Things have kind of been a blur for us tonight (10/8). All the medical terms have been overwhelming. I'll try to give an update on Alyssa the best I can. After starting Alyssa's open heart surgery, they went in expecting to do the Norwood procedure, which is the first step to rerouting the pathways of the heart to work for her body. Once they got in there, they were able to find the aortic arch (which they hadn't been able to find during our echos). However her aortic arch was not only undersized (as expected) but it was also on the wrong side. So her already rare heart defect became and even more rare one. Her diagnosis changed to Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome with right aortic arch with an aberrant left sub-clavian artery. Right aortic arch is estimated to be present in about 0.1% of the normal population. Because this is such a rare condition they decided to close her chest up so they could research the best possible way to repair her heart since the Norwood is not an option until they figure out what to do with her arch. She was then sent to cath lab so they could put dye in her veins and figure out where each one is going to and from the heart. They wanted to have all the information possible re: her unique anatomy before devising a plan of the best course of action. This is where things went downhill. For some reason her body started crashing after the cath procedure was complete. It appeared that she was bleeding internally as her abdomen didn't appear right and her BP started dropping quickly. They then opened her belly up to look for bleeding but didn't find much. They did find lots of fluid and her intestines and liver appeared swollen and grayish due to her body trying to get all her blood to her heart and brain and not enough to her tummy area when she was crashing. They had to start chest compressions on our baby girl and had to do CPR for quite sometime while they got her hooked up to ECMO. Because she is sedated, intubated, and on ECMO life support, we will not know for awhile whether there are any brain injury from lack of oxygen. The doctors are still unsure what caused her body to vasodilate; right now the only thing they can think of is that she may have had an allergic reaction to the dye that was given.
So right now our baby lays on an operating table in a procedure room while a team of doctors and nurses work continuously on her body to adjust every little thing and get it more stabilized. There will be two nurses, an intensivist, and a technician for the ECMO machine in there at all times throughout the night. She will be receiving round the clock care. At this point our little Alyssa needs a miracle. She also now has mottling of her legs; a sign of just how sick our little baby is. The plan is still up in the air as for what will happen next. We are just trying to give her body time to rest for 24 hours and go from there.
Tomorrow is Chris and my 8 year anniversary and tonight when I go to bed, I will be praying for the best possible gift. For our little girl to receive some kind of miracle.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Monday, October 8, 2012
Surgery Day
Today is surgery day. The day we have been waiting for and dreading all in the same moment. Nothing can compare to feelings we are having today. There is no way to imagine or describe the feeling of handing your child over to someone else and trusting them to bring her back to you after they have performed open heart surgery on her. I just feel all around nauseous right now; it's going to be a long day. Our surgeon told us to plan for the entire day; that is how long it could take from start to finish when you include all the prep and recovery in there. Alyssa is his only surgery for today.
We handed Alyssa over at 7:45am this morning. The plan is to get hourly updates.
First update just came in as I was typing this post. Anesthesia went well. They had her draped at 8:45am and are ready to begin surgery. Pray for her.
We handed Alyssa over at 7:45am this morning. The plan is to get hourly updates.
First update just came in as I was typing this post. Anesthesia went well. They had her draped at 8:45am and are ready to begin surgery. Pray for her.
Day 4
Alyssa's 4th day of life:
A day full of joy and fear. Joy b/c big sister and big brother got to come visit and hold baby Alyssa and spend some time with mommy and daddy. Fear of course b/c of the hard facts of what Alyssa is up against and also the unknown of what is to come.
Alyssa's day started off with an x-ray, which later proved that she has some fluid around her lungs. She started Lasix today to help get some of the fluid off. The cardiologist thought that if we could get some fluid off, that it would help with her apnea spells.
It seems like everytime we stepped out of the room yesterday, one of the doctors came to make rounds. I did get to see one of the neonatologists yesterday, but we missed the cardiologist and the cardiothoracic surgeon.
Late morning my mom brought in our older two kiddos to see their baby sister. Addison was beaming to be able to hold Alyssa. Connor was excited to see her as well, but couldn't sit still for long so we had to hurry with pictures. But we got some of the kids together and my mom also took pictures of the whole family of 5 together. It has been a struggle for our oldest, Addison, to adjust to time away from mom and dad. Especially from mom. Lots of tears flowed yesterday as she got ready to leave the hospital and it about tore my heart out when she looked at my mom and said "Grandma, can I please just have a few more minutes with mommy". I know we will get through this, but it's moments like those that remind me of how bad I wish to be able to be there for all my kids; but knowing that I can't.....not physically anyway.
They also tried to put a PICC line in Alyssa again yesterday, but were unsuccessful. It was finally decided that they would just wait til surgery and put something in when she was under sedation. Feel so bad that she had to be poked two days in a row with no results. The cardiologist also requested labs be drawn on her to rule out infection since she's had a fever. They wanted to make sure it was caused just by the prostaglandins she is receiving for her heart. And the good news was that the results came back that she has no infection.
Alyssa's 4th day was finished off by lots of snuggling with mom before we went to bed.
A day full of joy and fear. Joy b/c big sister and big brother got to come visit and hold baby Alyssa and spend some time with mommy and daddy. Fear of course b/c of the hard facts of what Alyssa is up against and also the unknown of what is to come.
Alyssa's day started off with an x-ray, which later proved that she has some fluid around her lungs. She started Lasix today to help get some of the fluid off. The cardiologist thought that if we could get some fluid off, that it would help with her apnea spells.
It seems like everytime we stepped out of the room yesterday, one of the doctors came to make rounds. I did get to see one of the neonatologists yesterday, but we missed the cardiologist and the cardiothoracic surgeon.
Late morning my mom brought in our older two kiddos to see their baby sister. Addison was beaming to be able to hold Alyssa. Connor was excited to see her as well, but couldn't sit still for long so we had to hurry with pictures. But we got some of the kids together and my mom also took pictures of the whole family of 5 together. It has been a struggle for our oldest, Addison, to adjust to time away from mom and dad. Especially from mom. Lots of tears flowed yesterday as she got ready to leave the hospital and it about tore my heart out when she looked at my mom and said "Grandma, can I please just have a few more minutes with mommy". I know we will get through this, but it's moments like those that remind me of how bad I wish to be able to be there for all my kids; but knowing that I can't.....not physically anyway.
They also tried to put a PICC line in Alyssa again yesterday, but were unsuccessful. It was finally decided that they would just wait til surgery and put something in when she was under sedation. Feel so bad that she had to be poked two days in a row with no results. The cardiologist also requested labs be drawn on her to rule out infection since she's had a fever. They wanted to make sure it was caused just by the prostaglandins she is receiving for her heart. And the good news was that the results came back that she has no infection.
Alyssa's 4th day was finished off by lots of snuggling with mom before we went to bed.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Day 3
Day 3 was pretty uneventful compared to the first two days of life. She was still having oxygen desats like she has been having all along. The one thing they did attempt on Day 3 was a PICC line. Unfortunately they were unsuccessful and decided the would try again the next day. I discharged from the mom and baby floor this day. It's such a bittersweet feeling getting to discharge from the hospital and seeing other moms do the same; the only difference is they are able to take their babies home. After myself being discharged, we took some stuff to NICU and everything else we took to the Jeep. Chris then took some stuff home and went and spent some time with our big kids. They LOVED that daddy was home for awhile. After he got back to the hospital, I decided to take that chance to run to Target really quick to get a few things. When I returned at 10pm, Chris and Alyssa were both snoozing away. Of course I expected Alyssa's to be sleeping, but not Chris. He was wiped out.
Chris and I both slept in Alyssa's room on Day 3. Although I don't think I did much sleeping as it is really hard to sleep with alarms going off all night alerting you that something isn't quite right with you little one. I managed though. She did have an apnea spell once during the night where she quit breathing and the nurse had to lift her up and rub her back good to get her breathing again. Talk about a scary feeling. She also struggled with her fever on Day 3 and had to have cold wash clothes put on her forehead and under her arms. Her room is like a frig in order to help keep her temp down. At one point the nurse thought she would have to bring in a box fan to cool her down. Luckily a fan was not needed.
Chris and I both slept in Alyssa's room on Day 3. Although I don't think I did much sleeping as it is really hard to sleep with alarms going off all night alerting you that something isn't quite right with you little one. I managed though. She did have an apnea spell once during the night where she quit breathing and the nurse had to lift her up and rub her back good to get her breathing again. Talk about a scary feeling. She also struggled with her fever on Day 3 and had to have cold wash clothes put on her forehead and under her arms. Her room is like a frig in order to help keep her temp down. At one point the nurse thought she would have to bring in a box fan to cool her down. Luckily a fan was not needed.
Day 2
Day 2:
What an incredibly busy day it was. There is so much going on that things are already starting to become a blur, so I definitely need to get them jotted down. Daddy stayed with Alyssa all night in her room and it was a fairly uneventful night. He came down to get me the morning of Day 2 and the neonatologist and cardiologist had both already been in to check on Alyssa. The neonatologist decided to cancel Alyssa's MRI because she decided the weakness by her mouth was very minimal. Our cardiologist was not happy about this and called in the neurologist to consult on it. Our cardiologist felt that the slight weakness was enough to outweigh any risks b/c then they could rule out any facial nerve palsy or other brain injury prior to her first open heart surgery. He felt that with the research CHOP has been doing regarding the correlation between children with CHD's and brain injuries, an MRI would be beneficial in our situation to set a baseline of knowing whether or not Alyssa had a brain injury before or after surgery. Here is a link to the research that CHOP has been doing. http://www.chop.edu/service/cardiac-center/cardiac-center-research/brain-injury-newborns-chd.html
After the neurologist came up and spoke with us and did an examination on Alyssa, he decided that he agreed with the cardiologist in this case. He commented that if it were a heart healthy child coming into the office to see him regarding the slight asymmetry of the mouth, we would not recommend an MRI but would rather suggest just waiting and watching it b/c even if there was a brain injury it would be minor. But in Alyssa's case, since she is going in for a very complex heart surgery in a couple days he thought it best to rule out any brain injury that may cause problems during the surgery. So the MRI was back on, we just had to wait on word of whether or not they could get her back on the schedule since they had already filled her 11am time slot.
Alyssa was able to have her MRI done a little after 1:30pm. It was quite the feat getting all the medications, tubing and equipment down there and switched over so that she could get her MRI done. Luckily she didn't require any sedation for the MRI b/c after they swaddled her all up, she fell right asleep and didn't move a muscle. The best news of all came later that evening when the neurologist stopped back in to check on Alyssa and let us know that the MRI came back normal and Alyssa had no facial nerve palsy or other brain injury. It appears to just be a weak muscle in her face causing the slight asymmetry in her mouth.
We were able to hold Alyssa more on Day 2 which was wonderful. Nothing better than cuddling your newborn baby. Her Aunt Jessica also got to hold her. But with the busy day came some stress. Alyssa had a few apnea spells and several desats in her oxygen levels. Later in the evening our nicu nurse informed the neonatologist of all the desats she was having and the neonatologist decided to put Alyssa on a nose cannula with some oxygen to see if that would help with the desats in oxygen. It seemed to help some, but she did have a couple spells throughout the night.
We also got to meet with Alyssa's cardiothoracic surgeon and his nurse today. He went over the upcoming surgery with us and all the complications that can go along with it. He also discussed with us the improvements that have been made since he started doing the Norwood. We were happy to hear that 15 or so years ago when he and his team started doing the Norwood their survival rate was around 25% and now their teams survival rate on the Norwoods they perform is in the 90-95% range. That was reassuring to hear even though he made it clear that complications can arise and that although they try their best to save every baby, sometimes that doesn't happen. So on Monday, October 8th, our little girl will go in to have the most complex heart surgery you can have. We have lots of faith in our surgeon and know that Alyssa will continue to show her spunk and be a little fighter. At 7am that Monday our cardiothoracic surgeon will do a consult with a group of other doctors regarding Alyssa's case and surgery prep is set to begin at 7:30am.
All in all, we met with a social worker, neonatologist, cardiologist, neurologist and our cardiothoracic surgeon on Day 2. It's no wonder Alyssa's oxygen levels were desatting so bad, we had an eventful day.
What an incredibly busy day it was. There is so much going on that things are already starting to become a blur, so I definitely need to get them jotted down. Daddy stayed with Alyssa all night in her room and it was a fairly uneventful night. He came down to get me the morning of Day 2 and the neonatologist and cardiologist had both already been in to check on Alyssa. The neonatologist decided to cancel Alyssa's MRI because she decided the weakness by her mouth was very minimal. Our cardiologist was not happy about this and called in the neurologist to consult on it. Our cardiologist felt that the slight weakness was enough to outweigh any risks b/c then they could rule out any facial nerve palsy or other brain injury prior to her first open heart surgery. He felt that with the research CHOP has been doing regarding the correlation between children with CHD's and brain injuries, an MRI would be beneficial in our situation to set a baseline of knowing whether or not Alyssa had a brain injury before or after surgery. Here is a link to the research that CHOP has been doing. http://www.chop.edu/service/cardiac-center/cardiac-center-research/brain-injury-newborns-chd.html
After the neurologist came up and spoke with us and did an examination on Alyssa, he decided that he agreed with the cardiologist in this case. He commented that if it were a heart healthy child coming into the office to see him regarding the slight asymmetry of the mouth, we would not recommend an MRI but would rather suggest just waiting and watching it b/c even if there was a brain injury it would be minor. But in Alyssa's case, since she is going in for a very complex heart surgery in a couple days he thought it best to rule out any brain injury that may cause problems during the surgery. So the MRI was back on, we just had to wait on word of whether or not they could get her back on the schedule since they had already filled her 11am time slot.
Alyssa was able to have her MRI done a little after 1:30pm. It was quite the feat getting all the medications, tubing and equipment down there and switched over so that she could get her MRI done. Luckily she didn't require any sedation for the MRI b/c after they swaddled her all up, she fell right asleep and didn't move a muscle. The best news of all came later that evening when the neurologist stopped back in to check on Alyssa and let us know that the MRI came back normal and Alyssa had no facial nerve palsy or other brain injury. It appears to just be a weak muscle in her face causing the slight asymmetry in her mouth.
We were able to hold Alyssa more on Day 2 which was wonderful. Nothing better than cuddling your newborn baby. Her Aunt Jessica also got to hold her. But with the busy day came some stress. Alyssa had a few apnea spells and several desats in her oxygen levels. Later in the evening our nicu nurse informed the neonatologist of all the desats she was having and the neonatologist decided to put Alyssa on a nose cannula with some oxygen to see if that would help with the desats in oxygen. It seemed to help some, but she did have a couple spells throughout the night.
We also got to meet with Alyssa's cardiothoracic surgeon and his nurse today. He went over the upcoming surgery with us and all the complications that can go along with it. He also discussed with us the improvements that have been made since he started doing the Norwood. We were happy to hear that 15 or so years ago when he and his team started doing the Norwood their survival rate was around 25% and now their teams survival rate on the Norwoods they perform is in the 90-95% range. That was reassuring to hear even though he made it clear that complications can arise and that although they try their best to save every baby, sometimes that doesn't happen. So on Monday, October 8th, our little girl will go in to have the most complex heart surgery you can have. We have lots of faith in our surgeon and know that Alyssa will continue to show her spunk and be a little fighter. At 7am that Monday our cardiothoracic surgeon will do a consult with a group of other doctors regarding Alyssa's case and surgery prep is set to begin at 7:30am.
All in all, we met with a social worker, neonatologist, cardiologist, neurologist and our cardiothoracic surgeon on Day 2. It's no wonder Alyssa's oxygen levels were desatting so bad, we had an eventful day.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Happy Birth Day!
Sorry for the delay everyone....... Here is an update about how Alyssa's first day of life went:
Our sweet Alyssa Lorraine arrived on October 4th at 1:40pm. She was 6 lbs 13 oz and 19 inches long. We came to the hospital for our planned induction at 6:45 am. By 8:30 am my water had been broke and pitocin was started. At the very last minute the NICU requested that I deliver in the OR where they had all the equipment necessary to revive our little girl if they needed to. Luckily they didn't need any special equipment at delivery and she was here within 5 minutes of the first push. Despite having the cord wrapped around her neck pretty tight, she still came out with better color than anyone expected and within a couple minutes of stimulation she started to cry. Best noise I have ever heard. Our baby girl had arrived and was ready to fight. Best of all, she was stable enough after delivery that both Chris and I got to hold her for a few minutes and take a couple pictures before they whisked her away to NICU. Chris was able to be with her pretty much the entire day while I recovered and met with visitors. She was really alert most of the day, but did have a few apnea spells which are a side effect of the prostaglandins (medicine) she is receiving to keep her PDA valve open until surgery. The medicine makes her really sleepy and then she forgets to breathe, but after some quick stimulation she bounces right back. The neonatologist also noticed a slight weakness on the right side of Alyssa's mouth and ordered a MRI to rule out facial nerve palsy. We are hoping it is just a weak muscle that will get better with time. It is hardly noticeable, but I'm glad the neonatologist caught it. Chris spent the night in the NICU with Alyssa while I went back to my room to get some rest. Because the prostaglandins also make her have an elevated temperature, they have to keep the room cool and Chris said that he about froze. Best of all, our little peanut has been holding strong on just room air.
Will post more updates hopefully tomorrow about how day 2 went.......to tired to do it right now.....I should have been asleep hours ago.
Our sweet Alyssa Lorraine arrived on October 4th at 1:40pm. She was 6 lbs 13 oz and 19 inches long. We came to the hospital for our planned induction at 6:45 am. By 8:30 am my water had been broke and pitocin was started. At the very last minute the NICU requested that I deliver in the OR where they had all the equipment necessary to revive our little girl if they needed to. Luckily they didn't need any special equipment at delivery and she was here within 5 minutes of the first push. Despite having the cord wrapped around her neck pretty tight, she still came out with better color than anyone expected and within a couple minutes of stimulation she started to cry. Best noise I have ever heard. Our baby girl had arrived and was ready to fight. Best of all, she was stable enough after delivery that both Chris and I got to hold her for a few minutes and take a couple pictures before they whisked her away to NICU. Chris was able to be with her pretty much the entire day while I recovered and met with visitors. She was really alert most of the day, but did have a few apnea spells which are a side effect of the prostaglandins (medicine) she is receiving to keep her PDA valve open until surgery. The medicine makes her really sleepy and then she forgets to breathe, but after some quick stimulation she bounces right back. The neonatologist also noticed a slight weakness on the right side of Alyssa's mouth and ordered a MRI to rule out facial nerve palsy. We are hoping it is just a weak muscle that will get better with time. It is hardly noticeable, but I'm glad the neonatologist caught it. Chris spent the night in the NICU with Alyssa while I went back to my room to get some rest. Because the prostaglandins also make her have an elevated temperature, they have to keep the room cool and Chris said that he about froze. Best of all, our little peanut has been holding strong on just room air.
Will post more updates hopefully tomorrow about how day 2 went.......to tired to do it right now.....I should have been asleep hours ago.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Emotions emotions emotions......
There are so many emotions running through my mind today as we spend our final day at home before our little peanut arrives. Tomorrow is the big day. I am scheduled to go in at 6:30 am tomorrow to start our induction. The pain I will endure tomorrow to bring our little girl into this world is nothing compared to the pain that she will have to endure just to stay in this world with us. I pray everyday for a miracle and remain positive that the medical field will keep advancing and she will live a long and happy life. Our little peanut may only have half a heart, but she will be a fighter and one strong little girl.
As I try to get last minute things done around the house; oh you know like packing our bags for the hospital.....I get stopped by my emotions and need to take a moment to myself. There is just a lot going through my head. Every emotion imaginable has occurred in the last few weeks, but as we inch closer to meeting our daughter and leaving our older kids for a bit to take care of her, those emotions get stronger. There is so much unknown that we are facing.
A local heart mom that reached out to me after our daughter's diagnosis is currently in the hospital with her daughter right now as her little girl recovers from her second open heart surgery. Our little girl's do not have the same heart defect, but they will both have the same second surgery. I showed Chris a picture of my heart mom friend's little girl from yesterday right after surgery and he made the comment that he wasn't ready for that yet. I don't think a parent is ever ready for something like that. We are of course overjoyed at the thought of getting to meet our little girl tomorrow; but we are also scared out of our minds. Seeing our 6 y/o with her severely broken arm last weekend and spending the evening with her in the ER shook us to the core. Life can be hard, but we are ready to fight the fight and put our best foot forward everyday.
There will always be the emotions.....how can there not be.
Joy that we are completing our family and that we were blessed with a baby girl, special heart and all.
Anger that our daughter has to go through so much just to stay with us and will have a lifetime of required medical care.
Guilt that our older kids have to be so confused during this time and shuffled around. Guilt that Addison is taking on so much, and now with breaking her arm she has even more challenges.
Sadness that I can't be there for all my kids. Anyone that knows me knows that I HATE to be away from my kids. Even when they are driving me crazy, I still want to be the one tucking them in at night.
Fear of what is up ahead and for each known event, there are the unknowns that lurk behind them.
Hopeful that with each day the medical field will improve and hopeful that there will be more awareness for CHD's so that our little peanut can continue to receive the best medical care possible for such a complex heart defect and she will go on to live a long and fulfilling life.
Happiness of course. Happiness that even though we don't know the reason behind everything that happens in our life, we have been blessed with great family and friends to support us along the way. Happy that tomorrow our little girl will be here and we can start a new chapter in our journey of mending her heart. It will never be whole and it will never be "fixed", but it will be full of life and love.
Thankful that she has so many people on her side fighting for her and that she has a big sister and brother that are so excited to meet her.
Tomorrow will be hard, and we know there will be even harder days ahead of that. But we will remain positive, enjoy every ounce of progress and keep looking forward to the day that we get to bring our baby girl home to be a family all under one roof.
As I try to get last minute things done around the house; oh you know like packing our bags for the hospital.....I get stopped by my emotions and need to take a moment to myself. There is just a lot going through my head. Every emotion imaginable has occurred in the last few weeks, but as we inch closer to meeting our daughter and leaving our older kids for a bit to take care of her, those emotions get stronger. There is so much unknown that we are facing.
A local heart mom that reached out to me after our daughter's diagnosis is currently in the hospital with her daughter right now as her little girl recovers from her second open heart surgery. Our little girl's do not have the same heart defect, but they will both have the same second surgery. I showed Chris a picture of my heart mom friend's little girl from yesterday right after surgery and he made the comment that he wasn't ready for that yet. I don't think a parent is ever ready for something like that. We are of course overjoyed at the thought of getting to meet our little girl tomorrow; but we are also scared out of our minds. Seeing our 6 y/o with her severely broken arm last weekend and spending the evening with her in the ER shook us to the core. Life can be hard, but we are ready to fight the fight and put our best foot forward everyday.
There will always be the emotions.....how can there not be.
Joy that we are completing our family and that we were blessed with a baby girl, special heart and all.
Anger that our daughter has to go through so much just to stay with us and will have a lifetime of required medical care.
Guilt that our older kids have to be so confused during this time and shuffled around. Guilt that Addison is taking on so much, and now with breaking her arm she has even more challenges.
Sadness that I can't be there for all my kids. Anyone that knows me knows that I HATE to be away from my kids. Even when they are driving me crazy, I still want to be the one tucking them in at night.
Fear of what is up ahead and for each known event, there are the unknowns that lurk behind them.
Hopeful that with each day the medical field will improve and hopeful that there will be more awareness for CHD's so that our little peanut can continue to receive the best medical care possible for such a complex heart defect and she will go on to live a long and fulfilling life.
Happiness of course. Happiness that even though we don't know the reason behind everything that happens in our life, we have been blessed with great family and friends to support us along the way. Happy that tomorrow our little girl will be here and we can start a new chapter in our journey of mending her heart. It will never be whole and it will never be "fixed", but it will be full of life and love.
Thankful that she has so many people on her side fighting for her and that she has a big sister and brother that are so excited to meet her.
Tomorrow will be hard, and we know there will be even harder days ahead of that. But we will remain positive, enjoy every ounce of progress and keep looking forward to the day that we get to bring our baby girl home to be a family all under one roof.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Busy busy weekend
Last weekend was filled with lots of time spent on getting last minute things done around here before delivery day. Saturday was spent running errands pretty much all day....no fun. On Sunday we had a family day. We took the kids to the pumpkin patch and had a great day playing with my brother and his 3 kids. Unfortunately, even though we only live about an hour away from each other, they don't get to see each other near enough. The kids took it all in and enjoyed every minute of the fun. There was a little of everything to do: climbing on hay bales & tractor tires, pedal tractors, jungle gyms and tire swings, bounce houses and a zip line. And of course the hayride out to the pumpkin patch. My brother and Chris found a pumpkin that looked like it was pregnant, so of course they had me take a picture with it. I'm sure it will eventually end up on Facebook when I least expect it.
After a fun filled day at the pumpkin patch, we headed home as we had invited an old daycare family over for pizza so that they could play together before our little peanut arrives. After eating supper, the kids went outside to play. That is about where to fun stopped for the weekend. Our 6 y/o and her friend were playing on the swing set.....well they decided to start doing flips on the swings. Unfortunately I didn't see them doing flips or I would have stopped them as it always makes me nervous. Addison's friend was showing her a new trick and when Addison went to try it she apparently didn't land right. All her weight went to her forearms and it snapped her left forearm bones in half. She walked very calmly up to the back deck where I was standing and said "I think I need to go to the hospital". Then I saw her arm.....insert panic mode here. As my old daycare kid's mom sat with Addison and kept her calm, I was panicking trying to remember my mother in laws phone number to tell her to come to our house fast.....they only live 5 doors down and she is a nurse. In the meantime, Chris runs barefoot out of the house and down to his mom's house to get her. We left our son with Chris's mom and took off rather quickly to the ER. There is nothing worse than seeing your child in pain and so scared. I found out later that while I was panicking, Addison was worried that she was going to die. My poor little girl. We got right into the ER with no wait. I'm assuming the look of her arm had something to do with it. When we walked in I saw one of the ER nurses mouth to another nurse "wow, that is really bad". Not what I needed to see at that time. Her arm looked like it had a big V right in the middle of the forearm. Thankfully it didn't break the skin, so there was no blood. After a couple tries at an IV, some morphine, x-rays and lots of cartoons; we finally met the orthopedic surgeon around 10:45pm. He was stuck in surgery before that and Addison had just ate a couple hours before coming to the ER, so she couldn't have anesthesia until at least 10:30pm. Luckily b/c she is so young and how the bones broke, she didn't have to have surgery. The surgeon was able to reset the bones within a minute or so of Addison being put under and us leaving the room. We were out of the room at 11:02pm and back in with her awake and casted at 11:15pm. I was so nice to see her no longer in pain and scared; and of course to see her forearm straight again.
We now have a whole new set of challenges to get figured out before our induction date, which is just around the corner. We are just happy that our little girl is back to her old self, for the most part. Hate that she has to go through this on top of everything that she has already been faced with regarding her sister's heart condition, but kids are resilient and I know we will get through this.
After a fun filled day at the pumpkin patch, we headed home as we had invited an old daycare family over for pizza so that they could play together before our little peanut arrives. After eating supper, the kids went outside to play. That is about where to fun stopped for the weekend. Our 6 y/o and her friend were playing on the swing set.....well they decided to start doing flips on the swings. Unfortunately I didn't see them doing flips or I would have stopped them as it always makes me nervous. Addison's friend was showing her a new trick and when Addison went to try it she apparently didn't land right. All her weight went to her forearms and it snapped her left forearm bones in half. She walked very calmly up to the back deck where I was standing and said "I think I need to go to the hospital". Then I saw her arm.....insert panic mode here. As my old daycare kid's mom sat with Addison and kept her calm, I was panicking trying to remember my mother in laws phone number to tell her to come to our house fast.....they only live 5 doors down and she is a nurse. In the meantime, Chris runs barefoot out of the house and down to his mom's house to get her. We left our son with Chris's mom and took off rather quickly to the ER. There is nothing worse than seeing your child in pain and so scared. I found out later that while I was panicking, Addison was worried that she was going to die. My poor little girl. We got right into the ER with no wait. I'm assuming the look of her arm had something to do with it. When we walked in I saw one of the ER nurses mouth to another nurse "wow, that is really bad". Not what I needed to see at that time. Her arm looked like it had a big V right in the middle of the forearm. Thankfully it didn't break the skin, so there was no blood. After a couple tries at an IV, some morphine, x-rays and lots of cartoons; we finally met the orthopedic surgeon around 10:45pm. He was stuck in surgery before that and Addison had just ate a couple hours before coming to the ER, so she couldn't have anesthesia until at least 10:30pm. Luckily b/c she is so young and how the bones broke, she didn't have to have surgery. The surgeon was able to reset the bones within a minute or so of Addison being put under and us leaving the room. We were out of the room at 11:02pm and back in with her awake and casted at 11:15pm. I was so nice to see her no longer in pain and scared; and of course to see her forearm straight again.
We now have a whole new set of challenges to get figured out before our induction date, which is just around the corner. We are just happy that our little girl is back to her old self, for the most part. Hate that she has to go through this on top of everything that she has already been faced with regarding her sister's heart condition, but kids are resilient and I know we will get through this.
My last OB visit
Monday, September 24th, was my last OB visit. We had an ultrasound / bio physical profile done that day as well. I'm still measuring with excess amniotic fluid. I believe she said it was 25 cm. Which is just above the highest end of the normal range. They still aren't concerned about the excess fluid though b/c they have examined our daughter and all her organs and do not see anything wrong with her anatomy that would be cause for concern. Other than her heart of course, but we already know about that. So we are hoping it is nothing and baby girl will come out strong and ready to fight her battle with nothing else holding her back. Our little peanut is still measuring a little small at 6 lbs 6 oz. But she grew since our last u/s so that made me feel better. Hope she continues to grow and get big and strong for surgery.
I'd say my contractions were back to normal at this point. Having them here and there, some days more than others. I do still get them frequently when I'm standing a lot or doing a lot of moving around and bending. Still supposed to be taking it easy, but that is easier said than done. I have tried to just do little things at a time, and still leave lots of time for resting in between.
Our induction is still a go for Oct 4th.
I'd say my contractions were back to normal at this point. Having them here and there, some days more than others. I do still get them frequently when I'm standing a lot or doing a lot of moving around and bending. Still supposed to be taking it easy, but that is easier said than done. I have tried to just do little things at a time, and still leave lots of time for resting in between.
Our induction is still a go for Oct 4th.
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