M.I.A.

the title basically sums up the smiths the past 5 weeks and 2 days. let me explain and update. 5 weeks and 2 days ago our baby finally had her surgery on her lung. everything went better then expected! we were so excited and felt so blessed. the dr. got in and saw that the mass was on the outside of her lung and therefore didn't have to remove any lung tissue. we were informed at her check up that the mass was already slightly infected so she was on her way to pneumonia, we are so glad that it was removed when it was. i learned that she is such a strong girl, she was in the i.c.u. for less then 24 hours and we were released from the hospital less then 72hours after the surgery had taken place, we were told that we would be in for 5 days. she did so good, yes the morphine helped and it was really difficult for us to not pick her up (we were told that it would be very painful for her with her chest tube in so we held her as little as possible). she would wake up and moan and then go back to sleep. the dr. did have to cut her open because she started to bleed during the procedure which we were hoping wouldn't have to happen.

we did have to take her in to the dr. the day after coming home because her chest tube site was leaking and her dressing was coming off. we got help quick and knew what to do if it happened again. like i said we are so happy with the results.

she was uncomfortable and wanted to be in my arms and if she wasn't she was mess! riley also wanted mom because the amount of attention she was getting dramatically decreased during recovery time. i told ian that the week after coming home was by far the most challenging week of motherhood for me thus far. during that week our ward was so generous to us, we had meals brought the whole time which helped tremendously so thank you to them.

the next week i got to play, "catch up" you know clean the house, play with ri, do laundry, try to sleep etc.. the 3rd week the last of peytons bandages came off and so it was rough again and she had to adjust to clothing touching the site etc. but handled it pretty well. the 3rd week she was so happy to get back in the bath so it made the struggle all worth it. the 4th week was a catch up from the 3rd and last week 1/2 us got sick and now are on the mend with the medicine prescribed to us.

needless to say i feel like sanity has been just out of reach. ian has been so helpful and yet so busy himself (he was called as the 1st counselor in the bishopric just before peytons surgery). i love that ian is able to serve. at the same time i am left feeling overwhelmed a lot because i don't have him at home with me as much as i am used to. i do feel like our little family has been incredibly blessed by his service to the lord.
here are some pictures of our little fighter in the hospital doing her thing. she is swollen but still has that same cute face. i am happy to report that she seems to be completely back to normal. she's trying to stand on her own, climbing on all the furniture, into EVERYTHING, and loves loves loves eating baby food! now if we could only get her to gain some weight and get out of those 3-6 months clothes.