Cardio visit #2

4:30pm
Abi was such a good girl during our second post-op visit with the cardiologist today. Dr Greene was tickled to death, again, by seeing her gaining weight and looking so great and comfortable. Abi gained 3lb in 1 month. She's now over 13lbs.
She didn't cry this time when the doctor came to listen to her lungs and heart. He was astonished how well the incision is healing. The murmur was even less noticeable :) which means the malformed valve is doing better than the last time we visited Dr. Greene, hence there was no need for the echo today. Another good news is that she can drop one dose of Lasix for a week and then stay only on it once a day. Yeey!


I must finish now as my precious cargo is fussing on my lap and won't let me type more...


j.

Dec 9, 2009 vs Today

10:00pm
Exactly 1 month ago, on December 9th, 2009,  Abi had her open heart surgery. 

Today, our miracle baby is having fun on her tummy...

J.

Read to me...

7:55pm
It was a good day today, morning with Daddy and all day with Mommy with small breaks for Daddy's kisses and hugs - talking about advantages of working from home, eh?

It's not hard to figure out, she's Daddy's little girl:)


Apart from still being little congested and with runny nose, Abi did great today. We are going to the cardiologist on Tuesday to check if everything is healing well. 


Funny facts from today: During our "4B" night routine: bath, bottle, book, bed, Abi fussed after a couple of sips of milk, so I put the bottle back on the table. She kept fussing and looking at the table, where the new book, I've started to read to her, sat. When I started reaching for it, she began calming down. She simply wanted me to read to her!! She, then took a bottle. Talking about the preference, right? She is so awesome. 


J.

I'm the coolest...

9:30pm
There are no words that could describe how wonderful babies are. I would never thought I would be enjoying motherhood this much. Abi amazes me every single day with her development and new skills. It seems like the more time we spend, the more we understand each other. It's getting easier and easier to figure out what she needs, and she's getting better at communicating things like: "I'm tired and want a nap - put me in the car seat" when she makes crying noises after she ate, or "Feed me! Oh my gosh I see the bottle!" when she opens her mouth and shakes her hands, or "I want my paci" when she shapes her mouth like she wants to whistle. It's so funny and fun to watch her grow and participate in her first experiences with everything.


She finally warmed up to different people talking to her, touching, and even holding and feeding her! She just needed the time to overcome the trauma of being moved, touched, poked with needles by nurses and doctors who changed almost on the hourly basis.

She's the coolest and I think she knows it....


Good Night,
J.

Great Night

6.38am

We had a really good day yesterday with Abi and in the evening, she had fun with her bath and did not fight sleep too much. Then she woke up only 3 times so far !!!! WOW! She woke up after 3 hours to eat and fell back asleep immediately. Then she woke up again after 2.5 hours and again after 3.5 hours. It's 6.46am right now and she's sound asleep !!!! It's been a while since she slept past 6am.

Isn't this a great beginning of the new wonderful year? ;-)

Art

1st Day of New Year!

7:50pm

What a beautiful first day of the year! 

Abi woke up 3 times at night to eat and then at 5 in the morning because of her congestion she's slowly overcoming. 

The New Year's Eve passed by pretty quickly, accompanied by Skype video conference with our parents in Poland (I was able to see fireworks from my parents' balcony) and our brother and sister who stayed with us and shared a glass of champagne at pretended midnight after Abi went to sleep (around 8 pm). 

We obviously didn't last till 12am. We greeted a New Year after 1am when feeding Abi.

Thank you for visiting Abi's blog, your interest, prayers and support. We deeply appreciate that!
I have already started updating this blog with links to other "heart" babies' (with their parent's permission) that were touched with the Congenital Heart Defects. I hope this blog will become a valuable source of information to all interested in the topic and mainly to the parents who may have just found out about their baby's defect(s) and are searching the internet for some answers. 
  

Happy New Year!

J.

More Hearts and New Year...

9:30pm

I know, this blog is about Abi and it will always belong to her, but I also keep thinking about other parents who may have just found out about their baby's heart, like we did almost a year ago. I asked other moms I know, to share their stories with me. I soon should be able to include more information about other Congenital Heart Defects (CHD) to share with you. The power of a spoken and written word is limitless, not mentioning unbeatable Google!! I once "googled" a double switch surgery and found my own research on the FIRST page. This really encourages me to continue to expand this blog and enrich it with more and more useful information.

I would like to use this opportunity and wish Everyone a very Happy New Year. May this coming 2010 shower you with unexpected and joyful blessings and surprises. My hopes and wishes for you and myself are to say in exactly 365 days from now "this couldn't have been a better year!". May every New Year be better than the last one...

Now, we could use a picture of Abi to conclude this post....
Abi literally fell asleep while eating lunch in a sitting position. How about that? I know some wish they could do that (especially at work, eh?)...

Good night...

J.