Dec 30, 2012 | Natalie's Life
Hello everyone,
It was a really good day today. Natalie looked great this morning; her color is better, and she was very attentive and interactive. Oh yeah, and the Vikings beat the Packers!!!!! We’re going to the playoffs!!!! Oh, sorry, got sidetracked.
Everything looks really good for Natalie. They’ve taken her off of her steady drips, and everything is given to her intermittently now. We’ve been able to feed her with a bottle. She’s kept down the Pedialyte, but milk hasn’t stayed down so well yet. They’ll be watching this week to see how her feeds go and wean her off of the sedatives they still have her on. They think we’ll be moved out of the ICU sometime this week, and then we’ll probably still be here for about a week after that. They’re still not sure, that’s very tentative. We’re ready to get home.
We went uptown yesterday and had some really good Italian food. We also got to see Paul Revere’s house and a couple of other cool historical sites. We were going to go to Mike’s pasties, but the line was out the door. There is no pastry that’s worth waiting in line that long. It snowed here yesterday, so that was cool. It was a pretty walk to the hospital this morning.
That’s about all we know. Hopefully, we’ll know some more tomorrow. Go Vikings!!!!!!!!
Playin’ with daddy.
Chewing on things again.
Chewing on things again.
A snowy morning in Boston.
Dec 28, 2012 | Natalie's Life
Yummy wires
Hanging out with Sniffy
Dec 20, 2012 | Natalie's Life
Sleep! What a concept. I haven’t gotten this much sleep since I was about 4 months pregnant; before I was up every hour to use the restroom, pump or feed Natalie. I sleep with her puppy that she got from the Lockwood family to get it ready for Natalie. Okay, you’re right, it’s to make me feel better:) It has been great to get a little bit of sleep. I feel like this will help us to give better care for Natalie when she wakes up!
Speaking of waking up, today is that day for the bug! We got here this morning and they let us know that they have taken her off the paralytic, the cooling mat that cooled her body and have removed the drain tube that was in her mouth. Yeah! They will keep her sedated, but removing the paralytic will let her move. This will help them to slowly test the heart and body. Yesterday when she heard Brads voice she started to move her legs and hands, so they had to give her more paralytic to stop it. What a feisty little thing she is. They will be watching her pressures in the left atrium to make sure they are in the normal range of 4-10. It used to be about 14-18 before the surgery. This morning it was at 7-8 and she was doing well. Throughout the day they will place a feeding tube in her nose and start to give her a trickle of food. She is doing well and the nurses from OR stop to see her daily.
We are doing well. Here are a few updated photos:
Natalie’s tree in her room
Dec 19, 2012 | Natalie's Life
Hello everybody,
We’re having a much more calm day today. The surgery went really well yesterday, and Natalie is in NICU recovering. Her pressures and stats continue to look really good, and we’ll be watching closely today and tomorrow to make sure her heart keeps responding positively to the surgery. They are keeping her paralyzed and asleep so her body can recover from all she has been through. Hopefully, they will start reducing the amount of muscle relaxers tomorrow, and they’ll slowly allow her to wake up throughout the end of the week and over the weekend. The tentative schedule is to have her in the NICU until early next week, and then she’ll be moved over to the recovery wing. The length of her stay there will be dictated by how her body recovers. We won’t really know how long we’ll be here until we’re further along in the process. Again, Heidi and I are thankful to our employers for allowing us to be here with her. Thank you all, again, for all of the prayers and support. We’ll keep you posted on her progress.
First hour out of surgery, lots of machines, tubes, and wires.
Dec 18, 2012 | Natalie's Life
We wanted to keep everyone posted on the plan for today. Natalie was admitted at 7am this morning. Let me correct that, she was checked in at 7 am and we finally got headed back to anesthesia about 8:30. Brad toted her around the majority of the morning taking her to look at all the Christmas decorations. I felt terrible holding her knowing that she was hungry. I felt like I was torturing her by not feeding her. Poor little thing was so hungry. Once we got back to anesthesia they gave her an oral sedative and then I got to snuggle her one more time before they took her back. I know it will be way too long before I get to do that with her again. We all got one last minute to snuggle. Once they took her, Brad prayed for us and I felt much better.
These updates will be short as we only get a little bit of information. They took her back at 8:45 and called with the first update at 10:15 to let us know that she had done very well with anesthesia and the Doctor del Nido had made the incision. The plan is that they will call us every hour and a half with an update. They will let us know when they put her on the heart and lung machine, and when they take her off.
We are back in the room after having a walk and some breakfast. We are not sure what we will do all day, but I hope a nap is on the schedule somewhere.
We will keep you posted as the day goes, but they do not expect her to be out until early evening. They plan to keep her heavily sedated over the next few days so that she can heal better and rest more comfortably.
Thank you to all the friends and family and others who are praying for us. We appreciate the time you take to think of us at this busy time of year.
Well, they called us while we were getting ready to post this. So, they put her on the heart and lung bypass machine, and just started the actual repair on her heart; everything is going well. It will be an incredibly long day, but all is well so far, so we’re thankful. We will do quick updates when we get them from the surgery room, so I’m sure we’ll post again in another couple of hours.
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