Bad News Bears

Well, bad news at the doctor's office today. :( The velocity of the blood flow through the hole they created between Haley's atria is above 7 now which means that the hole is officially getting too small. It had been trending upwards and that's what I was so worried about after our last visit, and unfortunately my worrying was well founded. The hole has to be enlarged and Haley will be scheduled to go back into the catheter lab (at least) the end of this week or the beginning of next.

Dr. Wheller (her cardiologist) said he is also going to talk to Dr. Galantowicz (her cardiothoracic surgeon) about the possibility of doing the second stage of her Hypoplast repair at the same time so she could have one procedure instead of two. Typically the earliest they do the stage 2 is at 4 months of age, but he said she already weighs as much/is as big as the average heart baby is at 4 months. They have to weigh at least 5 kg to have the stage 2, and she is already 5.25 kg. But he also said he wouldn't want to guess whether Dr. Galantowicz would want to do that or not, so we will just have to wait and see. They are supposed to be calling us tomorrow to give us a date for surgery - whether it's just the balloonoplasty, which would get her through another couple months and then they'd do the stage 2, or if they just want to go straight to the stage 2. With the stage 2 she would be on cardiac bypass and it would be open heart anyway so they could easily just cut a more permanent hole between the two atria and be able to skip the whole catheterization process. However it is the biggest/riskiest of the 3 procedures for HLHS, having an ~5% fatality/badness rate instead of ~1% like the 1st and 3rd surgeries. Supposedly if she has just the catheterization she should only be in the hospital a few days to a week or so, whereas the stage 2 could easily be up to a few weeks long hospital stay again.

To be perfectly honest I'm not even sure which option I'm wishing for. I guess that's why it's their job to decide and not mine. I wish for option C - she's magically cured and we never have to go through any of this again. A selfish and scared part of me wants her to just have the catheterization because that seems a little safer and like there might be a chance we'd be home in time for Christmas. I would just love to have her home at Christmas so much, I've been looking forward to that since we found out we were pregnant in January. But I guess that truly and sincerely what I want is just to have my baby in my arms on Christmas day, and wherever we have to be is okay with me so long as I have her. And it would be wonderful if she could be through that second stage too at that point. Just having her is all I wish for for Christmas.

On a happier note - Haley officially chuckled for the first time today! There have been a couple times in the last few days when we thought she might have, but today she definitely did chuckle twice in a row! I was tapping her nose with her sock, telling her her socks go on her feet and not her face, when she grinned giant grins several times and chuckled twice! It was wonderful - music to my ears! She is just the cutest little monkey. And she was sooo good at her doctor's appointment today. She didn't fuss at all and was good for all the slew of things they do to her. She is such a good baby, I'm a lucky Mommy.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Well, I had a successful first night away from home! Haley-bug was very good for Daddy and Mimi, and though I was tempted to come home around 12:30 am I made myself stay and I did sleep like a log! Syd's bachelorette party was lots of fun and we got in about 3 hours of quality hot tub time - perfect for a body achy from rocking and bouncing a baby all day!

Today we had lots of fun visitors when I got home. Aunt Katy stopped by for a little bit so she could check in on Haley-bug. Then Great-Auntie Linda came by so she could meet Haley for the first time ever and Great-Grandma Stevelt came with her. Linda held Haley for awhile and Haley was very alert and good the whole time so she must've liked her a lot! :)

This afternoon Daddy and I went and got Haley's first Christmas tree - a beautiful Fraser Fir! Unfortunately Haley couldn't go because it was too cold out, but she went to Grandma's house where Grandma, Mimi, Aunt Kelly, and Grandpoppy pooled their resources and gave her a bath. Then we all had a tasty dinner at Grandma's, Great-Grandma Stevelt joined us there too. Now we're putting up our tree - I've taken a break to write this post before midnight. Daddy helped do the lights, and now Mimi and Haley are rocking in the chair and watching me put up all the ornaments!! Hopefully there will be a tree picture for tomorrow's post. In that case, I better get back to work. We head to the doctor's for another recheck tomorrow, we pray for good news/results, so I better keep decorating so I can go to bed at a decent hour! Goodnight!

First night away?

Haley-bug was a wonderful baby last night and slept very well! She woke up around 8:30 am today and has been awake, happy, and playful all day! It's so nice when she's so happy and alert. Above are some pictures of her playing with Mimi. :)

I'm just getting ready to head off to my friend Sydney's bachelorette party - we've rented a cabin in Logan and should have a fun night of hot tubbing, drinking margaritas, and girly gossip - sounds wonderful! I'm supposed to be staying the night there, but we'll see if I'll be able to handle my first night away from Haley. Perhaps I'll be calling Chadmo to come and get me if I get homesick and have had too many margaritas... But hopefully I'll make it, and she'll be in safe hands with Chadmo and Mimi to take care of her while I'm gone!

Squeaking in a post before midnight

Hello - I have to type fast so I can squeak this post in before midnight! We had another good and productive day today, though it got a later start since someone decided not to go to bed until 4 am last night... wonder who?? Tonight Grandma and Grandpa joined Daddy, Mimi, Haley, and myself for Pizza Crossing at our house, which was quite tasty. Then we've been hanging pictures, wrapping Christmas gifts, and eating popcorn this evening. Hopefully Haley-bug will decide to go to bed early tonight, though I'm not sure since she's been quite sleepy all day today. Hope everyone is having a fun Friday night to start off a good weekend! Hugs from us to all of you!

Productive Thursday!

We've had a very nice and productive day today! Mimi and Haley have been bouncing and rocking all day (see picture) which has allowed me to plow through a whole upstairs full of boxes and furniture! You can actually see the carpet now which is very exciting! During my unpacking I rooted out 3 bags of trash, 3 bags of things to go to the Goodwill, and lots of things to burn. Now I just have a few more pictures and mirrors to hang and then we will be mostly unpacked at last. Then we will get to start getting out our Christmas decorations and hopefully this weekend we will go and get Haley's first Christmas tree!

Mimi, Haley, and I are all just watching the 1949 version of "Little Women" on TV. I had to post my Daily Haley, but I best get back to my movie now. Hope everyone's had as productive of a day as we've had here!

Mimi's here!

Well, today was a sleepy day for Miss Haley-bug. Instead of our normal eat-every-hour routine, she kept napping and then eating every 3 hours or so - I have to admit it was a nice change! Though I would've liked to have her awake and happy a little bit more, it was nice to be feeding her less frequently. With the less frequent feeds she never takes in quite as much volume overall, but she did pretty well for herself today really.

The exciting part of our day was that Mimi (Great-Grandma McMillan) arrived and is staying with us until Tuesday! I've been feeling pretty overwhelmed with all the things that need to be done around here (unpacking, bills, bills, bills, getting ready for Christmas, insurance, insurance, insurance, cleaning, trying to figure out a different school loan repayment plan, dealing with the Columbus house which hasn't sold yet, etc) since most of the time I have about half an hour a day in which to accomplish something! It will be a huge relief to have her here to sit with Haley so I can catch up on a lot of these things. She's also going to accompany us to the doctor's on Monday, she and Great-Grandma Stevelt are taking turns going up with us. It will be fun to have her for company this week, and a big help to me as well. Chad has requested she live with us until Haley turns 1, haha.

On a more random note, Haley wore her new pink penguin covered union suit and we watched the movie "Happy Feet" today. It was very cute and enjoyable! Grandpoppy watched the end of it with us and I think he enjoyed it too. You really can't go wrong with Disney Pixar movies - I guess I'm still a kid at heart!

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Another uneventful day at home - I don't think I can even remember the last time we didn't have a doctor's appointment for a whole week straight, I honestly think it was sometime in February! We will savor this week one day at a time!

Haley hasn't eaten as well again today, but she's squeaking by. She must just have hungry days and un-hungry days. Maybe she'll have a big feed yet this evening to surprise me and pull up her numbers! In any case, she's had her minimum so we'll just hope tomorrow goes better. She's been a little fussy, but napping quite a bit too so it's not like yesterday. We actually got to take a nap together for the first time in ages today, it was wonderful! Normally if I lay down with her she wakes up, but she was pretty zonked so we went in and laid down on our bed and had a wonderful little snuggly nap together.

Grandma stopped in and visited us after she was done teaching today. Then Grandpa came in for dinner with all of us - I made a beef roast, roasted sweet potatoes, green beans, and pinot noir - yum! I'm on a big roast beef kick these days, it makes such delicious leftovers for sandwiches. Now Daddy, Haley, and I are all just hanging out around the fire and I'm trying to get motivated to unpack a few more boxes. We'll see... Hope everyone's having a great Tuesday!