Thursday, July 12, 2012
Life is an Adventure!
Good news again!!! Natalie now weighs 8lbs 8oz. Still not as big as I was when I was born. I feel like I should apologize to my mother!!! She is 20 1/2 inches long!!! Dr. Fernadez said that everything is looking very good with her oxygen stats, weight and her echo looked good too!!! We are still focused on watching to see if the left ventricle is going to grow. We will go back to Minneapolis the end of July to meet with the doctors there. So until then we need to pray for growth in her left ventricle.
We have been home for almost two weeks now and life is very different from when I left. We now have a little girl sleeping in the room next to us and all my time revolves around her! That won’t change for the next 18 years I’m sure! She is such a doll and I just love to hold her and snuggle her. She is finally starting to adjust to life at home. It’s been tough for all us, but we are figuring it out slowly. Natalie is a bit colic and that has been a challenge. Its so hard to want to comfort her and not be able to with out nursing her and making her sick. Mommies and daddies are supposed to be able to comfort their babies when they hurt. We have learned through everything that we must take one day at a time and enjoy each day as it comes. She is starting to make some adjustments and we have enjoyed to singing together and going for walks. She loves her swing and loves to go for walks with Dad. The weather has been to warm to walk much lately, but we look forward to more walks when the weather cools down. She also enjoys her toys that sing to her and have lights!!!
Life is going well! Brad goes back to work on Monday and then it will just be me and the bug all day! I am sure that we will have a blast! We will keep you updated with her progress. Thank you so much for praying for us and supporting us in our journey with Natalie Bug!
All Most There!
Brad and I are counting the days until we get to come home. Our Target….. Saturday a.m. for discharge. YEAH!!!
Although we have come along way, we still have one last hurdle to get over. The little bug needs to gain some weight. She must get that from Daddys side… Not Mommies. She is back to her birth weight now after 3 weeks. We hope now that she can put some weight on since she is feeding again! She is eating much better now. A great breakfast eater and an afternoon snacker! She is doing very well though.
I give a big “Job Well Done” to all you mommy’s and daddy’s who have made it through the first few weeks with their babies! It’s not easy. We stayed in the room with Natalie her first night and I believe that I got an entire 30 minutes of sleep in a recliner and Brad maybe clocked 45. Not enough to raise a baby on!!!! It’s been tough, but we are learning. So much to learn from when and how to nurse, to diapers and how to burp her! Sounds like easy chores, but it’s been difficult at times. We are catching on though and today was a better day than yesterday and that’s all we can hope for.
So the plan is to gain some ounces over the next 2 days and hopefully get home on Saturday night.
Natalie is doing well. She is a bit unsure what to do in the big quiet room, but she still gets plenty of disruptions to make her feel at home. The CVIC was so loud and busy all the time and I think she got used to being poked at and monitored. She is going through withdrawal from her CVIC family of nurses and doctors. We also have gotten to hold her a lot more in recovery, so she thinks that is the cat’s meow and wants to be held all the time. I think that she is just as excited to get home as we are.
We will have to come back in a month for her check up and have weekly echos in Bismarck as the watch to see if the left ventricle will grow with more blood exposure. So we are praying for growth in the left ventricle. They have changed her diagnosis just a little to Hypoplasia of the Left Ventricle. The doctor said she is quite a unique case and that they only have research from 15 cases of this. Maybe we can charge them for the learning opportunity that Natalie provided. We have to re-coop the money somehow, Right!!! If not I guess we will have to settle with our second business investment…. Breast Milk production!!!!
Thank you to all who have been praying for Natalie and our family! Although it’s been a long journey and we have a long way to go, we are optimistic and thankful for God’s Grace and the love and support of our family and friends. We should be home soon and can’t wait to see everyone again once we settle back in. I am quite sure that we will never be more excited to see exit 159 as we will on Saturday!!!!!
See you all soon!!!
Recovery (Day 3)
We got really good news today. Natalie will be moving out of Intensive Care for the first time in her life. We’ll be moving up to the recovery floor sometime today. They think we’ll be discharged from the hospital sometime toward the end of the week. We are extremely thankful. Natalie has been doing very well and is eating a lot. She will have no tubes or wires coming off of her body as of today, and she is looking great.
Recovery (Day 1)
Natalie is recovering well. She still has a breathing tube in and a drain tube in her chest. Hopefully, they’ll be removing the breathing tube today or early tomorrow, depending on how awake she is. If she stays awake, they’ll remove it tonight. We’re hoping for that, it’s very hard to watch her struggle against that tube in her throat. Other than that, she is doing very well. Her stats all look good, and she’s doing as well as can be expected.
Surgery is over!!!
Natalie just came out of surgery, and the surgeon said it went great. She isn’t back to her room yet, but we’re waiting. It looks like less than a week of recovery if things go as planned. We’ve learned not to take anything for granted, but we’re hoping to be back home later next week. We miss our home and Bismarck, and we’re ready to get back. I’ll update again later.
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