Chelsea's Surgery

The last that I think we posted was that she was going to have a CT Scan. What the doctor found was a scalpal dermoid, which was deforming her skull, so it needed to be removed. She had her surgery this morning, and everything went well. It was exactly what the doctor had thought, and it was a pretty simple fix. She seemes to do pretty well, and we held it together as well (this could have been the toughest part of the day). Here's a summary of the day for those of you interested. Otherwise, just skip to the pictures. But be warned, as cute as she is, these pictures are not necessarily the most flattering.

We had to be at the hospital at 6 am this morning, and we actually arrived a little bit early. Amazing, I know, since neither Jacob or I are morning people, and have trouble getting up for 9 am church...Anyway, we had to wait a while to check in, but things moved pretty smoothly and quickly. We got her changed into the hospital gown, and she was doing pretty well for not having eaten since 11:30pm last night.

Her first (and perhaps only) "ouchie" was when they had to prick her finger for some blood. She didn't like it, and there was nothing we could do to console her. Between exhaustion, hunger, and then the poke, she was not a happy girl. From there we went to get her height and weight and answer health questions. (Side note...she was 18.4 lbs and screaming loud enough that we couldn't hear her height.) After that the anesthesiologist came in and met her and asked more questions, and told us what was going to happen. She seemed to like him more than the nurses...she didn't think he was trying to hurt her...which he wasn't, but he was going to make sure she didn't feel anything.

From there we went back into the waiting room to wait for the Life Specialist (or something like that), who was going to do a practice separation and let her play with the mask. Chelsea did fine with the separation (basically just walking into the other room with a stranger...kinda scary, I guess). Chelsea and the nurse brought us back some "funny hats" for me and Jacob to put on just so Chels could see them. She picked the raspberry Lipsmackers to go inside her mask. (They put it in there to make it smell good to help the kids...then before they know it, they are out.) They told us that when they took her away from us, everything was ready and she would be asleep within a couple of minutes. We gave her hugs and kisses, and they took her away. We headed to the waiting room.

The surgery was supposed to take about an hour, so we ended up falling asleep waiting. We hardly slept last night, then had to get up early, so we were exhausted. The doctor came out just after 9, letting us know how everything went. He said everything went fine, but he was worried about her soft spot closing up, because the bone had rough edges, or something like that. Anyway, the skull has three different layers, so he took a little bit of one of the layers and put it in the soft spot area (i.e. a bone graft) to stimulate the growth. He said it wasn't anything to worry about, he just wanted us to know that he had done it. We then found out that Chelsea would get to go home today.. We had been told that she was going to have to stay overnight. Then we got to go back to see her.

As soon as we started heading back to the recovery room, we heard her drying. She sounded so said...you could tell she was uncomfortable, exhausted, and had a sore throat from the breathing tube. After Daddy took her, she calmed down pretty quick. She hated the blood pressure cuff, and didn't like being hooked up to everything. We went into the second recovery room, and from there we left within about 30-45 minutes. We had tried to feed her, but her sore throat stopped her from drinking...anything. She fell asleep and slept until about 3:00, and is much happier now. She's crawlin' around like crazy, still looks tired, but is being surprisingly pleasant for having had surgery this morning. She has to keep the band-aid on until Friday, and she gets her stitches out in 2 weeks. Overall, the surgery was a success (as far as we can tell) and we are excited for everything to heal up! She's gonna be cuter than ever :)! Here are some pictures from today:

This picture is actually from the other day, but I had to put at least one super cute picture of her!

This was right after we got her dressed. Ignore me, just look at her. She's not quite sure what's going on, so she's still pretty happy.

This was us in the "funny hats." I think it's a pretty good picture, actually! This was just minutes before they took her back.

They brought out a little doctor kit for her to play with. Raffe (her giraffe) is taking a listen to her ticker :).

I just think this picture is cute :)

Recovery. They only had to take off just a little bit of her hair, which we were able to bring home with us. I'm thinking of keeping this hairdo for everyday use...what do you think? I'll admit, I didn't realize she had this much hair! The thing on her arm is a splint to keep her from moving it because of the iv. They couldn't get it in the top of her hand, so it's underneath her wrist.

Back at home, having a bottle, and just relaxing. My friend Jessica brought her that Minnie and the books..thanks Jess! Like I said, she's pretty pleasant considering she just had surgery!

Overall everything went well. Thanks everyone for your prayers and thoughts for our family. We appreciate them and are glad that it's over and can't wait for her to heal up! Then, maybe, just maybe, I can put a bow on her head and people will stop calling her a he...maybe!

Pictures Of Chelsea

Some people have been requesting an update, or at least some pictures of our cute little girl, so here are some pictures to enjoy :)

Daddy and Daughter (6 months)

Happy after a nap (7 months)

Meeting cousin Caleb (7 months)

After the blessing before my dad and Jacob headed home. (7 months)
Pumpkin Patch (7 months)

Pumpkin Patch (7 months)

Picking out Chelsea's pumpkin (7 months)

Yes, she's watching TV...we're terrible, I know. (8 months)

At Trunk or Treat (8 months)

Trick or Treating. She held on to this Reese's cup for quite awhile (8 months)

Until the Krabby Patty, which she held on to for the rest of the time...(8 months)

See, home and still holding it. Until...(8 months)

She saw the rest of the candy! (8 months)

Good girl, goes right for the chocolate. (8 months)

So now a little update. Chelsea is growing like crazy. We have her 9 month appointment on Friday, so maybe I'll post her stats :). No teeth yet, but she eats that baby food like a champ. Still generally sleeps great at night, but still isn't much of a napper. But that's ok. She loves to stand, and is getting so close to crawling. She started doing something like an army crawl today, so maybe soon. She can say Mama and Dada, and seems like she does it consciously. We left her with Grandma Melinda for 5 days while we went to St. Louis. We missed her like crazy, but it was a nice break. (Jacob was presenting a paper at the MMLA Conference.) With the semester winding down, Jacob is just trying to finish surviving his classes, on an average of 4 hours of sleep a night. Other than that, there isn't much going on. Oh, as far as Chelsea's cyst, we had to cancel her appointment, but she is now scheduled to have a cat scan on December 7. Hopefully we'll find some stuff out. It still doesn't bother her, unless you touch it or try and put a bow on her head, so even when wearing all pink, strangers still refer to her as a 'he'. Her hair is growing in, but slowly, and it's so light you can't see it very well. But life is pretty good here in Ohio, we're just chuggin' along.

Excuses, Excuses

So apparently having a child is still no excuse to blog...So I'll just post some pictures of Chelsea... for each month since the last update of her (6 weeks)...

This is basically the first smile that we got on camera. (2 months)

Trying on some shades getting ready for Disney World. (2 months)

The first of many attempts to start solids. (3 months)

(3 months)

I think this picture is adorable! (3 months)

Precious. These last 3 pictures are from our trip to Disney World with Jacob's family. These three were taken by Jacob's brother, Kyle. (3 months)

After her 4 month appointment. (4 months)

Just playing :). These last two onesies were made for Chelsea by my cousin Paula. Thanks Paula! (4 months)

We were helping Darbie and Chad move, and I was attempting to get a picture with all three cousins...this was what I got. (4 months)

Family Photo are some concert thingy we went to with some friends. (4 months)

Getting ready for church..a little tennis player :) (4 months)

Cleveland Zoo with the Kolstes (5 months)

Exhausted at the zoo. (5 months)

5 months.

Super Baby! (5 months)

Backyard camping. (5 months)


Sippy cup. (5 months)

I'm 6 months old TODAY! (6 months)

I can sit all by myself! (6 months) She could actually sit on her own well before this, but I had to write something!

Happy 6 months! (6 months)

Daddy's hat. (6 months)

6 months.

Go Cougars! (6 months)

So there is the basic life of Chelsea. At her 6 months appointment, she weighed 15lbs 14.9 oz and 26in. She is between the 45th-55th percentiles for both, so she's average and just perfect :). If you look at the progressive pictures, you'll notice the bump on her head growing. We have found out that it is a benign cyst (after an ultrasound and then an x-ray), and have to go see a specialist to find out what to do about it. It doesn't seem to bother her unless someone is poking at it. She seems to like most solids--sweet potatoes, bananas, green beans, peas, carrots, squash, but not peaches yet. Chelsea still sleeps all night (she will occasionally wake up at night, but it's still very rare--and we're not complaining!) Other than the doctor visits, everything is good here in Ohio. Jacob started his last year of his Masters program (Hurray!) and has a new calling...Seminary. That's right folks. Jacob is teaching Seminary. At our apartment, and there are only three girls in the class (that actually come, anyway). So he teaches them while Chelsea and Whitney sleep. Jacob has also had a paper accepted to be presented at the MMLA Conference in St Louis in November. He is very excited and we are so proud of him! Whitney is just working...that's about all. We're all still alive here in Ohio, despite the lack of life-changing updates!

Catching Up a Bit ...

Okay, so we've let our blog get dusty and it's past time to clear the cobwebs. In April Chelsea experienced her first Easter so we had to match! Lookin' good, huh?


Jacob turned a quarter of a century old. Yikes.


In May he finished his second year in graduate school and then we went to Disney World ... again. It rained a lot, but was still fun!


In June we went to Whitney's friend Susan's wedding. It was our first traditional wedding. Not ours ... just ours to go to. We had a great time.


We also went to Cedar Point. Snoopy is the one on the left.