Mary Beth is doing fine. (30w5d)

The surgery went off without a hitch and she was nearly a picture-perfect patient. It's amazing how utterly different this child is when she's alone. She was easy going, easy-to-please, and the only real tears we dealt with were when we were removing the tape from her face (to hold the probe in place) and from her arm (the IV). In her defense, the tape did take a layer of skin off so it was certainly a justified, albeit ear-piercing, screaming session.

Tulane was magnificent. Their staff was unbelievable ... the pediatrics floor came equipped with a playroom that was filled with more toys than you could imagine (and staffed with the most precious of girls who took a liking to MB), movies, books, you name it. So we never got bored, which was great. Just in case, though, I'd toted along my manicure/pedicure kit and MB and I had a fun time being girls. We snuggled up together in her bed to sleep while Daddy slept on the not-so-comfortable couch. And seeing the other ped's patients, all of which were obviously much more sick than MB (one was suffering from burns from head to toe), along with what Ali and Charlie have been dealing with, definitely put things in perspective and made us realize how incredibly blessed we are.

Keeping that in mind made my wardrobe malfunctions seem absolutely fine, even welcomed. (A bottle of Robitussin opened up inside our bag and stained only my clothes which left me with only my dirty clothes and pajamas to wear. Naturally, I spilled coffee on my already dirty clothes which left them unwearable. And amazingly, I was able to laugh it off while I sported my wife-beaters for the remainder of our stay.)

We arrived back home yesterday afternoon and she's already back to her old self. She says she missed the boys, but I think she really missed having people to boss around. Nonetheless, even the aggravation of the bickering is better than longing for it at all.

Here she is post-surgery eating her much desired lunch. You can see the probe coming out of her nose (and the tape that nearly ripped her face off). Lying next to her is the computer the probe was attached to. We had to move buttons around any time she went from flat to sitting/standing and not eating to eating. And then write down on a log what was going on. In other words, huge pain in the rear.