Surgery: DONE!!

Last picture taken before we handed her off to the surgery nurse.

                                     

First picture taken after surgery.

 

All of her wires and tubes. My precious baby is so sweet. :)

 

Oxygen levels post-surgery: 100%!!!!  :D

The surgery was originally scheduled for today, July 26. I got a call from Dr. Mendloff's nurse (Dr. Mendeloff is Caelyn's surgeon) on July 21 around 4 pm asking if we would mind coming in the next day for pre-op, and doing the surgery on Sunday, July 24. Darren was away for annual training for the National Guard, but was supposed to come home the next day. So I called him to see if he could come home then, and we would leave the next morning for Dallas. He was able to leave a day early, so he came home, we packed, and got a good night's sleep. Woke up around 6:45 Friday morning, fed Caelyn, got ready to go, and left the house by 8:30.

We arrived at Medical City Children's Hospital about 11:30, and started pre-op. They did bloodwork, chest x-rays, and we registered Caelyn. We left by 4:00, and headed to the Ronald McDonald House. It was such a nice place! They were so helpful, and we enjoyed having three meals a day, provided by wonderful volunteers. Saturday, we went to the mall to get Caelyn and special hearts build-a-bear. We named her 'Zipper'. ;) 

The next morning, at 4:00 am, we woke up and got ready for the long day ahead of us. We were at the hospital by 6:00, and Caelyn was taken back for surgery around 7:00. That was the hardest thing I have ever done, handing her over to that nurse. I broke down in tears. My family was very supportive, keeping my spirits up until she was out of surgery, at 12:36 pm. Dr. Mendeloff said her surgery went wonderfully! We briefly saw her sweet little face as they were wheeling her to the Congenital Heart Surgery Unit ICU.

Her recovery has gone very well so far, with no major setbacks. One of her chest tubes is draining a lot, so we may have to put another one in soon, but we will see. Darren has been so amazing, he is such a great daddy to our sweet baby girl.

Hopefully she continues down this path of recovery and we are home very soon. Thank you to everyone who has prayed for her, we very much appreciate every single prayer!  

It's Finally July...

These pictures show some of the adventures we had in June.

Caelyn at the park swinging for the first time!

Caelyn and her friend, Jade, before going swimming.

Cute little bumbums!

Caelyn relaxing in her bouncer. She cant reach the floor yet. :)

Daddy holding Caelyn at her first time at the movies, we saw Cars 2 with her cousin, Torin. She watched the first 15 minutes, then fell asleep. :)

It is now July...the month of the dreaded surgery. I know Caelyn isnt thinking about it! Haha...but it's all I think about. I'm wishing time would slow down, but I'm also anxious to get it over with. I know she will be fine, but I dont want to see her in pain.

At the immunologist two days ago, Caelyn weighed 13 lbs and 8 oz and was 24 inches long. She is getting so chunky!! :) Dr. Bahna, the immunologist, thinks Caelyn probably has a mild case of Digeorge Syndrome. So he drew more blood and those results will be back in a few weeks. We need to know before her surgery so we can take extra precautions in the type of blood she gets and in her recovery. Digeorge Syndrome reduces the effectiveness of the immune system, so these babies can get sick easier than a normal baby.

She keeps getting abcesses after her shots. She has one on both thighs. The one on the left thigh is from her two month vaccines, and the one on her right thigh is from her four month vaccines. They have both been drained, and we are trying to figure out why she is getting these. Some test results will be in on Monday, so hopefully we can figure this out. She is on a stronger antibiotic this time around, so hopefully they will be all healed up before her surgery.

She is now rolling from her tummy to back all the time. She hasn't quite mastered back to tummy, but she tries. She turns her head really far to one side and arches her back trying to roll. It's so cute. :) She says "Ma ma ma ma" all the time. I chose to believe she is calling for me. ;) Haha. She stopped sleeping through the night the day she turned 4 months old. At first, she was waking up 4-5 times a night, and now it's only once or twice. Hopefully she startes sleeping through the night again soon. Her feeding is sparatic, but she still eats every 4 hours. Some feedings she will eat 6 ounches, and some she will only eat 2 or 3 ounces. It worries me, because she only gets about 20 ounces a day, but she is gaining weight very well, so I try not to dwell on it.

We have been hanging out with friends a lot lately since Darren has been working so much. Ashley has three crazy, beautiful kids. Natalie is 4, Aleks is 3 and my little snuggle buddy, and Andrejas is 19 months. Caelyn loves to watch them run around. Kelli has beautiful little Jade, who is only 7 days older than Caelyn. Jade was born about 6 weeks premature, so she is a tiny little thing. They love doing tummy time, swimming, napping, and babbling with each other. It's nice to hang out with friends who have kids.

In about a week, Caelyn and I are making a road trip down to Baton Rouge to visit some family I havent seen in over 11 years! Darren will be doing his yearly National Guard training, so I wanted to go see them. My cousin, Nikki, has a 6 month old son, Lee-Joseph, who I cant wait to meet! Him and Caelyn are going to have so much fun together.

I cant wait to see what the next few weeks holds in store for my beautiful baby girl!