Bentley's Surgery

Our sweet Bentley went in for her surgery on Friday. This is before the surgery...
And this is after. Poor thing. :(
But even by the next day she was feeling better and SMILING! Her first real smiles were the day after her surgery. It's hard to imagine anyone smiling after all she went through, but I think she still just felt so much better without all the pressure in her head.

She wasn't able to keep her food down well so we were in there 4 days and 3 nights. Long and tiring nights sharing a room with a sad 2-year-old.

But now, a week post surgery, she's feeling so much better. She's much more aware, her eyes are no longer wonky, and you can just tell she's healthier. Who would have guessed a surgery would have changed so much in our little one.

Cyrus loves trying to make her smile now.

Here's our happy girl! We are so blessed.

Here's a bit about her surgery for those who want to keep reading...

The surgery lasted about 2 times as long as we had anticipated. Luckily I had my parents, and Trav and his mom to try and keep me distracted. They cut out the bone from the bridge of her nose to the crown of her head. There was so much pressure that the derma of the brain was pinched in her skull so they had to stitch it together (sounds like the neurologist did an awesome job) and her bone was so thick there it took awhile to shave it down so it will grow correctly. Her hemoglobin was low so she did have to have a transfusion, but we were expecting that. But the surgeons did an amazing job and we were lucky they were able to do it endoscopically so she has a smaller scar and can heal better. I was so happy when I was finally able to go into recovery and see her, and we definitely spoiled her while in the hospital. I don't think she was in her bed except to sleep at night.

We are so thankful for everyone's thoughts and prayers and glad the surgery is over and she can start healing. :)

Our Latest Addition... and the blessing

Yep that's right. The boys ganged up on me and decided they needed a puppy. We named her Clover and she's an English setter. She's a really good puppy and I have to admit she is fun to have in our family.

This was the morning we surprised Cyrus and brought her home. He was so excited! She was his favorite puppy of the litter, and she absolutely adores Cyrus.

Bentley was blessed this last Sunday, and she looked absolutely adorable. I had so much fun dressing her up and putting her outfit together.

Here is the Hobbs family...

The Hobbs kids...

The Kunzler girls...

And our little family...

And I just had to stick this picture in. I love Cyrus's evil face while she's screaming. It's probably a good thing he doesn't want to hold her all the time. :)

Halloween at the Hobbs

Halloween was fun this year, it's so much better when you have kids to dress up and take trick-or-treating! Cyrus was a spider and Bentley was little miss muffet.

We carved pumpkins for the first time together this year and it was lots of fun. I think it will become one of our new family traditions! Travis and Tom's favorite was definitely blowing them up afterward. :)

And as always, this is how our big nights seem to end with Cyrus zonked out in his carseat. He loved halloween this year!

The Babe's Surgery

Just for a quick update...

Bentley's surgery will be on November 19th. What she has is called metopic synostosis where the plates in her head fused together before she was born. We're lucky she only had along 1 seam which is pretty uncommon, although its also uncommon to have it in a girl and the second child.

Here's how her surgery will go. She'll have a pretty small incision just inside her hairline. The plastic surgeon and neurologist will go in and cut out the seam of bone so that her head can grow normally. The surgery will last about 2 hours and she should only have to be in the hospital for a few days. After that, she'll need a helmet for awhile, but it's a relatively simple surgery (it's hard for me to say that because she is so small and it involves her head and brain, but we're getting used to the idea.) It sounds like the docs we have are the best down there which is really saying something at Primary Children's! Now that we know the day of her surgery we're planning on blessing her the first Sunday in November. We're so thankful for all of your help and prayers in our behalf and will keep you updated as the day gets closer.