Our Adoption Story: Part 7

The day after Francie's surgery was pretty calm. She slept most of the day. She wasn't even eating at that point, so there was nothing for David and me to do except to be in her room and talk to her and touch her face. The second day was harder. Francie was awake more and seemed uncomfortable. She cried a good bit, which was heartbreaking for us since there was NOTHING we could do to comfort her. She had a whole "pain team" taking care of her and adjusting her medications. One of the doctors reminded us that keeping her comfortable during recovery was a marathon not a sprint, and it was going to be a lot of trial and error. He said that just because something worked one day didn't mean that it would work the next, and just because something didn't work yesterday didn't mean that it wouldn't work today. David and I were thankful to have such knowledgeable medical professionals taking care of Francie. The nurses in the PICU were wonderful, too!

On Saturday, Francie got to leave the intensive care unit and go to a regular room where she would be for the remainder of her stay. As soon as we got to her room, nurses were in and out and making adjustments and switching out her bed for another one and so on and so forth. They recover a lot of bladder exstrophy patients on this floor, so we knew that Francie was in VERY capable hands. David and I developed a routine during this time of spending the day with Francie and taking a lunch break and then taking turns getting little breaks in the afternoon. We spent a lot of time on our laptop and kindle and we talked to Francie frequently. It was during this time that I actually wrote a lot of these blog posts :)

Once Francie was out of the PICU and doing so well, David and I decided that I would fly home on Monday to be with our other kids. By that point, we had been gone for 16 days, and my mom had taken care of our kids the whole time. I missed our kids SO much and couldn't wait to get home to them, but I was also so sad to be leaving Francie and David. I just felt so torn, and I knew it was going to be hard to be separated for a while. On Monday morning, I went to the hospital and said goodbye to Francie, and then I took a cab to the airport and flew home. I was SO thankful that David was able to stay in Baltimore with Francie. We are so blessed that he has such a great job and was able to do a lot of work from Maryland! I don't know how we would have been able to make this work without that.

When I got home, my mom and Aubrey were waiting for me at the airport. I was so happy to see my sweet girl! That was by far the longest I've ever been away from my kids. When I got home, I was greeted by Alaina and a very grumpy Jude. Haha! I felt like I jumped right back into the saddle ;) David and I are both so incredibly thankful to my mom for taking care of our kids for such a long time and never once complaining. I know it was HARD, but she was so generous with her time, and again, I don't know how we would have done this without her.

So, for the next 10 days, I did this single mom gig. I had been pretty nervous about how this was going to go (I'm super blessed to have a husband who does a TON to help me with the kids and around the house, so I knew that I was REALLY going to feel his absence), but it was actually a very sweet time with my kids. I know that people were praying for me because of the fact that I was able to take care of my kids by myself for 10 days without feeling like I was going to pull my hair out. Haha! It was kind of weird to be home and just jump right back into our normal routine after the whirlwind 16 days that I had just experienced, but it was also really refreshing and encouraging to be home. I missed David and Francie tons, and it made me LONG for the day when our whole family would be home together. The evenings after I put the kids to bed were the hardest part. The house was just so QUIET and it was kind of lonely. During this time, I would call David and he would give me a full update on Francie's day.

Thankfully, Francie did well and continued to progress during this time. While I was away, she was able to start taking bottles again! That was an exciting milestone to reach! She still got some of her feedings via tube, but they offered her bottles and let her take some by mouth too. David was able to give her bottles, which made me happy :) He spent all day everyday at the hospital with Francie. I was so glad that she had her daddy by her side when I couldn't be with her!

Even though my time at home with the kids went as well as it could, we knew that we wanted our family together. So, after 10 days apart, David flew home for one night so that we could then DRIVE back to Baltimore the next day with the kids. The kids were SO happy to see David! By this point, they hadn't seen each other in almost 4 weeks. We were all excited (and a little nervous) about our big adventure to come in Baltimore!