5 weeks

i cant believe little aine is already 5 weeks old. we are hoping that sometime soon she will be able to come home.

they are still planning on doing her gvtube and nissen surgery on friday and are very hopeful that this will solve alot of her problems along with help her gain much needed weight.

liam is doing well and having a great time in tumbling and swimming. we are glad that we are able to keep him on somewhat of a schedule.

i dont think he understands yet that she will be coming to stay and he will at some point have to share everything all the time, not just during business hours.

Good News is always the BEST!!

Well,
We are trying not to hold our breath (blue just isn't our color :)- but we finally got some good news!
Aine is holding steady on her weight, and her lung scan came back showing some improvement so they will be holding off on her 2nd heart surgery for now. They will be repeating the lung scan in about 3 months to see how things are looking and make a determination of when they will fix the hole in her heart & if they need to do any additional work on her pulmonaries.
They will be placing the G Tube on Friday (5/13) along with doing the nissen surgery so we are getting close to the time that she will be able to come home! FINALLY!!!!

I will not lie, we are freaking out about the care that she is going to take, but can't wait to finally have her home & not have to deal with all the wires, beeping, and bless their hearts - the nurses & doctors.

Liam has been a trooper during this whole thing & will hopefully do as well once Aine comes home.

Thanks again to every one for your thoughts and prayers, they mean the world to us!

New Day - New Hospital

Aine has now officially moved across the river.
We are in her new room which is really cool & really big. We are very lucky because now all the rooms are private & we got an "adopted" room, so we get to use some pretty cool stuff (web cam, Wii system, extra TV, and the list goes on). Liam can go to the playroom & the children's library (which was stocked by many caring people who donated books and money to fill it up - so if you are one that donated - THANK YOU!!!!)
She made the transfer across the river in true Aine style - she slept the whole way like a little princess & waited until we were at the top of the elevator to up-chuck everything in her system.
We are still looking at 2 additional surgeries, but they are unsure as to when they will be due to a positive blood culture.
They are hoping to do a lung scan the end of next week, which will tell them how her lungs are functioning & taking in oxygen.
We will say that it is amazing to think that she will be 1 month old on Monday!
But won't be leaving the hospital for at least 2 more weeks, but a better guestamate would be an additional month of hospitalization :(

Better than nothing :)

As of this time, Aine's cultures are coming back negative.
Her urine showed increased white blood cells - so, they are thinking she has a UTI or bladder infection. Way better than an infection in her blood or lungs :)

We are not planning on her having surgery until next week because they want to wait until they are at the new hospital to do anything. The PICU is moving across the river & is going to be right by Labor & Delivery and the NICU which will be nice because moms won't have to rush to get out of the hospital.

Liam is recovering from his birthday, but doesn't think he got enough cake. That is still the talk of the day & the "food" that he constantly asks for. Guess it's going to be a long year for him :)-

Another day of waiting

Well,
We are still awaiting some uplifting news.
We were informed that Aine started throwing fevers last night so they started doing cultures on every body fluid that they can easily retreive. She has an infection so they have post-poned her heart surgery until next week (after they move to the new PICU across the river).
She may still have her PIC line placed this week because they want to get her back onto food as soon as they can (she is down to 5.2 pounds as of this am).

I wish I had better news to share with everyone, We're hoping that will be coming soon.

Our Baby Girl

Well... Where to begin???

I guess a small clarification on a previous post is a good place.
I didn't do a very good job of explaining the muscle part of her heart. Since the aorta is overwhelming the heart (which is a muscle) the ventricle must work harder which in turn causes the heart to work harder. You wouldn't think that this would cause a problem, but as the wall get bigger (thicker) the chamber which holds blood gets smaller which in turn makes the heart work harder to pump the volume of blood that the body & lungs need.

The next place to go is another update.
Aine has been looking better every day, but has shown (via her monitors) that the opposite is actually true. She was placed back on oxygen this weekend & developed some arrythmias & has continued to vomit. So due to this they stopped her feedings again (putting her on IV nutrients), and took more X-rays, EKGS, and a lung pressure test on her.

It was found that the shunt that was placed is working, but not to the extent that it should be, so our baby girl is scheduled to go into surgery on Monday to find out what is making to the shunt smaller than it should be. It will be pretty close to the same surgery that she had the first time, but hopefully not as intrusive & hopefully she will be out of the ICU quicker than the first surgery because she is stronger this time.

On a good note, Aine has a beautiful smile, beautiful little eyes, and a strong cry & grip.
We feel very blessed to have her join our family & can't wait to be able to take her home & squeeze her. (I will post pictures of her in a little bit)

Thank you for the good thoughts & prayers!

Liam is TWO!!!!

Wow!!
Is all I can say about these last two years!
As many of you know (and some don't) Shawn & I waited a LONG time for our family to begin & boy have we had a Great time since we have been blessed with our little boy. Trying to enjoy every single minute that we have been given.
We had a Great turn out for Liam's birthday, which was wonderful because there is nothing better than spending a day with family and friends.
Liam was soo excited when he saw his Thomas cake, he asked about it for 2 weeks before his birthday (even though I don't remember telling him that he was going to get one).
He was happy to see everyone, but did spend most of his time in our arms & was more than ready to go to sleep after the festivities.
We would like to thank everyone for celebrating this joyful time with us & are so blessed that you are a part of our lives.
I will post pictures in the next few days so you can enjoy them!