-Lauren's currently on antibiotics. She has an infection in one of her toes. Not an ingrown toe nail but the doctor things her nail got snagged on something and made a small cut near the bottom of her nail which got infected. It was huge and disgusting before it was drained.
-She was also on a cream because her neck had quite a bad rash because she drools so much. It cleared it up but gave her huge painful pimples so we stopped using it. Unfortunately the rash is slowly coming back now.
- She's still not sleeping through the night again. She goes to sleep at 8 then wakes at 11, 4 and 6 or 7. We dropped a 2am feed when I noticed she wasn't actually eating much so I picked her up for a few days and rocked her back to sleep. Last night however I had to wake her up at 2:30 because she needed to have her antibiotics at 11. Of course she sleeps better when I rely on her waking up!
- She's picked up a new quirk. She sticks her tongue out when she's concentrating. She gets this from her dad.
- She loves to play. Now that she can grab and things she enjoys looking, picking up and touching EVERYTHING.
- She's started solids. We gave her rice cereal mixed with breast milk last week and have been giving it to her at her 6pm feed. We started off having it very runny so she sucked it off the spoon and slowly we're making it thicker. No, it doesn't help her sleep any better and yes it makes her poo so gross and smelly! We also haven't told anyone in the family she's on solids because for some reason people keep wanting to give her treats. She's only 5 months old!!!!!!!
- I put up the change pad on the change table (we'd just been using a cloth before) and now that she's higher up she lays there and kicks/ swings the blinds.
- She rolled over. She's only done this once on her own and I suspect it wasn't on her own either. I'd put her to bed one night and she started crying about 10 minutes later. When I came into the room she was on her tummy. She hooks her feet in between the slats to sleep on her side and I think she swung herself too far.
- She absolutely HATES being on her tummy. I think this is why she has no desire to roll over. We've practiced once because she was getting onto her side a lot. She realized it ended with her on her tummy and now no longer attempts to roll over.
- If you place her siting up she will stay siting unaided
- She had her first sleepover at Grandma's on New Years Eve and apparently was a very good girl (like grandma would think differently anyway!)
Dan and I decided to do operation red nose on New Years Eve this year. It was fun, but I think next year we'll do it on nights leading up to New Years. They had 22 teams of 3 on the road which is great but it ended up causing a lot of disorganization. I suspect it was too hard to keep track of that many cars. Here's a link to the website with more info about it : http://operationnezrouge.com. It was started in Quebec but is now done all over the country.
January's going to be a busy month for us. Daniel's parents arrive around the 12th and we're going on a skiing holiday with them. Then in February Dan and I are going away on our own for another skiing holiday. Lauren will stay at my mum's for the weekend. I'm really looking forward to getting to ski again since it's been 3 years. I was a little sad the past 2 years being pregnant and not aloud to ski. No idea if I'll be any good again!
Now for the pics of Lauren this month. We bought a new camera during a boxing day sale and I absolutely love it :
I stumbled across your blog as I am currently pregnant after loosing my son to HLHS summer of 2010. He was 10 1/2 months old when he died. Your story has many similarities to mine, and I wanted to share quickly with you.
ReplyDeleteI got pregnant in 2007 and found out that my daughter had cysts in both of her kidneys. Her autopsy report said it was called bilateral multicystic kidneys. Her condition was not compatible with life and I too had to make the decision to end the pregnancy. I was 23 weeks 6 Days. The only other option was for compassionate care. I believe in God as well, grew up going to church, accepted Christ in my life and was baptized at 14. I never, for one moment, have thought that God would be angry at me for choosing this option. What you chose to do, in God's eyes, was not wrong. What you chose and what I chose to do is the same as if we had to take our children off of life support. Essentially, us being the life support, and they couldn't survive without us. I don't know how you feel about that now, but please don't feel bad.
After my daughter, I got pregnant again and it ended up being an ectopic pregnancy. At the end of 2008, I got pregnant with my son. He was diagnosed with HLHS when I was 30 weeks pregnant. We chose the 3 step surgery. When he was 4 months old, his aorta started to close off so he went in for a cardiac cath to balloon it up and make it bigger. He went into cardiac arrest and was given cpr for 45 min. He was put on a lung bypass machine called ecmo. This machine is very invasive and the tubes that went into his neck were too large. They paralyzed his larynx, and after a couple throat surgeries, they had to do a tracheotomy. After that, he recovered well, but was still in the Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton. When he was 9 months old, they did the second surgery, and he developed a blood clot. The clot was surgically removed more than once, and it kept coming back. He was put back on ecmo. Then there was a clot in the machine that poisoned his blood and made him clot in some places and bleed out in others. I watched his fingers turn black, the tissue dying and it was the most horrific thing I have ever seen. They finally were able to stabalize him, but things didn't get better as expected. His lungs were collapsing constantly, and they could not ween him off of the ecmo machine. He was on it for 1 month, which is very long and very bad for the body. On Jun 3 2010, he took a turn for the worst. He stomach was extended and very hard and they suspected that his bowels and pancreas had exploded inside due to clots from when the machine had malfunctioned with a clot in it. We chose to take him off the machine that day because he couldn’t recover. I held him in my arms with my husband and some family around us, and he died with us around him. We have been through genetic testing and they did not find anything wrong or connecting the 2 pregnancies. So after a lot of debate, we decided to try again.
I am 10 weeks and going for a fetal echo next wed (Jan 18) and am terrified of going down that road again. I have been searching the net for reassurance and came across your story. Thank you for being so open and honest and thank you for giving me hope that I too, can have a healthy pregnancy after an HLHS loss.
I can also relate to so many of your feelings and so much of what you have gone through. I am constantly nodding my head in agreement to the things Im reading. I have met many families going through similar situations through the hospital but have never met someone who mirrors my feelings so closely on things. I have a blog as well, if you are ever interested in reading my story. http://www.carepages.com/carepages/ParkerPsybyla I am deeply sorry for the losses you and your husband have suffered. Congrats on your daughter and God bless
Thank-you for the comment and for telling your story. You are the reason I started this blog as like you I went in search of positive stories after an HLHS baby so it makes it all worthwhile hearing that I've given you hope (and since I've read yours I'm SO happy you've got a heart healthy baby growing!)
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