Try draggin' her away.

So, last Saturday we took Mac to the nostalgia drags at Eagle Field. What a great event! Eagle Field is a WWII Air Corps training base in Dos Palos, Ca. For last Saturday they turned the old runway into a heads up drag strip, good times. Here are a couple of shots of Mac enjoying the event.

All is Clear on Mackenzies Front

So after a long week of crying...no, screaming, baby Mac is back to normal. I ended up taking the week off to help. I don't know how much help I was but, I tried. On Wednesday we went back to Stanford for the post op check. Doc says everything looks good and we agree. The glue is starting to wear off so we are getting a better idea as to what her scar will look like. Her lip is red and she will have her snot rocket launchers (stints) for another three to four weeks. The best part is her smile, we were worried that her smile wouldn't be as great but it is. I know your thinking but her lip was a mess how could we miss that? Well, when your kid finger paints on the wall with poo a small part of you is proud that they drew a recognizable picture, in other words, everything about our kid is great even some of the bad stuff. To the pictures. By the way she looks like a Hoo from Whoville, it's awesome.

Before and After

Four days after surgery and Mac is doing well. She has had some pain but not too bad. The biggest down side is she has reverted to infancy, she wants to be held constantly. I have nothing witty to input here, we are all tired and ready to get back to our routine. Here are some pics.

The after pic you can see she has stints in her nose to help shape it during healing. Also, you can see the glue they used to hold everything together. This is slowly dissolving away.

Before


After

Cloudy sky but the sun is shining.

We walked into the nicu this morning to a smiling face. Mac is getting back to normal already. The nurses have enjoyed having her here. They said she has been smiling and cooing all morning. So far we are on track for a 11am discharge. When we get home I'll take pics with the camera (somebody brought it with dead batteries) and post them up.

The drunk monkey

Still sleeping. She looks like a giant compared to the premee's here in the nicu. By the way, Mac is in the nicu because the surgical recovery rooms are full. She doesn't have any complications and we expect to go home in the morning.

Momma and baby...

Doing great!

wow man why is everything in slow motion?

We are here with Mac in the nicu. She is on morphine so feeling no pain. Her surgery went great and she looks great. So far she has already gulped down lots of moms milk. The nurses here are shocked, they aren't used to giant babies and their appetites. Momma is rocking baby right now looking pleased. So I'll shut up and give you what you want , pics.

Pic test

Here is a pic of Mac pre surgery.

we are in stitches

So I missed the month of April. As I write this Mac is in surgery. We decided to have the procedures done at Stanford. We feel much more confident with the team that is working on Mac. Her plastic surgeons name is Dr. Kahn. He definitely gave us a sense of confidence. Another thing about Stanford, they really respect our time. When we have an appointment we se the dr. at the appointed time not two hours late.

Well, I'll post more tonight after everything calls down.

Imagine a pic of mac here. I haven't been able to upload pics from my phone to this site.

She was all goofy smiles and giggles this morning. Way to make us feel like A-holes kid.

Stanford or Bust

Well its been a bit since the last post. We are trapped in that eternal twilight. The days are blending together and picking up speed. Mac is doing well. We are heading to Stanford in the morning for a second and hopefully better opinion. I have no doubt the doctors at Children's Hospital are competent but just. Mac has to live with this repair for the rest of her life, which could be short if she doesn't quit crying so much, so it better be as good as we can provide. From what we hear Stanford has a dedicated clinic for cleft repair. I will post the results tomorrow. On an exciting note my sister, Amber, is here from the U.P. to visit. We have had a great time catching up. She has had fun visiting with Mac and getting a nice California sunburn. You know how those Michigan people are, pasty white and looking for the ocean and movie stars.






The Scott Wimin Folk. Hey get back in the kitchen!

Mustached Mac

We met with the plastic surgeon on Friday. I will admit that this was not pleasant. At this point Mac will need four surgeries spread out from when she turns six months to seventeen or eighteen. The first surgery will be to repair her cleft lip. This will take place when she is six months. Before anyone asks yes, they can perform it earlier but the doctors prefer to wait. Mac is breast feeding sucksessfully (joke)so, there is no medical reason to rush into the surgery. The reason it is usually done early is the parents want it fixed, damn the risk. The second surgery will be to accomplish cosmetic "touch up" right before she starts school. The third surgery will be performed when she has her adult teeth coming in, around nine-ish, this will repair the cleft in her gum-line. They will harvest bone from her hip and implant it into her gum-line. The last surgery will be when she is an adult and this will be to rhinoplasty to set up her nose. The upside to all of this is her soft and hard palettes are intact. She will avoid additional and more intrusive surgery. Now to the downside and reason for the post title, at least the hardest part for Camille and I, we have to tape her lip together. Logically it makes sense, in just one week we noticed her cleft lip growing further apart but, in practice it is terrible to see. We just remind ourselves that Mac doesn't know any better. My hillbilly fabricator brain looks at this and is sure there is a better way. Any of you that work in the medical field I have some questions about available materials so, please contact me at dadofmac@gmail.com.

Tired, so here are some pics

Zombieland

Today drifted along without any real beginning. We spent most, okay all of the day zoned out on the couch. Between feedings Mac slept on my chest, one of the best things ever. I had big plans for today but, the day is over and I'm back at work tomorrow. I have a feeling when the alarm goes off at 0430 I will already be awake walking up and down the hall, like a zombie, trying to get Mac back to sleep.



Are we awake or is this some cruel joke?

Grandma Rides Into Town...

Friday night Grandma Sherri pulled into town to see her new grand-baby. I'll admit it was nice to hand Mac off for a little bit. Grandma whipped up some sloppy joes for dinner so, we sat at the table and had a nice chat, until somebody got cranky and started crying. No, it wasn't me crying. We took a lot of pictures and had a nice visit. I think my Mom took a small amount of pleasure getting up in the middle of the night to help, the pleasure comes from going home and knowing she can sleep in peace tonight.



Grandma couldn't stop smiling. By the way that doll she is holding is unnaturally soft.

Another big intro this weekend was with our dogs. They have been over at my Dad and Char's house since Monday. We weren't too worried about Shadow, he has shown to be a great dog with little kids but, we were worried about Daisy, she is the little princess of the house and had some bad experiences with kids. Since she is only five pounds little kids tend to grab big handfuls of hair and try to pick her up. Daisy proved us wrong. She loves the new pupp...baby.



Well, I'm typing with Mac sleeping on my chest and feeling her warm soft breath is making me sleepy. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to post the text message thread that I sent out during Camille's labor.

Have no fear Mackenzie is here

Feb 23rd 6:48PM Mackenzie was born!

After almost 28 hours of labor, some of them very hard, Mac was pulled into this unforgiving world by a "Mity-vac". Who knew all those jokes about grabbing the Shop-vac and gettin' it done would be a reality? She came out 8lbs 9oz and 21in long.



What an amazing thing, at least that was what I was told. I booked it when she was coming out. Come on don't make that face, I stayed for the pushing and all the "clean" stuff. I figure the last thing I need to see is six people and shop equipment, between my wifes legs, trying to pull something out. Not to mention all the kings men putting humpty dumpty back together again. I waited outside the room and when I walked in I was greeted with a glowing wife and beautiful baby girl. The only hiccup was that Mac has a cleft palate. The first thought was 'will she be able to breast feed'? This hasn't been an issue and Mac is breast feeding as I type this, Phew. One thing I hope to acomplish with this blog is to document how she gets along with her cleft and the process for fixing it. Like I told my sister, we live in California so what's the big deal with plastic surgery before the girl is one, you have to start them sometime. By the way as I update I will probably joke about her "funny lookin' lip", if that offends you get over yourself! Well, thats all for now.