Post OP day 3

We are still in the CICU (cardiac intensive care unit). She has all of the pacers and tubes out and is down to one I.V. site. Poor little peanut is not liking the morphine. It is causing it usual symptom, itching, constipation, and upset stomach. She didn't eat at all yesterday or today so far. Anything she does swallow comes up moments afterwords. They told us that she will limit her mobility herself, if it hurts she won't do it. I have not seen her hold so still for so long since she was a newborn. Because she has all of her pacers and extra I.V.'s out they are hoping to move her out of intensive care and to the main cardiac care unit. She is however doing well considering what she went through 2 days ago. Thanks for all of your prayers and help.

Post OP. Day 2

As you can see she is doing much better. She got her chest tube out today and her Arterial line was removed as well. This has given her a bit more mobility so she is less anxious. She has opened her eyes a few times today, but only for a few minutes. They are still keeping her on the drugged side so she doesn't hurt herself. She has a few "normal" arrhythmia's that are typically seen after open heart surgery so they are monitoring those still. She is eating a little. We have just been putting a bottle in her mouth and she is drinking about 80-90 ml every three hours or so. I am pleased with her progress. Hopefully we will be able to hold her today.

Kenna wanted to send her some flowers. I told her that I wasn't sure if they would let flowers on her unit. So she drew some flowers in a vase for her instead. The squares around the flowers is the table clothe I had to ask Kenna what they were and she answered in a tone implying I was an idiot, "it's the table clothe mom".

We taped the picture on the foot of her bed so Lauren could see it. Kenna and Bryn are excited to come tomorrow and see her. This makes mom nervous as Bryn is not a gentle child.

Surgery

Lauren's surgery went well. While closing the VSD they found she had a small ASD as well so they closed that hole too. She did very well. She has been out of surgery for 2 hours now. She is off the ventilator but still has some O2 by way of a nasal cannula. If all goes well she will have the chest tube out tomorrow. Thank you all for your prayers and help with the McKenna and Brynlee. We so very much appreciate it.

Surgery Date

We have set Lauren's surgery date for May 6th. She will undergo an open heart procedure to fix her VSD. I will be spending the next few days stressing over everything that could be stressed about (sometimes ignorance is bliss). She will be in C.I.C.U for a few days and then in the hospital for a week. The doctors say that she will be back to her old self in about 4-6 weeks after the procedure. p.s for those of you who are interested here is a you tube link to see the procedure. It is an actual procedure so if blood or anything medical makes you squeamish you should pass. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9crkTBuHbc

Pass

Such a wonderful word!! When you hear the word pass you may think of many different things. Some may think of a pass as something you would do with a football, soccer, or basketball. Depending on where you live you may think of a road with a 10% grade covered with snow and ice, no guardrail, and only 12 feet wide for two lanes of traffic. Pass may be something you would like to do when stuck behind a school bus. At our house it means Brad has PASSED his Dental Board Examinations and can now be a lisenced Dentist.

Lauren 9 Months

Lauren is getting so big!! She is very mobile now she crawls, pulls up onto furniture, and moves along the furniture (although very wabley). She smiles easily, has a fabulous laugh, and is so fun to have. She says a few things, the usual, mom, dad, and up. Up in this case is Jump and she loves to jump. She will spend hours in the jumparoo jumping away. The new love of her life is Cheerios. She has a little friend at daycare named Brooklyn and they are two of the cutest little baldies ever. This week she just learned to clap and wave. She is one tough cookie! I went and got this photos taken of her today and they all turned out so cute. I really liked the ones with the blue flowers they really made those blue eyes pop. The pink and red outfit was sent to us by my grandma.

They really do love each other

Lately I feel like Brad and I need to wear Black and White shirts and have whistles around our necks. We are spending a lot of time refereeing fights between Kenna and Bryn. Most of the problem comes from Kenna wanting to boss Bryn, and Bryn not wanting to be bossed. They play well for a little while and then end up fighting. This is how they fell asleep the other day after an evening of fighting over couch territory.