Added bonus!
Sorry for no posts over the weekend. We've all been busy and tired. Sophie came home late Friday afternoon and is doing very well. She doesn't really have any restrictions, other than we can't pull her up or lift her by her arms and aren't supposed to lift her under her arms either. And she can't go swimming (not an issue right now) but can sit in a bath and have sponge baths. The cardiologist told us to just let her do what she wants when she's ready, as babies are smarter about this than older children (who will try to do too much). She does seem to be taking it a little easy. She is crawling and rolling a little, but less than before. And she's not sleeping on her tummy as much, so I guess that's not comfortable for her yet.
Another unexpected amazing thing happened after the surgery: Sophie no longer spits up or vomits! She did not vomit once in the hospital and has only thrown up twice since coming home (and once was during a coughing fit). Compare that to 5-10 times a day before. They started her back slowly on formula in the hospital and we kept waiting for the spit ups to come back. But as the feeds got close to and bigger than her normal amounts, she kept it all down. We were astonished. After we came home, still no problems. In fact, she now gets about twice as much twice as fast and we are still gradually increasing. We don't know why this is for certain. The doctors tell us it is not related to the surgery, so we are baffled, but so happy that we don't really care.
We are VERY excited about this--maybe even more than the heart repair. The heart thing was invisible to us, whereas the constant vomiting every day was always there front and center. So we're hoping this continues. Not only is it easier on her and us and the washing machine, but she can now get the required volume & calories she should be getting based on her weight, which wasn't happening before the surgery. It's a win-win, since she's able to take in more calories and she should now be burning less. We hope she starts turning back into our little chubkins again soon.
It took us a day or so to get adjusted to scheduling the new medications. The blood pressure one is 3x a day and it's supposed to be an hour before eating, oh, and not within 2 hours of the antacid she's still taking. So thank goodness we're able to compress her meals down to 1 hour with a 2hr break in between because before we wouldn't have been able to make it work.
What's also taking some adjustment is Sophie's sleep schedule. It is way out of wack. She hasn't been napping well at all and is waking up for hours shortly after going to bed at night. One of the side effects of the b.p. med is insomnia, but this morning the cardiologist said that is rare and it's probably just from being in the hospital and being woken up all around the clock. It's tough to know what is going on. Plus we weren't sure the first day or two if she was still in pain, but it doesn't seem like it now. Oh, and also her top teeth are coming in, so that's a whole 'nother variable in the equation. Hopefully over the next few days, she'll get back on track.
But we are just so pleased with how well she's done and how quickly she's recovered. It's truly amazing what they can do nowadays, especially considering how small she is now and how little her heart must be. Thank you to everyone for all the cards, calls, and emails. It means a lot to us.
Another unexpected amazing thing happened after the surgery: Sophie no longer spits up or vomits! She did not vomit once in the hospital and has only thrown up twice since coming home (and once was during a coughing fit). Compare that to 5-10 times a day before. They started her back slowly on formula in the hospital and we kept waiting for the spit ups to come back. But as the feeds got close to and bigger than her normal amounts, she kept it all down. We were astonished. After we came home, still no problems. In fact, she now gets about twice as much twice as fast and we are still gradually increasing. We don't know why this is for certain. The doctors tell us it is not related to the surgery, so we are baffled, but so happy that we don't really care.
We are VERY excited about this--maybe even more than the heart repair. The heart thing was invisible to us, whereas the constant vomiting every day was always there front and center. So we're hoping this continues. Not only is it easier on her and us and the washing machine, but she can now get the required volume & calories she should be getting based on her weight, which wasn't happening before the surgery. It's a win-win, since she's able to take in more calories and she should now be burning less. We hope she starts turning back into our little chubkins again soon.
It took us a day or so to get adjusted to scheduling the new medications. The blood pressure one is 3x a day and it's supposed to be an hour before eating, oh, and not within 2 hours of the antacid she's still taking. So thank goodness we're able to compress her meals down to 1 hour with a 2hr break in between because before we wouldn't have been able to make it work.
What's also taking some adjustment is Sophie's sleep schedule. It is way out of wack. She hasn't been napping well at all and is waking up for hours shortly after going to bed at night. One of the side effects of the b.p. med is insomnia, but this morning the cardiologist said that is rare and it's probably just from being in the hospital and being woken up all around the clock. It's tough to know what is going on. Plus we weren't sure the first day or two if she was still in pain, but it doesn't seem like it now. Oh, and also her top teeth are coming in, so that's a whole 'nother variable in the equation. Hopefully over the next few days, she'll get back on track.
But we are just so pleased with how well she's done and how quickly she's recovered. It's truly amazing what they can do nowadays, especially considering how small she is now and how little her heart must be. Thank you to everyone for all the cards, calls, and emails. It means a lot to us.
Labels: update
posted by brd @ 10/27/2008 12:00:00 PM
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