Recovery Day 5

It's been 5 days since her surgery and Rachel is continuing to do well.

She's still drinking from her bottles, although not always smoothly. I think it's frustrating to her to only be getting liquids. Prior to surgery, she was down to only two bottles a day, the rest of her nourishment was through table food and meals with the family. One of the most challenging things we are dealing with as a family, is trying not to eat food in front of her. So we've not been eating any meals in front of Rachel or as a family at the table. Last night I gave her some chocolate pudding on a Gerber baby spoon, barely touching the pudding to the top of her lips, so the spoon wouldn't go into her mouth. She was very excited to have something other than milk or water.

This evening, after changing her diaper, and it being dry since early afternoon, I put chicken broth in her Haberman bottle, in attempts to get more fluids in her, and she liked it...she drank 10 ounces!!! What a relief to get such a good amount of fluids in her at one sitting. We see her plastic surgeon on Tuesday for her one week post op appointment and I'm hoping that once he checks out her mouth and sees how it's healing, she can be cleared to eat some more foods.

While she is pretty much back to normal, she does has her moments through the day of being whiney and clingy. Which by all means, she has every right to be, she's been through quite a bit this week. As far as her pain control, she's still getting a couple doses a day of Tylenol with Coedine and sometimes regular Tylenol in between. Once the meds kick in, she's usually good to go for a while longer.

So far, the restraints aren't slowing Rachel down. She's getting around pretty darn good with those things on!! She has them off the majority of the day, with us watching her very closely. But naps and bedtime are for sure times when she has her restraints on.

Overall, just 5 days after surgery, Rachel is doing really well.