I's anxiety. Pray that Austin and Mason do just fine without momma (and daddy on Thursday) for a few days. Pray that my supply doesn't tank during this upcoming 48 hours (or more) straight of pumping. I know God has this handled and he already knows the outcome but I can't help but worry and be anxious.

Will update sometime this weekend after she is back home. Feel free to text or visit in the meantime. :)