Great News!

We visited Catherine's cardiologist at Hopkins today. Catherine had an EKG and she was sedated for an echocardiogram. Her cardiologist said that based on the pictures taken during the echo she is very pleased with the results of the surgery. Catherine no longer has to take any medications and we can wait 3 months before returning to see the cardiologist. What a relief! It has been a little over a year since we found out about Catherine's congenital heart defect. It's hard to believe that everything is looking good right now and for the first time since Catherine was one week old we don't have to worry about any meds for her. We also no longer need to measure and keep record of every bottle that she has. So many welcome changes for us!

Catherine also visited her pediatrician this week for her 9 month check-up. She has gained about a half of a pound in the past 2 weeks. The doctor said that even though her weight gain has slowed she still gained a good amount of weight between her 6 month check-up and now. The doctor also said that it was time to start giving Catherine food. So we have started feeding Catherine rice cereal along with squash. I have some pictures that I'll post later. Overall, the feedings are going pretty well considering she doesn't seem to care for squash. Dave is planning on trying sweet potatoes tomorrow, hopefully she'll like that taste a little better.

Christopher continues to be a wonderful big brother. He wants to help feed his sister and he is always worried about where she is and what she is doing. Recently Christopher told Catherine, "you are the best baby sister."

Happy New Year!

For the past week and a half or so our darling little girl has not been sleeping through the night. We understand that she is a baby but waking up this often was so unlike her and especially since she is 8 1/2 months old. Before her surgery and even for the week after we were home Catherine would sleep from 11 p.m. to about 6 a.m. with no problem. She has been waking up around 11, then 2, then 4:30, and sometimes she wants to stay up at 4:30/5:00. We thought that maybe this was due to hunger. So we thought that we would try to fill her up as much as possible during the day. On Tuesday, Catherine had her first food from a spoon and she did great! She ended up having three servings of rice cereal that day. Although she did well eating the cereal it did not help her sleep through the night. So we started to think that maybe she wasn't feeling well. She had been congested in the mornings and needed her nose suctioned out but after it was cleaned out she seemed to be fine until the next morning. On Friday we decided it was well worth the $15 co-pay to get the pediatrician's opinion.

Catherine's pediatrician seemed to think that even though her lungs sound good, she has an upper respiratory infection. So she prescribed an antibiotic to be taken for 10 days. So far Catherine has had 6 doses over the past three days. It seems to have helped a little so far. Her nose was not so clogged this morning and she slept better last night.

While we were at the doctor's office Catherine was weighed. I'm so excited, she now weighs 13 pounds 4 ounces. She gained 29 ounces in 18 days! From the time Catherine was born until her surgery she gained about a half ounce a day. Now she has gained about an ounce and a half a day. It's amazing that she is gaining 3 times as much weight in a day. I wonder if she'll keep up at this pace or if she'll slow down a bit. Our next visit to the pediatrician will be on January 19th for Catherine's 9 month check-up.

After being out of work for four weeks to care for Catherine and celebrate the holidays, I will return to work tomorrow. I will truly miss being "mom" during the day but I know that the children will be in good hands with Dave. Christopher also returns to school tomorrow, and his regular routine with Pop. My Dad picks him up in the morning, takes him to school, picks him up from school, then they spend the afternoon together. They will be working on taking down the Christmas decorations tomorrow. Christopher loves to be a helper and do chores, he is in charge of feeding our dog Sally twice a day. He is such a good boy and a loving big brother. We are so lucky to have two wonderful children! I know that may sound sappy but after seeing a little boy lose his life (in the PICU while Catherine was in the hospital) it really makes us feel grateful and very blessed for what we have.

Having fun

I forgot to mention a few things in the last post. Catherine's cardiologist took her off of one of her meds completely and reduced the amount of her other medication. So now Catherine only gets one dose of Lasix a day. Our next visit to the cardiologist will be on January 21st. During that visit they will sedate Catherine so that they can get some good information during the echo. The less Catherine moves around the better the information.

Catherine has recently started to blow "raspberries." This may not seem important but it is actually a part of speech development. It also seems like Catherine might be getting some teeth soon. As you can see in the picture she likes putting things into her mouth (toys, her hands, our hands, etc.) This is exciting since she is 8 1/2 months old and she doesn't have any teeth yet! Catherine has finally made it into the next size clothing, she is now in 3-6 month clothing. This is exciting because it is a definite sign that she is growing, she has a lot of catching up to do!

I couldn't post a picture of Catherine without posting a picture of her with big brother, Christopher. He absolutely loves his baby sister. Just this morning he said, "There's my beautiful baby sister, what a cutie." He's so full of sweet things to say to her, hopefully that will last for many, many years. As you can see he also loves to give Catherine kisses all the time.

Merry Christmas!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We have been very busy celebrating Catherine's 1st Christmas and Christopher's 4th Christmas. Catherine has enjoyed getting many new toys and plenty of pretty new clothes. She really likes being independent while she sits in her new seat that GiGi and Pop gave her. Christopher was so excited about everything this year which made this year even more fun for me and Dave.

On Tuesday at Christopher's preschool, Mt. Carmel, we enjoyed seeing his class perform "Away in a Manger." Each student was dressed as a person or animal that was at the original manger. Christopher was Joseph! He did a great job, I could actually hear him singing, and we did the best we could with his Joseph clothing.

On Monday we visited Catherine's cardiologist at Hopkins. She was happy with how Catherine looks and with the amount of food that she is drinking now. The echo showed a couple of things to keep an eye on. Catherine still has some blockage in one side of her pulmonary artery, which the doctor said isn't necessarily a bad thing just something to keep tabs on. Also, there is still a small hole where Catherine's heart was repaired. Again, the doctor is not concerned about this and she said that Catherine could live with this hole if it does not close on its own. Overall, the repair was a huge success considering that Catherine would not have been able to live if her heart was not repaired. The cardiologist also told us to keep an eye on Catherine's formula intake and her breathing because if her intake drops dramatically and her breathing becomes rapid then that could be a sign that the sutures in her heart have busted open. She assured us that this is very, very rare. Just when I thought we were out of the woods, that's something that will stay in the back of my mind.

Catherine continues to amaze us everyday. She has taken in over 1000cc several times this week. During the week after she was discharged she gained almost a pound! She has not had any pain meds (oxycodone or Tylenol) since Sunday night. Catherine seems quite comfortable, she has been busy playing, rolling over, sitting up (with some assistance), and watching her brother. She still likes to smile at everyone that smiles at her!

Getting ready for Christmas

We have been busy getting ready for Christmas this weekend. We decorated the house on Friday night and finished up decorating our Christmas tree on Saturday. Christopher is just so excited about Christmas. I got the decorations out of the box and he put them around the house. He also enjoyed hanging ornaments on the tree. He was in charge of hanging ornaments on the bottom half of the tree. Catherine likes looking at the tree at night when the lights are lit. Aunt Jenn, Uncle Mat, Christopher, and I went to Jeanine's holiday party on Saturday night. Christopher was having such fun that he did not want to leave even though it was 9 p.m. (way past his bedtime!)

Catherine is still a very thirsty girl. Yesterday she drank about 945 cc of formula, that's over 31 ounces! I can't wait to see how much she weighs when we visit the cardiologist tomorrow. Her visit tomorrow will include an echocardiogram, it will be interesting to see her new and improved heart.

Keeping busy

Catherine continues to do very well recovering from surgery. We visited her pediatrician last night to have her stitches from her chest tubes removed. Catherine did well, she only cried a little bit because she had been sleeping until I laid her on the table. Mommy on the other hand did not do so well. I was bending over to hold her hands and reassure that she's a good girl when I started to feel faint after two of the three spots that were stitched were taken care of. I have never felt like that before. Considering what we have been through over the past couple of weeks, I was quite surprised at my reaction to seeing Catherine have stitches removed. I am certain that I made a good career choice, far away from the medical field. Luckily Dave was able to step in to hold Catherine's hands and talk her through the rest of the visit.

Catherine has continued to be quite a hungry little girl. Yesterday she had about 825 cc of formula, that's almost 28 ounces. She has never had so much to drink in one day. It's quite a change for us, a good change. Looks like she'll have about the same amount today. She is still so happy with herself, offering smiles to everyone. Maybe I'm reading a little too much into her smiles, but it's almost like she knows that she's done something really good and she's so proud of herself.

I haven't had a chance to post any pictures lately. So, I'd like to share some photos from the past few weeks with you now. These pictures were taken on the morning of Catherine's surgery (12/8/08) around 6:20 a.m., Dave and I took her into the OR around 7:00 a.m.

(Daddy, Mommy, and Catherine)

(Pop, Mommy, Catherine, Aunt Jenn, and GiGi)

Santa visited the PICU on Catherine's last night there (12/11/08). She slept through the whole visit.

Catherine left the PICU around 1:45 p.m. on Friday (12/12/08). She's actually looking at the camera, I think that she was just as excited as her Mommy!

Glad to be home

Catherine has continued to improve everyday. She surprised me yesterday when she rolled onto her belly while playing. I would think that would hurt after having open heart surgery just a little more than a week ago. I guess she was not in any pain because she stayed on her belly for quite awhile. We have continued to ween Catherine off of the oxycodone that she was taking for pain. She only received two doses today and we'll try just one dose tomorrow.

We went to the pediatrician on Monday night for Catherine's RSV vaccination. Her doctor was surprised that she was already out of the hospital and she was surprised by how good Catherine looked. I have noticed a change in her complexion. Her coloring is more even now, whereas before surgery she was slightly blue around her eyes. Catherine has also started to drink more and more formula everyday. Before surgery she would drink anywhere between 400-500 cc of formula a day. We only know this because we have measured every bottle that she has had since she was born! Yesterday, she drank 540 cc and today she's on track to have about the same if not more. I can't wait to start feeding her cereal from a spoon, that should be fun, and I'm sure that big brother will want to help!

Tomorrow we will visit the pediatrician again so that the stitches from the chest tubes can be removed. Then on Monday we visit Catherine's cardiologist at Hopkins. Of course I'll keep everyone posted on how things go. I am still amazed at the progress Catherine has made in such a short time. What a great gift!