A little about our day

Well, we are home! Today was a long day, especially for Emma Kate. We are glad to be done with it! But I couldn't have asked for it to go better than it did. Emma Kate and I got to admitting a UAB hospital a little after 6 this morning. There were a lot of little old ladies in the waiting room who were ooohh-ing and aaahh-ing over her. She was wide awake and very happy. She loves the attention. She had such a great morning, despite being hungry, poor thing. She had her last bottle at 3:30am. She didn't start really getting fussy until about 10am. We expected to have her in the cath lab well before 10, but there was an emergency procedure that had to be done. So around 11, I got to walk EK down to the lab with one of the hospital staff. He was great with her! He had her smiling when he took her behind the doors and that made me happy. I went and got some cafeteria food and came back to the room. About 90 minutes later, Dr. Law called and basically said everything went perfectly! What a relief!

Thank you, God, for our little blessing, Emma Kate! Thank You for sending Your angels to watch over her and keep her safe! Thank you for her doctors and nurses that have taken such great care of her. We are truly grateful! We are so thankful to all of you who have been keeping us in your prayers and thoughts! They are truly what is carrying us through all of this!

In Recovery

Emma Kate's heart cath is complete and she is in recovery! Her procedure didn't begin until around 11am and only took 1 1/2 hours which is definitely a good sign. Dr. Law said that everything looked great from the cath and he feels she should have a good recovery. Emma Kate should be in recovery for around 90 minutes and then she will be taken to a private room to be observed. If all goes well, she might even be able to come home tonight! We will update again once we have more info. Thanks for your prayers!

This Thursday...

... is Emma Kate's heart catheterization procedure! Please be in prayer for her, her cardiologist (Dr. Law) and the nurses and other hospital staff. Most likely this will be an overnight stay. I am getting more nervous about it, but I know that God is in control and we have so many people praying. Thank you!

In case you are interested in learning more about what a cardiac cath is click HERE.We will update the blog as soon as we have a computer and time to do so.

Quick Update!

We took Emma Kate to see Dr. Stone (pedi) on Tuesday to follow up on her ear infection. She has been acting so much better the past several days, thankfully! She's been such a sweetheart, smiling and laughing at us all the time. I really feel like she's showing us her little personality. She's always happy, that sweet girl. While we were at the doctor's we had blood drawn. This was just to check to see if she is anemic before her heart catheterization next week. Everything looks normal!

After the visit with Dr. Stone, we went to visit Dr. Law, her cardiologist. Brooks got to come with us, too. Again, everything looks great. The blood flow looks good and the squeeze of her heart is good, too. Apparently the regurgitation in her tricuspid valve is looking better, also, due to the increase in her medications. Dr. Law also looked at her aorta and said that sometimes the aortic arch might narrow as time goes on, and if it does, they can use a ballooning procedure during the cath to stretch it out a bit. However, her echo did not reveal anything to give him reason to believe that this will be the case next week. Yay!

I spoke with a nurse about Emma Kate's cath, which is next Thursday. We will be able to walk her down to the lab. They will give her medication to sedate her for the procedure. This procedure will tell us how her heart is doing from the inside, if that makes sense. It will measure pressures, blood flow, take pictures, etc. This is a fairly routine procedure, but I am still pretty nervous about it. I mean, inserting a probe into the groin and going up into the heart sounds a bit scary to me. But I know that they know exactly what they're doing and I have fully confidence in them! Please keep Emma Kate in your prayers next week!

After the cath we will know more about when her Glenn (2nd surgery) will be. Dr. Law's prediction was the beginning of January. We have no way of knowing for sure, though, until he sends all of the info over to Atlanta for Dr. Kirshbom (surgeon) to review. Of course, I'll update as soon as we know.

We're glad things seem to be going so well with Emma Kate. We're so proud of her. She has discovered her hands and is always grabbing things now. Not really reaching for them yet, but she's sucking on her fingers holding on tight to toys, etc. She is such a flirt, too. She smiles at just about everyone she sees. She admires her big sister so much. She's always watching what she's doing. I have been trying to put her on her tummy more often, and I think she'll start rolling over soon once she gets a bit stronger. She is a wiggle-worm. She loves her Bumbo chair, which allows her to sit up and look around. :)

Okay, time to go to bed! This "quick" update took me almost an hour to do! Thank you all for you love and support and prayers! We will keep you posted!

3 Months Old!

Emma Kate is 3 months old!

She is doing great and she's such a joy! We went to see Dr. Stone (pedi) a couple days ago for some blood work. He was very pleased with how her bottle feedings were going. In fact, last night I got her to drink 90mls (abt 3oz) at one feeding! I was very excited about that. She spit up some, but it wasn't too bad. Next Tuesday is Emma Kate's heart catheterization. We have to be in admitting at 6am! And it will definitely be an overnight stay at the hospital. Sad. But honestly, I'd rather be there just to make sure we are in good hands if something goes wrong. I pray that EK will do well and she will recover well from the cath. She will have to be intubated for the procedure, which I was not happy to hear. But when we see her, she won't be intubated. I just hate to think of all that baby is going to have to go through again in the coming weeks and months. We don't know yet when her Glenn (2nd surgery) will be. After the cath next week, her cardiologist will send all the info gathered from the cath and send it over to Dr. Kirshbom (her surgeon) in Atlanta. They will make a determination on the surgery based on her information. So maybe a week or two after the cath we'll know something more definite. I know that this surgery is supposed to be the easiest of the three, from what we've been told. But, hey, it is heart surgery and it is going to be so hard to hand over my little precious girl to have her chest opened up again. There are always risks. Thank you for your prayers! We so much appreciate and treasure them! Please continue to pray for Emma Kate. We are so grateful for her and for the past three months she's been our little girl!