Pictures and Update!

Zoey has done really well over the past week. On Tuesday we went to her Pediatrician and she weighed 8 lbs 3 oz! She is starting to gain weight! Yeah! On Wednesday we went back up to Primarys for her follow up visit. They said she was doing great and they were happy with her weight gain. They said that I didn't have to wake her up every 3 hours anymore to eat!!! THANK HEAVENS!!! That was getting old, and I wasn't even waking up to my alarm anymore. Zoey would wake up to the alarm before I would and then she would cry and I would wake up to her crying. So everyone here is getting a much better nights rest now. She usually goes about 4 hours inbetween feedings and sometimes she will even go 5 hours! Yahoo! They also told me I could start trying to nurse her every other feeding. There are some restrictions that go along with nursing her though. First off, she obviously still needs to gain weight. Secondly, she needs to still drink from a bottle since she will be going back up to the hospital for another surgery when she is 5-7 months old. Zoey hasn't shown much interest in nursing though. Has anyone tried to teach a 1 month old to nurse? Any suggestions? I know I just need to be patient, I am just not very good at being patient.

Wednesday night we went to Kiddie Kandids in South Towne Mall and got pictures taken! I love them!

My Little Zoey

Today we went to another Doctor appointment for Zoey. This appointment was with her Peditrition. They weighed her there and she weighed 7 lbs 7 oz...only 2 oz more than when she was born! I had been telling Adam the other day that I thought she was getting so big so fast-but 2 oz in 3 weeks I guess really isn't fast! She is eating good, so it suprised me that she has gained so little. I guess that is what heart surgery and throwing up all weekend does to you though. I want her to stay my little baby-but it would be good for her if she started putting on the pounds!

Being Home is GREAT!

Sorry I haven't updated for a week! Every spare moment I have had I have slept! :) Zoey is doing great! We have really enjoyed her special spirit here in our house. She is a good sleeper at night, and many nights she only has waken up twice to eat.
Wednesday we went in to her Peditrition. She had been eating well at this point and hadn't needed her feeding tube for the whole day. The doctor said that if she went 3 days without using the feeding tube we could take it out. Later that night, she pulled the feeding tube out herself. She must not have understood the waiting the 3 days part-she just knew take it out! We didn't put it back in because she never needed it!
Friday night she started to throw up and would eat very little. She slept very little that night, and wasn't doing any better Saturday morning. We took her back up to Primary's, they determined that she just had a upset stomach and they were just about to release us and then Zoey started breathing really fast and they were afraid that she had a respiratory virus like RSV. They decided she needed to spend the night for observation while they ran some tests. She did really well that night, and they released her Sunday afternoon. Since then she has done great!

Welcome Home Zoey!

We made it! Zoey has done so well! We are so excited to be home! We were released from the hospital today at about 2:30 PM. It is so great to be home! We really have been so blessed. I cannot thank you all enough for the prayers and support each one of you have given. We wouldn't be home today without all the prayers, fasting, and priesthood blessings. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

So we were released from the hospital with only one prescription and Tylenol. Can you believe that? It is amazing! She does have the feeding tube, but she doesn't need oxygen! Our insurance is also paying for a nurse to come to our house 3 times a week to check on her and make sure everything is ok. We have to go back to Primary's in 2 weeks for a check up, but that is all our discharge instructions! She is just doing great!

Her shirt says "Follow Your Heart"

Our house was decorated so cute! What a surprise!

The nurse said "Home"

Zoey really has done unbelievably well! It really amazes me how strong she is. She hasn't even needed any pain meds all day today-and she had heart surgery 4 days ago! Geez...I had a baby 2 weeks ago and I am still taking pain meds! She also hasn't needed oxygen today either. She makes leaps and bounds of improvements every day!

We are becoming more and more comfortable with her feeding tube. It really isn't as bad as it looks. Adam even took her old one out and put the new one in. It does make it easier for giving her meds! She has to drink 55 ml of milk every 3 hours. She drank 5 ml today at her 2:00 pm feeding(the rest goes in her feeding tube,) 21 ml at 5:00 pm, ALL 55 ml for her 8:00 and 11:00 pm feeding. If she keeps eating good we will be taking out the feeding tube soon!

So because she is way ahead of schedule, the nurse said they will possibly be sending us home tomorrow! If not tomorrow it will be on Tuesday! She has received such great care up here, but we are sure excited to go home!


They took the dressing off of her incision today. We were a little surprised of how big it was. She is going to have a nice scar! The little red mark on the bottom is from the drainage tube.

Proof she drank her bottle! :)

Mommy got one of Daddy holding her sleeping too!

She had to practice going home by sitting in her car seat for as long as it takes for us to drive home. They did this to monitor her oxygen levels to make sure the incline of the car seat won't harm her. She did great! Looks like she is ready to head home too! She is even holding the car seat straps like she is ready for takeoff!

A Room with a View

Today has been GREAT!!! Zoey has done well enough that they moved her out of PICU! They moved Zoey to "The Floor." The floor is the 3rd floor of the hospital. It is like a 5 star hotel! (Ok, not really, but it is great compared to NICU and the U of U hospital.) We are in our own private room. The room has a good view of the valley, a couch that folds out into a bed, a TV, a Playstation 2, they bring us slushies, and best of all ZOEY!!! In PICU we had to ask for permission to hold her, and the nurses were in charge. Up here we can hold her when we want, we are in charge and the nurses are here to help. It is basically our training for going home! Zoey hasn't needed oxygen for most of the day!

Yesterday, Zoey's doctors came and talked to us about her heart. All of the pictures they have taken of her heart and when they did the surgery has shown her left side to be small, but not tiny. Her left side has seems to be growing. This means that when it is time to do the second surgery they will check again, but if her left side continues to grow she may actually be a candidate to have a double ventricle heart. At that time, she would have another surgery to correct her double outlet right ventricle defect and then she would have a normal heart! This would be such a miracle. We just need to keep praying and leave it in God's hands, but the fact that this is a possibility is a miracle in and of itself. Thanks again for your prayers, we really have seen so many miracles because of it.

Here are some pictures of today!
Zoey all snuggled up after her sponge bath that WE gave her!

Zoey's hands were a little blue after her bath. (This is very normal for HLHS babies)

Zoey had some visitors today, including Great Great Grandma Bawden!

Friday

Friday was another amazing day. Zoey has just done so good it is unbelievable! It really amazes me how strong she is. She got her drainage tube out her side, and she also got her IV out that was coming from her belly button. She also needed a lot less oxygen than on Thursday.
After I did my last post, I realized that I had never mentioned that Zoey had never been able to eat. Up until Thursday she had received all her nutrients through an IV. She tries eating with a bottle, but she gets tired. They had to put a feeding tube in because she hasn't been eating enough. It is very common for babies with HLHS to be too tired to eat enough, so the feeding tube is common. They said that we will be coming home with the feeding tube.