Growing Up Too Fast

Several months back Izzy learned to ride a tricycle.  Honestly we're not sure where she learned it, possibly at school or she randomly figured it out on her own.  One day she couldn't ride it and the next she could.  Art and I were so excited that we did what any proud parent would do, we went and bought her a brand new, two wheel, princess bike with training wheels.  Much to our surprise, she loved looking at the bike, but was terrified to ride it.  It has been sitting in our garage ever since.  Suddenly today, Izzy sees it in the garage and tells me she wants to try it again.  And the results...well see for your self!

Follow By Email

On the right hand side of this blog, I added a 'Follow By Email' box.  If you would like to get an email whenever we post something new to the blog, please type in your email address in the box to the right.  You will need to follow a few simple steps to receive email updates.  After typing in your email, you will get an email in your own inbox that will finish the activation process.  This way you'll know as soon as we post a new update or fun story!

Updates

It’s been quite some time since I’ve used my blog, but I have missed it.  We will now be updating on Mia via this blog instead of on Facebook.  We will also be using this blog as a fun way for everyone to keep up to date on things happening with everyone in our family!

My first instinct is to update about Mia because it has become second nature to me, but lets start elsewhere!  Art and I are doing very well.  Art has been spending his extra time restoring a 1961 Ford Thunderbird.  It’s a beautiful car, but we will be selling it once it is all set to go! 

I have been enjoying spending time with a few of my good friends and being a mommy.  There are days when I feel like ripping my hair out, but I wouldn’t trade that for the world.  My girls are growing up too quickly.  I have also become quite addicted to fantasy football, weird, I know. 

Izzy started preschool in August and loves it so much!  She goes twice a week for a few hours each day.  We’re looking forward to her holiday program tomorrow.  She’s also in gymnastics once a week and seems to be a natural (or at least we think so)! 

And our miracle Mia, well she’s a miracle!  She’s walking around everywhere and quite literally gets into EVERYTHING.  She’s as curious as they come!  She’s trying to say more and more words and her little personality evolves more with each day.

On the medical front, we received some much needed information from our cardiologist this week.  Art and I have been unsure what the plan will be for Mia moving forward and now we know.  Mia’s left pulmonary artery is narrow and needs to be watched.  This is proving to be quite difficult because our little wiggle worm will not stay still enough for the doctors to get a clear echo.  We were thinking that she would need to be sedated for a procedure of some sort in the next few months.  Because she is doing so fantastic in all other aspects, a sedated procedure will not be done until May or June.  At that time she will be having a cath done in preparation for her third open heart surgery, the Fontan.  Her Fontan surgery will then be done in August or September.  Although things could easily change, that is the plan as of this week.  It is comforting to know what is ahead, but also scary to think that isn’t very long from now.  We can just continue to take things day by day!

Here We Go

Tomorrow is the day that we will potentially be "moving" to Denver. I called the Ronald McDonald House this morning and they told me that they have many rooms available, but due to a stomach flu epidemic at Children's Hospital they are not taking any new residents. They hope that restriction will be lifted tomorrow. While that doesn't sound like the best scenario for us to be walking into, it may actually work in our favor because of there are empty rooms waiting to be filled. I have a fetal monitoring in the morning at McKee and if they are allowing new residents tomorrow and we get a room, we'll head down in the afternoon. It's crazy seeing all of our things packed and getting put in the car. I'm really conflicted about going down to Denver a week early. I want to be there because I'm very scared about going into labor early and it wouldn't be good if I went into labor in Loveland. At the same time, I want to stay home as long as we can. But we can't pass up a room if one is available for us because we will need that room for quite some time. A week from tomorrow, Mia will definitely be in our lives and everything will be forever changed. It's a surreal feeling.

Quickly Approaching

A week from now we will be loading up our car and heading to Denver in anticipation of my delivery. Two weeks from now, my Mia will be here. Everything is happening very quickly now and I'm getting both excited and nervous. I'm so excited to meet my baby girl and see what she looks like. I'm excited to see Izzy's reaction to her baby sister and to see Art hold our daughters together. I'm excited to hopefully be able to hold her myself and feel her little hand in mine. While all of that is in the front of my brain and those are the things I'm trying to focus on, I can't help but think about how different things are going to be this time around. Although I had a c-section with Izzy, I'm nervous about my own surgery. I'm nervous about how long it's going to take for me to recover. I'm nervous about how Mia's heart will look once she is out in the world and, of course, nervous about her first surgery. I'm nervous about how Izzy is going to react to everything that will be going on and about living in an unknown place for more than a month. Everything will be foreign to us. Deep down I am a true believer that everything happens for a reason. I'm still not sure of the reason for all of this. One day I'll know, but for now it's hard. Every part of it is hard. I want the best life possible for my family and I just hope we're doing the right thing. I feel Mia kick inside of me and I wonder what kind of life she'll have down the road. I wonder what kind of life we'll all have. Then I look at my Izzy and hope that we also made the right choice for her. Being a mother is definitely the hardest job there is, no one will ever be able to convince me otherwise.

Appointment Update

So we spent the past two days in Denver going to three different doctor's appointments. Yesterday we were at Children's Hospital and saw our wonderful and amazing cardiologist, Dr. Karrie. She did another echo on Mia's heart and everything looks good. Nothing has changed, which is a very good thing. Dr. Karrie commented on what a nice blood flow Mia and I have between one another and let us know that the PDA (Patent Ductus Arteriosis) is still nice and open. This is very important because if at any time that hole starts to close, the first surgery may not be an option and Mia will have to be delivered early. We need her to grow as large as possible, especially her lungs. We also found out that right now she's breech. My babies must just like living in me up-side-down!

After that appointment we met the surgeon that will be doing all three of Mia's surgeries, Dr. Jaggers. We liked him a lot. He let us know that with the way things are looking right now he plans on doing the first surgery, the Norwood, 3-5 days after Mia is born. This is earlier than we expected, but that's good. He said that as far as HLHS patients go, her heart looks very straight forward and he isn't anticipating any complications. That was very good to hear. We did find out that the earliest recovery time after the first surgery is anywhere from 3-4 weeks. So from the time that I deliver, we're looking at being at Children's 4-5 weeks total, a little longer than we had originally thought. That is, of course, assuming that nothing else goes wrong.

Then today we were at University Hospital and met Dr. Schwartz, the doctor that will be doing my c-section. He wasn't able to give us a definite answer on where I will deliver. A whole team of doctors and nurses are going to meet on August 31st and they will discuss my case. That is when the decision will be made as to where I will deliver. This is primarily because of the stroke that I had. We want to make sure that I get the best care possible as well, which may actually end up being at University where they are better equipped for adult patients. We did find out that if I have to deliver at University (right next to Children's), that Mia should be able to stay in the NICU there until I'm discharged. It was a huge relief to hear that. I was having a very difficult time thinking about trying to recover after a c-section and having my baby girl in a different hospital than me. Right now we're also unsure as to when they will schedule my c-section. It should be anywhere from 37-39 weeks in the pregnancy (early-mid October). We plan on staying in Denver for about a week before the scheduled c-section date in case I go into labor early.

It was a long few days and we're all really tired. Although there are still a lot of unanswered questions in regard to the delivery, we are so grateful to have met all the doctors that will be involved in the process. We're very happy with how the appointments went and will be greatly anticipating going back in a month!

Emotional

I'm having a very rough day today and it's only 7:30 AM. I woke up this morning and all I could think about was the fact that in a little over 2 months I will be delivering our baby. Then a short time later, she'll be taken from me into the Intensive Care Unit. I'm so saddened and distraught over the fact that a living being I've been growing inside of me for 9 months will not be directly in my care after she's born. I was also thinking about how I won't get the opportunity to nurse her. Nursing my Izzy was challenging, but it was an amazing bonding time that we shared. It was something for just the two of us. Sure I can still pump and help to keep Mia as healthy as possible with my milk, but it won't be the same. None of it will. We are trying to be as prepared as possible for all of this logistically, but I'm having such a hard time preparing myself emotionally.