Visiting Aunt Katy & Uncle Greg!

Unfortunately there are some very cute new pictures from today that are captive on my Mom's computer, and since I am blogging from Aunt Katy's computer I don't have access to them to post them today! I will have to post them a little late when we get home again!
Tonight Chadmo, Haley-bug, and I are staying over at our friends', Katy & Greg's, house after going to another friends', Sydney & Spencer's, rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Katy & I had a very good time at the pre-wedding activities while the boys stayed home with Miss Bug. It's fun to be out of the house and in Columbus for a change of scenery too, and tomorrow night should be tons of fun. I've never had such cool New Year's Eve plans in my life, I can't wait for the wedding! Aunt Kelly and Mimi will be babysitting Haley-bug for us since a 160 person wedding isn't on the list of her allowed-to-do-things, boo-urns. We even had the cutest dress picked out for the occassion, but it will be fun for her to spend the night with Kelly & Mimi too! I hear they will be watching Julie & Julia and drinking champagne! :)
Alright, Haley's asleep so I better go to sleep too! Happy New Year to everyone in case I don't get a chance to blog tomorrow - the wedding fun starts early!

2 days till 2010!

No new and exciting pictures from today, so here is an old favorite - I think it looks like she's smiling at her Daddy! - from when Haley-bug was only a couple of days old! I can't believe it's almost 2010, that sounds like a science fiction novel! Hope everyone is ready for the New Year, I know we are. This year has been great but stressful too, and I'm looking forward to all the exciting and fun things I hope the new year will bring for us. It will also be a stressful year, but I hope there will be lots more good times than bad. Looking forward to every exciting milestone Haley-bug might reach in the next year! :)

No new and exciting pictures from today, so

Pajama Mondayl

Chadmo, Haley, and I had a wonderfully relaxing day today, in fact I don't think any of us ever got out of our pajamas! (Though Haley did have a couple of outfit changes today, due to a sudden string a of leaky diapers *grrr*.) For the second day in a row Haley took 2 naps in her crib, about an hour each, which is wonderful! I hope she keeps it up! She slept well last night too: 2:30 am - 7:30 am then right back to sleep and slept till noon! She's been happy, playing, and eating okay today. She's really getting good at holding her head up and controlling her hands. She's a pro at grabbing rings and pulling things towards herself, and at batting things. She still hates tummy time, so hopefully we're working on her core strength in her bumbo chair, her exersaucer, and 'sitting up' with us. Tonight we all watched "Julie & Julia" with Grandma and Grandpoppy and it was really enjoyable - a very cute movie. Haley-bug played on the couch the whole time and was really as good as gold.

It's been so nice to have Chadmo and Grandma home with us all day! We love Christmas break and wish it could last forever! After New Year's though it will be back to the real world, and actually Grandma is going to babysit Haley Tuesday and Thursday afternoons so I can go back to work a little bit. I think it will be good for me to get out of the house a little, I hope I'm right!

Sunday Funday

Haley-bug loves being naked these days - so long as it doesn't involve sneakily weighing her or giving her a bath - she's such a cutie pie! Though it makes me nervous to have a short, bossy, nudist baby - lets hope that doesn't continue into the teenage years!

Our sleepy angel. <3 <3 <3

We had a very nice Sunday today! Haley's been a very good girl: happy, playful, napping well, and eating well. I went to see "The Princess and the Frog" with the Klingelhafer girl crew this afternoon and I thought it was really cute though pretty scary for little kids. This evening Chad and I went to a get together at the Dickersons' while Grandma and Grandpoppy babysat Haley. We had a good time and got to see lots of old friends we hadn't seen in a long time, and meet a couple new babies! Tonight Grandpoppy, Chadmo, Haley, and I watched "(500) Days of Summer" which I absolutely loved and would highly recommend. It starts off a little slow but ends strong, so stick with it because it's worth it. Hope everyone's had a great weekend! We've had a very nice and relaxing one. :)

364 days till Christmas!

Haley is finally back to being a 12 pound baby again! She lost about 1/2 a pound while we were in the hospital this last time, I guess that's what not being able to eat for about 2 whole days does to you. :/ But now she is actually 12 lbs 4.5 oz as of today - so we're thrilled! She had a very sleepy day today which was good because she needed to catch up a little. It's always nice to have a snuggly day of rocking her too!

Merry Christmas!

Haley-bug playing with one of her new Christmas bugs, while wearing a new Christmas outfit!
Tucker-momo and Simba looking out Mom & Poppy's front window together - maybe checking out that cardinal?

Playing in the exersaucer Santa Claus brought her! She's a little small for it yet, but with a blankie stuffed in to hold her up she seems to enjoy it!

Christmas Eve!

Haley's first time dancing around the Christmas tree (a Christmas eve tradition), Aunt Kelly is holding her!

Mommy & Daddy dancing around the Christmas tree!

Grandpoppy, Aunt Kelly, and Daddy dancing some more!

Grandpoppy, Haley-bug, and Grandma! :)
It's been a wonderful, wonderful Christmas. We do our big feast and present opening on Christmas eve (though this is probably the last year of present opening the night before - next year we will most likely switch back to Christmas morning for Haley-bug's sake!), and we are having a truly blessed Christmas once again. Of course the best present of all is having Haley-bug at home with us! We hope you're all having very Merry Christmases and Happy Holidays too - wish we could celebrate with all of you!

Merry Lille Juleaften!

Haley-bug playing with Grandpoppy!
The Lille Juleaften table - delicious dinner again Mom! Thank you! :)

All of Haley-bug's Christmas presents (except her exersaucer) - she can't wait to open them all tomorrow night! What a lucky little girl to be so loved!

2 more days till Christmas!

Christmas eve eve eve!

Haley-bug looking at the Christmas tree with Great-Grandma Stevelt!

Winter Solstice - the days start getting longer tomorrow!

4 days till Christmas! And what a wonderful Christmas gift we received today - a good report at the doctor's office for Haley-bug! All looks good 1.5 weeks post-op, her right ventricular function is back to what it was pre-op, and she actually doesn't have to go back for 2.5 weeks instead of 2 weeks! She was a good girl at her appointment today, though she did insist that I hold her during her echo (she screamed bloody murder when we tried to lay her on the bed). She's been a happy cricket today, awake a lot of the time and playing. Hopefully she's getting back to her happy self finally. The Prevacid really seems to be helping, so I will blame her week of fussiness on reflux and post-op grouchies. She is also getting much more 'talkative' which I think is tons of fun. I can't wait till she chatters up a storm all the time!

Here's a picture of Haley-bug and Mr. Bun-bun enjoying another Christmas present we received today - the rocking chair Grandmum Wisconsin got all 3 of us for Christmas! We ordered it from an Amish Oak store and it wasn't supposed to be in until the middle of January at the earliest, so we were pleasantly surprised when they called and said it was in already! As you can see Haley thinks it's lots of fun!

5 days till Christmas!

Haley-bug: the cutest present under the Christmas tree!

Sitting up in her chair that Grandmum Wisconsin gave her! She still needs some head-holding up practice, but she thought it was fun!

Cookie Making Day

The scene at Grandma and Grandpoppy's today: Daddy holding Haley next to the Christmas tree while it snowed and snowed outside. I wish every day was like this.

Haley's name made out of klejiner:

Haley-bug has grown in to a whole new wardrobe which is too much fun! Here she's wearing an outfit I just love from Great Aunt Nancy, who shares Haley's birthday!

We're staying at Grandma & Grandpoppy's this weekend, so that we could have a Christmas cookie making weekend! Last night Haley-bug and I stayed up and had a party until 3 am, she is really a night owl, she must've been too excited for cookie making day... Then she slept in till 12 pm (she woke up once to eat around 7 am), and I slept in till 12:30! While I was being a slacker and sleeping in, Mom/Grandma made a batch of Thumbprints - yum! Then we made a double batch of klejiner, a Danish Christmas cookie you roll out, cut, fold, and then deep fry. With the last little bits of dough I made the letters for Haley's name and a heart (see picture). :) Then we also made a batch of pepernodder, another Danish Christmas cookie. Throughout last night and today we got about 6 inches of snow. It's just beautiful here right now and it made the day feel very Christmas-y. I hope it can last/snow some more so we can have a white Christmas! Or better yet, snow a lot so all the schools and businesses close and everyone can just stay home with Haley and me all week! (And we can skip our doctor's appointment!) :)
Haley was definitely feeling a little better today. Instead of being fussy and upset all day with brief periods of happiness, she was mostly happy all day with fairly frequent fussy episodes. She sounds really painful during these episodes, which makes me feel extra bad for her. Hopefully it's the Prevacid that's helping and will continue to help. It seems to me our cute little Bug deserves a break from all things ouchy!
6 more days till Christmas!

Friday!

Here are some oldie-but-cutie pictures, I never got around to taking new ones today. Hope everyone is ready for the last weekend before Christmas - only 7 days to go! :)


Sticking her tongue out at Grandma!

Playing with Grandpoppy!

Fuss, Fuss

Momo loves the new dog bed...

Haley zonked out on Daddy's shoulder...

Our Christmas tree! (And Haley's penguin balloon from the hospital!)

Poor Haley-bug has been pretty fussy since we've come home. I was hoping she was just needing to catch up on sleep yesterday, but she slept a lot and she's still fussy today. We're supposed to call the cardiologist if she's fussier than normal (or sleep more or less than normal, or eats more or less than normal, or sneezes wrong, or looks cross-eyed...) so we did. Since she's still eating well, sleeping well, and can be consoled he said to just keep an eye on it and he'd talk to Haley's cardiologist tomorrow. Hopefully she'll be better tomorrow, but then she has to get her next RSV shot tomorrow so that will probably make her fussy if she wouldn't have been otherwise. Hopefully we're getting all this ickiness out of the way before Christmas and she can be done with shots, doctors, and fussiness for the holidays! I feel so bad for her when she's snarky, I just wish I knew what she wanted so I could make it better. She's asleep in Chadmo's arms as I type, so hopefully she'll sleep well tonight and wake up tomorrow a cheerful girl! I can't believe it's only 8 days till Christmas!

WE'RE HOME!!

Sorry for not blogging yesterday - the internet wasn't working, how rude! (Now all I can think of is Stephanie from Full House...) In any case - wonderful news: WE'RE HOME! They repeated Haley's echo yesterday after a night without Milrinone and wonderfully her heart function was even improved from the day before! Now that's the kind of news we like to hear! The cardiologist on that day told me she is one of the most conservative docs and that she was desperately looking for a reason to keep us since we'd only been in C5 for such a short period of time, but that she couldn't think of a single reason to keep us - so did we want to go home? Yes, please!

Haley was eating fabulously in the hospital but has slacked off a little since we've been home. She's been very sleepy, I think she's finally able to relax and is thus sleeping a lot and making up for being endlessly pestered in the hospital. Hopefully she'll catch up on her sleep and then start to eat better again. We have to go back in to clinic for a recheck on Monday and I don't want them harassing me about her eating.

She has a new trick that I'm not overly fond of since her surgery - when she gets very upset she turns a sort of bluey-purple color. She was doing that while we were in the hospital and they said it's common in heart kids. But she never did it before, and it definitely takes some getting used to. I rationalize it by telling myself that since they made the hole in her heart bigger she now has more mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood. Before when the hole was smaller it forced more of the purely oxygenated blood through her small left side and out to her body directly. Unfortunately that was putting too much strain on her heart.

One great thing about the surgery, I really do think she feels better now than before because she smiles ALL the time now that she feels well again! It's so much fun, and she's her active, kicking, playing self again.

Day 6 - We moved to C5!

Good news on Haley's echo this morning! Her right ventricular function is definitely improved if not quite back to what it was before surgery. We are just so thrilled that it was better, not the same or worse! So they stopped her Milrinone this morning and monitored her to make sure she was doing okay once it left her system (which takes 6-8 hours). They had originally told us that we would be staying in the CICU tonight for monitoring post-Milrinone, unless she looked like a million bucks and then they might send us to C5. We were thrilled when they came in and said we were going to C5 because she looked so good! :) We made that move around 5 pm and it's so nice to be settled in our own private room with its' own bathroom and a full size sleeper couch. Haley also had a record meal this afternoon - she ate 185 ml, a little over 6 oz, all in one whack! I hope that this is foreshadowing for the future: a hungry baby who meets her feeding goals!

Grandma (my mom) is being extra nice tonight. She took over Haley-sitting around 7 and is letting us have a date night! We went to dinner at Basi, our favorite restaurant, and it was delicious. Afterwards we did a little Christmas shopping - I found my favorite present for Haley, a book called "Llama llama red pajamas". One of our nurses recommended it and it is truly adorable. Now we're lying about in our pajamas, relaxing, and watching TV which sounded better than going to a movie or anything else we could think of! Grandma called to report that Haley-bug is now zonked out and hopefully asleep for the night, so she will stay on baby duty unless Haley wakes up and wants to party and then she might have to call for back up. What luxury, a whole evening and night to ourselves (mostly, away from the hospital)! The only thing that would be better would be a night at home with our Haley-bug and our critters, but hopefully we'll have that sooner rather than later. :) Grandma did ask the doctor tonight if there was any chance of us going home tomorrow, but she said no, we would need to spend at least a couple days on C5. Here's hoping we have an uneventful hospital stay from now on!

P.S. Haley would like to thank everyone for all the wonderful cards! The hospital only delivers them on weekdays so we were bombarded with them today - it was so much fun! She's a lucky little girl to have so many people that care about her.

P.P.S. Sorry we don't have any pictures from today. But here's a video from a couple of days before we left for the hospital, when Haley and I were having a Star Wars marathon (thus the background noise).

Day 5 - Rainy Sunday

This morning/last night at 1:20 am Haley-bug finally smiled again! She had just eaten a midnight snack, was happy and playing in her bed, and when I talked to her and touched her hand she gave me a beautiful, beautiful smile!! It was wonderful!

Last night Haley and Daddy had a party, playing from 1:30 am till 4:30 am. Then Daddy decided perhaps Haley was sleepy enough that he could lay down and get some sleep. At 5 am he woke up and the nurse was working on Haley and she was crying. Apparently she wasn't thrilled with Daddy for trying to sneak in some elicit Zzz's and she had knocked the IV out of her head with her mittened hand. The nurse said she was just laying there - happy and cooing - with a little puddle of blood pooling around her head! Haley only got upset when the nurse had to pull of the adhesive that had been holding in the IV! So obviously Haley is as much a hater of having lines in her head as I am. They did not replace it and hopefully they won't have to - they do have the PICC in her arm - it's so much easier to hold her and burp her without that one in her head.

Today she really seems like our old Haley-bug again! She's waving, kicking, playing, batting, and cooing. She even grabbed ahold of her rattle, held it in her hand, moved it around, and looked at it very intently for the first time ever! She didn't really manage to 'rattle' it, but she was definitely fascinated by the fact that she could move it herself! She's been eating pretty well and sleeping well. It's so good to see her act like herself finally. Also this afternoon we were finally moved out of a curtain room to a room with doors! Still in the CICU, but so much quieter, nicer, and more private. Now we just hope for an uneventful night and we pray for good test results tomorrow.

Day 4

Sorry we missed a day of posting, it was an emotional day. When they repeated Haley-bug's echo on Friday morning (hoping that her right ventricular function would be improved) she was really hysterical (because they wouldn't let me feed her first, they wanted me to do it during the echo), her heart was beating 215 bpm, and it showed that her right ventricular function was actually worse than the day before. All the doctor's admit that it's very difficult to assess heart function accurately when it's beating that fast. Also, the valve in her heart between her right ventricle and right atrium was not leaking any worse than normal (it usually has very mild regurgitation) and they said that if a heart truly has decreased function then typically the valve also has decreased function and will leak worse. They also think that probably her heart was exhausted after surgery (understandably) and that while we tried to just give her more time to work it out on her own, all that happened was that her heart got more tired having to do all the work itself. So they decided to start her on a drug called Milrinone which is run IV as a constant rate infusion and helps her heart to relax better. That way it can fill more fully and get the maximal blood flow for each pump. It also helps her heart contract better with each beat as well. They want to leave her on this until Monday and then repeat the echo and see where we stand. We are praying that her right heart function will be improved after a weekend on milrinone. She did have to be on milrinone the last time she was in the CTICU actually, so hopefully it will work as well again! Obvioiusly this wasn't the news we were hoping for at all on Friday - actually right before we found out about this the doctor's had told us we were going to C5 that day and probably home the next - and I was devastated.

Haley also threw up after she ate a couple of times yesterday, which I think was mostly due to inadequate burps due to her having lines and wires all over that make it difficult, and this also concerned the doctors that maybe her right ventricle wasn't pumping well enough and that she was getting poor blood flow to her gut causing her to vomit. So they stopped her feeds from yesterday late afternoon until about 2 pm today - it's never fun to have a hungry baby! They were running fluids with dextrose in them so that helped a little, but today she was pretty angry for a little while. She has done wonderfully since they started her back on her feeds and hasn't vomited anything up, we hope that she keeps it up (or down rather)!

Another bump in the road yesterday - the IV they had placed in her hand during surgery blew after they'd been running milrinone and dextrose into it for awhile. They had to try to place another IV last night and after sticking her 8 times they finally managed to place a line, in her head. :( This was something I really hoped to avoid as silly as it seems to care about that. Needless to say that was really traumatic for her. And then this morning they had to place a more stable line anyway, so she had to be sedated, taken to ultrasound, and have a PICC placed (an IV line that goes to her heart). That went smoothly, thank goodness, and her PICC is placed in her right arm. She still has the IV in her head too, but there are no lines to it - it's just a port they use to give meds and draw blood for labwork.

After recovering from being sedated for the PICC is when she woke up a hungry, angry baby! It took them about an hour to get in orders for her to be allowed to have formula and to have the formula delivered (*grr*), and when she finally got to eat she snarffed it down and was a happy little girl. She ate a couple more times between 2 and 6 pm, and she's been sleeping soundly every since. I think it is some much needed, peaceful, full-bellied sleep. Hopefully she will wake up soon and be a hungry muffin!

So for now we are waiting out the weekend, praying for good news on Monday. If all goes well Monday, we may get to move to C5 for at least a couple of days. Today I've had fun decorating her crib with construction paper Christmas trees and decorations. I decided if we're going to be here awhile we may as well be festive! We've also discovered that you can send cards to Haley via the Children's Hospital website that they actually deliver to her room, so we've been having lots of fun with that! We've made a friend across the hall, a little girl named Maddie who is also a hypoplast and who just had the 3rd surgery, and her room is majorly decorated and has inspired me to do the same for Haley - it makes it so much more cheerful!

3 months old!

Day 2 in the hospital: Overall Haley-bug is doing pretty well. She had a bit of a fussy night last night, but luckily Grandma was here to hold her and snuggle her through the wee hours of the night/morning. And it's quite understandable that she would be fussy after the kind of day she had yesterday! But she did eat well in the night, so that was good. This morning she was still pretty swollen and then finally gave her some lasix. Now she's had some impressive wet diapers and is starting to look like our baby again!

Finally late this afternoon/early evening she has started to act almost like our normal Haley-bug again! She's been laying, playing, waving her arms around, and nearly smiling. She's been making all her cute little faces and is more easily consoled when she gets upset. She could still be eating a little bit better but I imagine that might take a couple days. Before she would become irate every time they took her blood pressure, and now so long as we shake her rattle for her she doesn't even cry!

Unfortunately during her echocardiogram today there was a slight decrease in the function of her right ventricle (the ventricle that's responsible for pumping all the blood in her body because her left ventricle - the normal pumping chamber - is what didn't develop). They say this can be a common transient complication post-op, when volume overloaded (which she was post-op because of fluids and a blood transfusion), and partially because she hasn't been getting one of her heart meds (digoxin) because of surgery day. So hopefully now that surgery is over and more time is passing, we gave her lasix to get rid of all that excess fluid, and she's getting her Dig again (and now twice a day) she will start to be on the mend and the right side's function will come back up. They think that's the most likely scenario, but there is also the risk that they are just catching her right side when it is starting to do poorly and may start/continue to deteriorate. So they are keeping us in the CICU till tomorrow morning at least when they will repeat an echo and then depending on her heart function we will go from there. After the CICU we will have to spend probably at least 24 hours in C5 (the step down ward) before we can go home. Thus there is really no chance that we will be going home tomorrow, and we'll just have to see how her echo goes before we can make any predictions.

It's really very scary to me how nothing seems to go smoothly. Her catheterization was challenging, and now we have this bump in the road with her echo. I was lamenting to one of her doctor's who we'd had before and really like, Dr. McKee, and I said I just wanted it to be easy. His response was very true and appropriate, that I should've learned from last time that it's never easy and not going to be. I told him I just wanted it to be easy one time, but really what he said was true and strangely does make me feel better. For me it helps to keep in mind and remember that this is not easy, never will be, and that bumps in road are par for the game. It makes those bumps seem more manageable and not like some unique-to-us unluckiness. I would love it to be easy, but I know it's not and we just have to trust and pray that we'll work our way through these obstacles. We love our Bug and we'll do anything for her!

We're through surgery!

Haley is through surgery and we are all together now in the Cardiac ICU (CICU)! It was a challenging catheterization and lasted about 5 hours, but they accomplished everything they set out to do and she is extubated, breathing room air, and cuddled in Daddy's arms as I type.

They had quite a bit of trouble getting vascular access as they normally go through the right femoral vein but that was scarred down and completely gone after the last catheterization (thus the horrible purple leg at that time). The left femoral vein was very small and they actually had to go through the femoral artery and do an angiogram to find it and place a canula. Then working from the left side is tricky because you have to make more twists and turns to get to the heart. They did end up having to re-expand the stent in her PDA as that had significant endothelialization leading to stenosis. Then they couldn't pull a balloon through her ASD to re-enlarge it because the wall had thickened. So instead they had to put a balloon with blades on it into the hole and inflate it to cut the wall. Then they inserted sequentially larger balloons and inflated them to rip the cut wall open farther. Finally they pulled a balloon through as they had tried to do originally. The doctor did say that since she's showed such a propensity to heal herself and close these holes we're trying to keep open, that it is likely they will try to constrict down again. But hopefully this procedure will buy us some time so that when they are getting too small the next time that we will just be able to do the Stage 2 procedure.

If you look closely in today's picture you can see that her little feet and legs are mostly the right color! One is a little pale and one is a little purple, but they are much more normal than her leg was last time, and they both have good pulses and capillary refills! They have her on heparin - a blood to help her keep from forming clots - so hopefully they will get back to totally normal quickly.

She's a little pale herself post-op, and she did have a packed red blood cell transfusion during the procedure. But she already seems to have a little more color than she did right away, and I think I would be pale after that too. She's also having little periods where she's very upset, about ever 30 minutes or so, probably just a combination of stress, sleep deprivation, being hungry, etc. We're just holding her and rocking her, and when she gets upset we stand up and bounce her and that really helps. She's doing a magic color changing trick right now when she gets mad - her face turns red and it gets a little blue around her lips - but hopefully that will resolve when she calms down, gets back to her normal self, and doesn't get so worked up.

We're just so relieved she's through surgery and back in our arms. Now we're praying for a speedy recovery and that we get to have our little smiling, chuckling, batting, grasping, cooing Haley-bug back ASAP!

One day at a time

So I had a hard time deciding which picture was cutest today, so you get 4 even though 3 of them are very similar! But all her different faces are too cute!

"Oh Mimi, you're so funny!"

"Well, I'm not really sure that I do want socks for Christmas..."

"No, I don't want socks, I want a pony!"

"Why yes, I am the cutest baby ever, in fact."

Well, Children's Hospital called late this morning and told us we need to be there at 10:30 am tomorrow and that they will do Haley's procedure at 12:30 pm. They told us to expect the procedure to last between 2.5 to 5 hours. They're going to do the catheterization but not the stage 2, which I have to admit I was relieved to hear. Somehow I just feel like I need to have more time to mentally prepare for that than 48 hours. During the catheterization they will be re-enlarging the hole between her atria, and they may also be re-expanding the stent they placed in her PDA as yesterday's echo showed that the pressures may be increasing in there too. Apparently her body is very good at healing itself, a little too good! Unfortunately with such short notice we don't have time to donate blood for her, but hopefully we will for the next time.

I will try to keep updating the 'Daily Haley' while we're in the hospital but we'll see. There probably won't be as many pictures, and I may not get to it tomorrow, but I will try to to at least let everyone know she's through surgery, etc. All for now.

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!