Coburn Kids

First off, the girls primary program on Sunday was adorable.  The girls looked great and they did their parts perfect.  Adessa didn’t even need her teacher’s help as she had memorized her part.  They sang beautifully and Grandma and Grandpa were able to come and see them.

Caden’s surgery was at 8:45 AM in the morning and he was just so happy to have all of mommy and daddy’s attention. What was really cool is that we were able to go back with him this time.  Since it was only being done in the dental operating room both Daniel and I went back and were able to hold his hand as he went to sleep.

Caden wearing his surgery PJ’s and in the waiting room

We spent only a 1/2 hour in the waiting room. Dr. Romney, who removed his palate prosthesis came out first and actually gave us the piece.  I thought it would be larger, and those screws… owwww. Dr. Park, who did the ear tubes, came out next and Caden did great.

Caden’s little palate prosthesis, look at the screw!

I went back to the recovery room with him and he was awake. Once again, his nurse couldn’t believe how wonderful he was. No crying or fussing afterwards just checking everything out.  Back in the post-op room I swear every single kid in there was crying or screaming.  The noise level was incredible.  Caden fussed a bit but never cried. What a great lil’ guy huh?!

Caden after surgery, no he does not look happy.

So he’s home and doing great. We’ve got him on just a bit of Tyelnol.

I have a full week filled with fun things such as the Circus, a Fun Run at Gena’s school, a Women’s Show Expo with my mom, the girls Primary Program practice, then their actual Primary Program on Sunday, a ward Ice Cream Social, my brother’s housewarming party and so forth. I have other not-so-fun things such as another Preemie Clinic to see the neurologist with Caden, his phone call on Friday from Primary Children’s so that I can find out the time of his surgery.

My husband told me of a man at his work who’s wife was completely distraught when her own son had to go in for surgery for ear tubes.  It makes me stop and think, that I consider this surgery (he’s having his palate prosthesis removed to) to be a minor one. Not even worth the time to really worry about it.  Yet I do, because surgery never gets routine.  I think my heart starts racing because I’m thinking of his big surgery coming up in October. Where he’ll be on that operating table for 3+ hours. His tiny body on that big bed, sleeping while his plastic surgeon slices/repairs and closes everything up. For me, the moment your surgeon walks into that waiting room after your child’s surgery is one of the most heart-wrenching, scary, and tense moments of your life.

It’s as if time slows down. You watch the doctor’s walk. His body movement. His facial expression. Is he giving anything away? Is he going to say the dreaded words of “Let’s go into another room and talk” or the words “He did great! No problems”. At that moment you have every emotion running through you and you are just waiting to let out a sigh, a gasp, something… anything.  For me, the moment is more intense then the walk back to see your child in the recovery room.

I was nervous to see Caden after his lip repair.  What would he look like?  Would I still recognize that little face? Would he be crying? Would he still be asleep? But I all ready knew that he was fine. That everything went well. So much of the tension had all ready passed.  The same with his feeding tube.

I know other parents that their moment of tension is handing the child off to the nurse or doctor.  For others it’s the waiting room.  For other’s it walking back to see their child after their surgery.  It’s probably different for every parent but for me, hands down, the moment the doctor walks in after the surgery.

7 more days until I feel that moment again.

I so wish I had brought the camera last night! We went up to Sue Halligan’s farm, an old nieghbor from my neighborhood growing up. It was about an hour drive out there but what a good turn out there was with 30-40 people. People I hadn’t had the chance to see in years. It’s so strange to see the little brother’s and sisters of neighbors you knew growing up.  You always have this permanent picture in your eye of them at 6 years old.

I was absolutely fascinated to see that chickens and kids go together like peanut butter and jelly.  I am now thoroughly convinced that every kid needs at least one chance in their childhood to chase some chickens around and terrify them. The girls had a blast though with all the other kids there, climbing in the corral, scaling fences, mooing with cows, scaling 20 foot tall haystacks!  Always a bit of a surprise to look wayyyy up and see a bunch of kids running around on mountains of haystacks, the proceeding heart attack isn’t as much fun though.

We had a great barbeque followed by s’mores over the firepit. We all had such a wonderful evening last night!

Labor Day weekend was wonderful. The girls and Daniel spent Friday boating at our lake, which they loved. Saturday we decided to take the girls up to the mountains for lunch.  They did not want to leave! We were enjoying hiking around and seeing all the trees and plants. They really loved the river too. Later that day the girls and Daniel went back to our community pool while Caden took his nap.

Daniel and the girls in the mountains

Sunday was my little nephew Ethan’s 3rd birthday party. We started out at a park but the wind was terrible so we headed over to their house for cake and ice cream. The girls always love to see their cousin and play with him.

The girls at Ethan’s Bday

Grandma with Caden

Cousin Ethan with Aunt Angie and Uncle Ryan

On Monday, we headed to my Dad’s Labor Day Picnic he has for his union. It was rainy at the start but turned out wonderful, even a little cool. They gave away some awesome prizes of books and games and there were some blow-up slides to keep the girls entertained.

It was so nice to spend the weekend with the girls and they certainly enjoyed themselves.

Adessa also started dance classes on Thursday.  She was so excited to get all dressed up in her dance clothes and had a blast.  Her teacher said she was just great, following directions and was all smiles and giggles the whole time.

Adessa in her dance clothes

I’ll have to tell you about our fun Labor Day Weekend and Adessa’s first day of dance in a few days here when I can get the pictures up… but first off -

Caden has his new OT and Speech Pathologist.  Becka and Lynette.  Two wonderful woman who were just so excited to start working with Caden. They spent 1 1/2 hours at my house on Wednesday and we went thoroughly over Caden’s feeding issues.  Caden is on another cycle again of not wanting to eat.  2-3 oz’s he’s decided is all he needs. We discussed a lot of what may be the issue behind his refusal, from apettite issues to maybe it’s getting up in his palate. They’ll be coming out every other Wednesday at 2:30 pm to work with him.

In other Caden news he is getting another tooth!  His top front left tooth is coming in and seems to be coming in fine.  With cleft babies you never know if they’ll come in sideways, weird angles, even upside down! But this one seems to be fine, it’s right near the notch in his gumline and he is constantly playing with it with his tongue feeling it.