Whew... It's over.

Braxton's surgery has come and gone and we are in full recovery mode around here! The day of the surgery was crazy to say the least. We had to be at the hospital at 6:00 AM and everything went fast after that. Much faster than I was expecting but I guess when you have a tiny baby that hasn't been allowed to eat for a while, they move faster!

We had several doctors and nurses come talk to us before it began and they all had different thoughts on how long it would take, we got answers of anywhere from one to five hours. We figured we would go with the doctor's guess of 3-4 hours but that time came and went and before we knew it, it had been SEVEN long, long hours away from my baby. When they called and told me we could come to the recovery room, I practically ran (actually, I think I did a little.) It was so hard to see him coming out of anesthesia, all drugged and wanting to cry but all he could get out was a horse whimper. His poor throat was so raw from a tube being down it for the whole surgery. I've never been so relieved to see someone, and let me tell you, he looks like an angel! But I might be a little partial to him. ;)

Luckily, my doctor had a change of heart and decided he wanted me to continue to nurse, if Braxton seemed interested. We gave him a small bottle in the recovery room and then it was time to try to nurse. I was SO nervous! I had never thought about what his lip would look like after the surgery for some reason. Thankfully, he nursed great and we've only had to give a couple of bottles. I'm sure you know what an absolute relief it was for this momma!

You may be asking yourself how you would deal with having your child in surgery for such a LONG time! Well, let me tell you! I have the best friends a girl could ask for. They came (some even taking off work) and sat with me and kept me company and kept me from just sitting and worrying. It was amazing. It made the time go so much faster. If they weren't there, I just know I would have been a blubbering mess the whole seven hours. I'm forever grateful to them for that!

I surely hope that none of my friends' children never ever have a reason to be in a hospital but if they do, I can't say enough great things about Children's Hospital in OKC. Dr. Petersen, our plastic surgeon has the best bedside manner that I have ever seen and the nurses were phenomenal. There were people coming in just to make sure the nurses were great, volunteers coming in just to see if we needed anything, departments bringing Braxton a stuffed animal or us hot chocolate and cookies. You wouldn't even believe how great they were.

I've gotta say, Dr. Petersen did absolutely amazing work. He couldn't have done a better job, I think it's going to look so great when it's healed. That said, I miss his wide smile. I think I'll always miss it.

Recovery hasn't been too awful. He really opened up and seemed like himself about 24 hours after his surgery, even trying to smile here and there. We still can't tell what his smile is going to look like because he's quite swollen on the inside of his lip. Today (day three) has been a bit of a rough day, the worst for sure but not unbearable. Hopefully he will start to feel better soon!