In a room

Emma is doing so good. She was moved out of PCICU Friday afternoon & into her own room. A surgeon (not the one who did Emma's surgery) removed her chest tube drain a few hours ago. I had to sit across the room & not watch since I get really quizzy with medical stuff. She did scream of course when it was pulled but since they gave her morphin before the procedure she calmed right back down. It of course still broke my heart & made me cry.

We found out last night from one of the nurses on the floor (who was working in PCICU while Emma was there) that Emma rolled over on her tummy & tried to sit up Thursday night. That of course is a no no since she still had in her lines & chest tubes. I kept asking the doctors & nurses what would happen if she tried to roll on her tummy or sit up & they kept telling me she would probably be too sore to do that, but they don't know our Emma. Now that she is able to roll over, sit up. crawl & pull up she is ready to move. Now the real test will be how she will be once we get home during her post-op period.

Progressing Nicely

Emma's surgery went well & much quicker than I thought. The surgeon was able to patch several holes & removed the band. He wasn't able to patch all the holes due to the difficulty reaching them but they are small & shouldn't cause her any problems going forward. If the remaining holes do start to give Emma problems he would probably just repair them with a heart cathe instead of open heart surgery again.

Right now Emma is doing very well. She slept most of the day yesterday & Wednesday but she is very awake, alert & fussy today. Emma pulled out her IV last night so they had to replace it in her other hand & put a mitt over it so she can't pull it again. I must say she is quite unhappy it too.

They plan to remove some of her lines & tubes today, if all goes well she could move out of the PCICU and into her own room if a bed becomes available. She is just progressing very well.

I would like to ask that you keep all the children & families here in your thoughts & prayers, there are some very sick kiddos here. The baby girl beside Emma, Leslie Ann, may not make it through the day. There is also another baby boy, Josiah, who is very sick too.

Surgery Tomorrow

We made it to Charleston last night about 9pm & Emma had all her pre-op testing today which was brutle. She had to have a sedated echo so she couldn't eat for 5.5 until she woke up from the meds & lets just say she was very unhappy. She was one hungery baby at 12:30 when she was finally able to eat her first bottle of formula.

The surgery is scheduled for tomorrow at 7:30am & we have to have her there at 5:30am. Its going to be an early morning & a long day. The surgeon, Dr. B is predicting the surgery to take 5-6 hours & she will be in the hospital about 5-8 days. He did tell us it is a pretty complicated surgery since her VSD's are inside the heart & not on the surface but he is one the best in the country & we trust him & the good Lord to take care of our Emma. Please keep all of us, our Emma & the medical staff at MUSC Children's Hospital in your prayers tomorrow.

Shots & more

Today Emma had an appointment to get her first RSV shot of the season & to our surprise she was also able to get a flu shot. The ped's office did announce last week that they wouldn't have any more flu vaccines until mid/late Nov. which meant Emma wouldn't get one before going to Charleston for her surgery & that worried me a little until I found out she was able to get her RSV shot. Then while we were in the office this morning one of the nurses told Dr. F that a small shipment of infant flu vaccines just came in, so Emma got one. YEAH!!!

We were also happy and surprised to find out that Emma now weighs 17 lbs, 12 oz. She has gained a lb in a month which is great. Her last weight gain was only 9 oz in a month in a half, so we are just thrilled.

Emma is pulling up on everything & tonight she crawled up 2 of the stairs trying to get to our cat, Zoie (she loves her pets, even Spencer who growls at her). Chris was sitting right beside her while she did it so there was no chance of her falling, thankfully. So once I put her to bed I got out a baby gate to keep at the bottom of the stairs to keep her from trying that again.

She still isn't doing very well with finger foods & doesn't always want her baby food. She is really loving her bottles these days, which is actually good since they have the most calories. We tried transitioning her off the bottle & to a cup but then she would only drink an ounce or two. We even tried pouring the rest in the bottle to get her to finish it off, but she wouldn't touch it. So we have decided to hold off on switching to a cup until after her surgery so she can continue to get the most calories possible.

Can you see her teeth?

Look I am standing & only holding on with one hand. She pulled up on the walker all by herself on Saturday & that is when it all began. There is no stopping her now.

Crawling Emma

Happy Anniversary

Well actually our 10th wedding anniversary was Friday, Oct. 2 so I am a little behind in blogging. We went out for dinner & Mama kept Emma for us. I think this may be the first date night we have had since she was born, 11 months ago. We had a great time at dinner & went shopping at Marshalls afterwards. Oddly enough we were home by 9pm because we were both so tired. The 10 years seem to have gone by so fast & were great. I can't wait to see what the next 10 have in store for us.

We didn't exchange any gifts & Chris said he didn't want one but I am still trying to talk him into getting something. He wouldn't let me get him anything for his birthday back in Sept so I think he needs something. He needs & wants a new cellphone so that may be his gift. I must admit I forgot to give him his card until Sunday, bad wife.

I really want to get my rings resized & my wedding band fixed. I am still unable to wear my rings since I was pregnant & if you remember I had to have my band cut off. I feel so bare without them & can't wait to have them back on again.

The message dated 10-2 was left by my witty husband & I thought it was cute. It made me smile when I saw it & I had to share.