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!