Ten little fingers and ten little toes

When a child is placed in his or her parents arms for the very first time, whether a biological child or adopted, I think one of the very first things that is done is the fingers and toes are counted. It's almost like a right of passage. I was no different with Sabah. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 little toes on her cute little feet..... and 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 little fingers on her cute little hands. No, that wasn't a misprint. Little miss Sabah was so special she came with an extra finger on her right hand.



Yesterday, Sabah had very minor surgery to have this extra finger removed. Africans actually consider an extra diget as good luck and a sign of prosperity and a lot of people had mentioned that I should keep it as it is. But the fact was, it was just hanging on her pinky by a very thin stalk, and I was afraid that someday it would get caught on something and rip right off. So, yesterday, my poor little baby was completely anestitized and this cute little extra pinky was snipped off and tied. The whole procedure was super quick, but having your child completely under and watching her wake up was very emotional. As she was coming too, she started crying and the nurse told me I could pick her up. She was sooooo floppy and her eyes rolled back in her head, and all I could do was hug her tight and thank God for giving me this precious blessing. I rocked her for a few minutes and she started to really wake up, and of course WAIL. She hadn't eaten in over 7 ours and she was telling me she was NOT happy. They would only allow me to give her water, and I told the nurse that it would only take her all of two minutes before she figured out there was no formula in her bottle. And, the little stinker proved me right. The nurse then gave her some sugar water and that seemed to appease her for a bit. The nurse said I could give her formula when we got home. Thank goodness we only live 5 minutes from the hospital. We got home, she ate, got some tylenol, had some solids and then went to bed. She slept for 14 hours!!!!! Today she is back to normal.

Her bandaged finger minus the extra pinky

This is all that is left of her 6th finger. A little clump of skin tied off that will fall off soon and leave a tiny tiny bump.