So we had a wonderful weekend with some friends and family. Zoe is blessed with lots of wonderful people in her mommy and daddy's life. One of my best friends and her husband drove up from Missouri to meet Zoe. Lisa and Cory have a 2 year old daughter, so making the 8 hour trip met alot to us. It was so good seeing them, as our trips to Missouri have stopped due to us having babies in the last two years. We can't wait to go down to the Lake of the Ozarks, hopefully next summer. Thanks so much for making the visit up:)
My mom hasn't met Zoe until Sunday. She had bronchitis over the last two weeks. It was sad that my mom didn't met her until now, but with Zoe's condition and being in the NICU that was the last thing I wanted was a hacking grandmother in the NICU. But it was great seeing the three generations of women. The first thing my mom said, "oh my she has hair just like you did". Definitely got the over abundance of hair from her mom!
Zoe's other godmother, Jessie, came to visit as well (Stephanie, her other godmother, visited Zoe last week, both of which are my BFF's as well). Its been rough on Mike & I, and we eat alone alot of the time, so its been wonderful to see good friends during this hard time. Jess just had her 2nd baby girl in December, and has a 2 year old daughter. The picture below Jessie is of Zoe's "home". If you notice there are two new pictures that hang on her shelf, colored all by Miss Mia. Mia and Zander were both born in 2010, 6 months age difference, but she was Zander's first kiss (and vice versa).
Mitch, is one of Mike's good buddies from high school. Mitch lives in Florida and it meant alot that he came to visit our little girl while he was in town. He's actually a rocket scientist (no joke) who just got accepted into the Marine's test pilot program (pretty neat occupation, huh?).
Tom came to visit as well. Mike has known Tom since they were 5 years old. You don't hear many people still being friends for that long of a time period. They've gone through everything together. So glad he was able to meet our little girl!
Heather, Mike's cousin, came to visit too. She's due with her first baby in July, a boy! We're looking forward to having many play dates since our kids will be so close in age. We're so happy for her and Tom!
Lastly, Kelly Vanderploeg (http://kellyvanderploegphotography.blogspot.com) came to visit and take Zoe's newborn photos. I went to high school with Kelly. She graduated a few years ahead of me, but when I learned she took photos and saw her work, I wanted her to take photos of Zander. My sister and sister in law gave us a gift certificate to have Kelly take the photos. She did such an amazing job documenting his first year of life. Here were some of our favorites of Zander....
Needless to say, she does amazing work and we're so grateful for her to come to the city and take Zoe's photos. Zoe was very alert and really loving getting her pictures taken! It'll be cute to see how much Zander and her look alike when we compare photos. His newborn shoot was taken at 2 weeks old as well! I can't wait to see her photos (and I'll be sure to share them as well!)
So I met with Cardiology and asked all my questions about her heart :(. So after hearing that her VSD is moderate size (around half a centimeter) and the location of the hole, I learned that most likely it will not close. Her ASD hole is small and they do think it will close. Now with the VSD hole, the tricuspid valve is right underneath the hole, and is actually helping the blood flow. Now as she gets bigger and her heart grows, the valve will not help the blood flow, and actually will need to be closed. So yes, we're looking at open heart surgery at 4-6 months most likely. So that means if she comes home sometime in April, she very well could be back at Children's anywhere from June to August. If the ASD hole hasn't closed by then, they will then close it with the VSD hole. They actually take tissue from Zoe (which surrounds the heart) and will patch up the holes that way. I asked the cardiologist how long would recovery be. And I knew the response would be "depends on the patient" but she added "could be two weeks or longer". Big Sigh.... Its so disheartening knowing that your baby girl is trying to let her intestines heal, hasn't even tasted milk yet, will learn to eat, gain weight, then go home, then can turn around and come back 2 months later for open heart surgery. I knew this year was going to be tough, but now as we're living it, its becoming tougher.
So I will continue to talk to God and pray that these holes miraculously close so she doesn't have to undergo anymore surgery (and Mike and I don't have to watch her be wheeled away again for hours).
And it seems as if she won't be attempting to eat until sometime later this week. But that is still a big "maybe". Her intestines aren't showing that she's ready to eat yet. Another Big Sigh. If she doesn't throw up any more they will take out the "Anderson" tube and see how she does for 24 hours. If she doesn't vomit, then they will try food. This is such a long process:(
I'm going back to work on Monday March 5th. I'm so very sad and I feel like a horrible mother going back after 4 weeks of her being born. However, it makes the most sense for me to go back until she can come home. If she comes home with a feeding tube, I would rather be the one to insert it daily versus my wonderful mother in law. I want to be the one who gets 5-6 weeks with her to see her coo, laugh, roll over. I've already missed so much of a healthy newborn's wonderful moments, so I can't wait to have a normal day at home.
As I had my first glass of Riesling with Mike tonight at dinner (much needed date night for us), I'm thoroughly exhausted and ready for bed....
Here are some recent pictures of our little girl
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