Post op Pictures day 16 and Welcome Home

A quick update!

My facebook status yesterday:

The kids won't let me out of their site, want to help me with everything, and Landen announces anytime we see anyone, "This is my mommy!" as he snuggles his head into my neck. All fears of their hesitation because I look different are gone. They knew me as mommy from the moment I walked in the door.

 A very happy status update.

Those first moments when we walked in the door were wonderful.  We've picked up right where we left off.  Landen wants to be held, Emerson wants to just be with me and Braeden has almost literally not ran out of stories to tell me.  We had a family sleep over (with the kids on the floor because I was slightly nervous about having flailing kids in our bed with us!) the first night home.  The kids and I are currently in a honeymoon stage since being home and I'm down with that.  They want to be with me all the time and I am happy and absolutely ok with it.    

 I'm so, so thankful to be with them again.  I can't tell you what it did to my heart to be away from them for two and a half weeks.  However, these last few days have been SO sweet.  

This whole healing process is turning out to be a very humbling thing, however:

My energy still doesn't measure up to what I'd like to do, so I'm depending so much more on Jon, which is hard for me to do (mostly because I like to be busy and doing things myself).   However, I do seem to be improving every day.

This blended diet thing isn't my favorite.  Yesterday Jon blended some lasagna for me.  When it was still to thick to be able to drink, we added some milk, warmed it up and that was my dinner!  Sounds gross, huh?  It actually wasn't too bad.  I very much dislike the eating process because I'm still numb and so it's just, well, messy.  Very humbling to say the least.  (7 more weeks of the blended diet before I graduate to a soft chew diet.  My soft chew diet will start 2 days before Thanksgiving - I'm sure that'll be one of the things I'm giving thanks for about that time!)

 I still have some swelling and lots of numbness, though every once in a while I'll get a zing from a nerve trying to wake up.  Though the numbness is kind of annoying, I'm thankful that it's probably saving me from some of the pain from the surgery.  

My muscles are still learning how to do what they need to do in the new position.  Because of that and the numbness the animation in my face and smile still isn't quite normal, but as time passes I should start looking more and more "natural."

I'm down a little more than 15 pounds.  Not too bad considering!  

Per Jon's request, here are some side by side pictures so you can see the difference a little better.  In the pictures that I'm not smiling in (both before and after), I tried to relax my face and just let it "hang" naturally.  Again, they moved my jaw out (and up) a total of 17 mm.  They didn't touch my nose, and they shaved off quite a bit of bone just under my nose (and I believe they took some bone out of my chin, too), shortening my gums and my face in general. 

You  can see that before my lips wouldn't meet naturally.  Now, they do.

The surgeon said that once more of my swelling goes down, I should have more of a jawline, as well.

It's still a little difficult to smile, but it should hopefully come more naturally with time.

Landen didn't want to be left out of the picture taking.  :) 

 Thank you so much, AGAIN, for all of the prayers and encouragement.  This healing process has sometimes been frustrating and uncomfortable, but I truly believe I've been spared what could have been so much worse because He has answered yours and my prayers.  So thank you!