Mark Your Calendars

Kennedy did amazing at her sedated echo today.  The doctor was stuck in traffic so we were there for an hour before the sedation could be administered.  My poor baby was starving and NOT happy.  Thankfully I had woken her up at 3am to feed her.  We were able to get through the extra wait with out too much trouble. 

 Trying to amuse Kennedy before the sedation could be administered.

Once the medicine was administered and I got her to sleep, I thought we were finally ready.  No.  The Sonographer was 40 minutes behind.  All I kept picturing was her waking up before we even started.  As it turned out, we made it through most of the test before she started to wake up.  Her eyes popped open and she let me know she was hungry and ready to eat!  She devoured her bottle and even helped the nurse pull off the EKG leads.

The Cardiologist said she's doing amazing.  The echo looked really good.  She said she has no reason to believe that the surgery and recovery won't go as smooth as possible.  The concern over her aorta is no longer an issue, so that will not be addressed in surgery.  We meet with the surgeon on Monday, and will get a tour of the facility.  We'll be admitted on July 4th and the surgery will be the morning of July 5th.  The best thing about having surgery that week is that our cardiologist is the one assigned to hospital rounds that week.  I feel like this is a huge relief.  She knows where we stand on things like formula and we won't have to try and adjust to a new cardiologist, or one that we aren't comfortable with.  She told us to plan on two weeks in the hospital, but she felt it would be less. 

So, here we are.  I swear, it feels like yesterday we were just hearing her diagnosis and the news that she would need open heart surgery.  Now we have a date.  This feels too real now.  Where is my fast forward button when I need it?

So, I ask you all to please mark your calendars and send a few extra thoughts and prayers to Kennedy on July 5th.  

Kennedy talking to her friends on the way home.

 

How Did This Happen? And Other Ramblings.

Everyone says that time flies when you have kids.  Boy were they right.  The nine months that I was pregnant seemed to drag on and on.  Now that Kennedy is here, the time is flying.  I seriously need a pause or rewind button.  Or maybe a fast forward button to get us through surgery. 

When we got Kennedy's diagnosis it felt like surgery was something that was an eternity away.  I refused to even stress about it at the time.  Now, the count is on.  We're about three weeks away from it.  Sometimes I still feel like it's all a bad dream.  I'm not prepared for this.  Is anyone, ever really prepared?  I don't care how often the surgeon does this procedure, and I don't care how many more significant things he's done.  None of them have involved my baby.  As we get closer to surgery I find myself doing less and less.  I find myself just wanting to play and snuggle.  All the time.  There's so much to do, but I just want to enjoy every minute with Kennedy before her surgery.  Last night she was wide awake playing with her monkey security blanket. 

We stayed up until 3am playing games.  As tired as I was, it was so darn cute.  Tonight I'll be waking her up around 3am, to make an attempt at feeding her.  We have an appointment for an echo under sedation in the morning and she can't eat after 4am.  I've been dreading the appointment all day.  There's nothing reassuring about hearing that your baby will be dizzy, groggy and unable to lift her head after.  I know they need a good echo before surgery, but I hate that there's no other way to do it.  This is nothing compared to surgery and mommy is a wreck.  This is just not going to be a good.  The only good that can come  of this is a lot of snuggle time with mama later.