Insert Clever Title Here "Holy Hole Batman" Or The Like

It's over.  Totally and completely over.  I never thought I would get to this point but I did and it feels amazing.  Our G-tube days are behind us.  Before the doctor even put it in I wanted to know when we would be able to take it out.  That darn tube and everything that went with it consumed my every thought for exactly 4 years and 5.5 months.  The tube is gone, the stitches healed and the tape worn off.  I am sure it will pop back into my mind ever once in awhile.  Like when any child picks her up and then slides her down the length of their body to put her down,  whenever she climbs over something, Whenever we toss her in the air,  you know,  all those times we had to call "tube check"  and make sure it was still in place.  Hopefully that will fade with time.
The day I took her in to have it closed was hard for me.  I was dealing with all my normal surgery angst  plus reliving that awful Halloween in 2008 when they put it in.   My goal was to do a recreation before and after kind of thing.  This caused me to have to think about my every move to try and remember when I took pictures before, so I could try and do the same shots now.  All the nurses thought it was really cool but looked at my weird when I would look like I was going to puke after the picture.  Give me a break!  I'm dealing with something here!
 Sadly I can't seem to find the most important  picture to me.  The very last one I took before they took her into surgery on that Halloween so long ago. Her last whole before the hole picture.  It is a much tinier version on the one of her laying sideways on my lap.  She fit was back then.  So very small.

pre op second belly button

 I put one of Emmeline's old G-tubes in her baby so I could show her what  I was going to do when we took it out.  While she was in surgery getting her tube sewed up I sat in the waiting area sewing up her baby.

 She thought it was pretty cool to ride the rolling bed.

 She woke up for a second and the promptly gave her some Lortab and she fell right back to sleep.  For 4 hours.

2008 post surgery

2013 post surgery.  I think it's pretty cute that she slept in almost the same position with her hand pulled up.

 She woke up crying once and would only calm if I kept my hand on her head.

 Then sleeping beauty awoke.

 Well, sleeping something awoke.

Her post surgery dressing

 No more stitches!

Awesome new abs!

This was going to be a much more well written post but my brain is shutting down due to our next big Emmeline adventure which is already starting up.  She likes to keep it interesting/busy.  So this is as good as it gets right now.