It's working! It's WORKING!!!!!!!!

So far so good y'all :)


Currently
Cecilia is at this very moment cozy in her big crib bed here at the PICU at Legacy Emanuel Randall Children's Hospital! Her surgery has been successful so far and we've been quietly hanging out by her bedside ever since. She's on IV fluids, the ventilator, a midazolam CRI, and there are some other tubes and stuff; central line, various catheters of different uses, etc. The plan is to keep her quiet and on the ventilator until tomorrow morning, then wean her off and see about getting some food into her. We are keeping talking and baby squeezing to a minimum to make sure she doesn't fight the endotracheal tube and get all bummed that she can't move.

We arrived at the hospital at 5:40am! It was good we were a little early because quite a few more people showed up and we were second to be seen out of all of them since we were so punctual. Me punctual?! I know.... Anyway- Mark was allowed to pick out one toy for Cecilia- he picked an angry looking snow leopard- sweet. They checked us in and Cecilia had her blood pressure, SPO2, weight and height checked. She's 10lb 8oz now! And I can't remember how long- whatever- she's longer. Dr. Hoyer stopped by, then the surgeon, Dr. Hovaguimian, then the anesthesiologist, Dr. Keeler and his OR nurse, Gayle! Lots and lots of people! Dr. Hoyer explained that he would do an ultrasound before and after the surgery to check for leaks and such. Dr. Keeler and Gayle went over the anesthetic protocol: nitrous oxide to make her sleepy, followed by intubation (sevoflorane) and fentanyl for pain and sedation. He confirmed they don't do any pokes while she's awake- yay no sad Cecilia! Momma and Tara came down to hang out for a while and then at 7:45am we walked her down to the OR doors to hand her off. She was quiet and sleepy and Dr. Keeler held her the rest of the way. Boy did that feel like a soft punch in the gut to see our baby baby walked away from us- but the feeling passed when we reminded ourselves that magical amazing super wicked smart people were taking her to make her better. UG!

Mark and I walked back babyless to the entourage and we were escorted up to the PICU waiting area by Cecilia's lovely admitting nurse, Julie. (I'm sorry if I am remembering your name wrong! I asked you a million times too!) We camped out in the waiting room and got our first update around 10am. Paula, the cardiac case manger/awesome informant, let us know everything was going well; surgery began at 9:00am and she had been put on the bypass at 10:30am. When she came back for the next update at 11:30am she said they were warming her back up and in the process of taking her off bypass. The bypass takes about 1.5 hours to set up and take down- pretty interesting process actually. Anyhoo- we hung out for a bit longer and she said she was out around 12:30pm. She was in recovery for an hour and we were reunited around 1:30pm! It went by fast! Her PICU nurse, Ashley, has been taking amazing care of her-super vigilant and sharp! The surgeon came in and checked on little Cecilia and he said she looked good. I think he was proud of his work- he is really great so he should be!

She's been going through her sedation, metabolizing it super fast, so she is now on a CRI (constant rate infusion) of a really great sedative/pain med midazolam as well as fentanyl aaand she's getting tylenol too! She is cozy and her pain is managed well- she's just still pretty lively since she's been sleeping for hours and hours and hours. Dr. Hoyer just came in to check on her and said she's doing great. She'll get some blood tests later and she's still on her lasix. Oh my sentences are becoming disjointed and such so I will leave it here for now! 

We love you all so so so very much and I can literally feel the love wrapping around us as we move through this crazy time! I couldn't ask for more and I'm so grateful for you all. 

 Dr. Hoyer checking in before Surgery

 Family Picture

 switching picture takers

 The long walk to the operating room

 The handoff to Dr. Keeler and Nurse Gayle

 There she goes.......

 weigh in

 Checking out the digs.

 Dr. Hovaguimian checking on his work with our PICU RN Ashley

 our little lady

Pool days! ...and heart surgery!

my water baby!

It's been so nice and warm here in Portland, it almost feels like summer- you know what I mean Kentucky! My friend Kate and I took Cecilia to the pool Tuesday and it was soooo great- I learned all about why there are 'swim' diapers- not the hard way thankfully! Boy those things are heavy but they sure help a little baby butt float! We have a public pool in the park next to our house and it's only 3 blocks away. I think I'm going to throw Cecilia a surprise pool party one of these days- she's not even gonna know what hit her! She didn't seem to hate the pool and I even let her float a little bit. She kicked her legs around and we wooshed around in the water- hard to tell what a 3.5 month old thinks but it wasn't traumatic so that's a plus!

And hey, thank you guys- All of the hearts for Cecilia pics are absolutely fabulous- you put a smile on her face for every one! I'll post them next week when I'm gearing up for the big day on Tuesday! I used a lot of their power today so I need more! Keep em coming!




oh boy.

I sometimes think maybe I've jumped into someone else's body every now and again but once we've gotten through this heart surgery I think that may end :). 

art at cardiology office- my thoughts exactly

  Today we went to the hospital for Cecilia's pre-admission happenings. Trish met us there to be the wingman and it was awesome to have her. Our friends are pretty amazing! We met the surgeon, discussed the surgery and asked some questions about the whole process. We were guided through the whole day by Amber and then Lynn, one of the cardiac case managers. After the surgical consult we went to radiology and she had 2 views of her chest taken. Mark and I put on lead gowns and held her while the x-ray techs snapped the goods. She was asleep for most of it but then woke up for her lateral view, so that had to be retaken. No biggie- she was a champ.      


  Then- ug- we went for her blood work. I held her and kissed her while she wailed in protest :(. It was so sad! There were so many people in the room just feeling her pain- but they were all so sweet and supportive and I'm sure there were a few tears shed for her pain (myself included). The phlebotomist was on point and she only had to poke her once- baby veins are soooo tiny and hers are floppy and slow to boot! She got a bandaid just like the ones we use on the cats and dogs (except hers was flesh colored and we have cool colors like hot pink!). They had tons of cartoon bandaids to choose from but she was too small for a regular bandaid..... so I took a hungry caterpillar one and Trish got a mickey mouse one! :) After the blood spilling was over we got the heck out of there- I carried her around all day in the ergo baby carrier and she slept for a looong time after that stressful event! 
  Amber handed us off to Lynn and we went for a tour of all the places we'd go in the children's hospital. We started out in the basement where we will wait for her to be taken to the OR, then we went to the PICU and then to the ward. It's such a beautiful hospital and all the little details are so sweet. I hadn't noticed before but the huge paintings of the birch trees have notes from the entire staff written in the bark patterns. Here's a pic from our first stay- I didn't notice it at the time: 

I'll take some pics when we are there next week but I had to stop reading them today because they were triggering my emotion reflex... After the tour ended, the four of us went for lunch in the courtyard cafe and gorged on salmon burgers, burrito bowls, onion rings, cheesecake and salad! We were starving! It's pretty cool- while I'm there for the hospital stay and feeding the wee one with my boobies I get all-you-can-eat room service! Macaroni bath!!!

And back to serious talk:
  We will be getting to the hospital at 530am to be on time for her 7am surgery. Prior to that we'll need to stop feeding her at 330am and then she can have pedialyte until 530am. At the hospital, we go to the lower level where we'll be waiting with her there until they are ready to go into the operating room. She will be put under anesthesia with just a mask over her little face so she won't have to feel a thing- not the pokes for her iv-catheter or other tubings n such; which I think is great! They'll do everything after she drifts off to sleep. Then she'll go into surgery for 4-5 hours. Afterwards, they take her to the pediatric ICU for recovery where we'll be waiting. She'll still be heavily sedated for the first day since she'll still have the endotracheal tube in place; so she can be supported by the ventilator. Slowly, over 24-48 hours, all the tubes and such will be removed until she can go down to the 'floor/ward' or general pediatric hospital care unit (after about 3 days). She'll then need to stay in the ward for another 5 days or so until we can take her home. During the surgery we will be waiting in one of the many gorgeous waiting rooms they have in the children's hospital.

kitchen/lounge

We have a cardiology case manager giving us updates throughout the surgery and our first update should be around 9am. Mark has taken the week off and Granny Sharon is coming to stay Saturday to Saturday to help out. One of us will be staying with Cecilia around the clock in the private rooms they'll have for us. We even get our own bathroom- and then one with a shower when we move to to ward! It's gonna be like a fancy vacation! There will be scrap-booking on wednesday and there is a gym anytime we'd like to pump some iron and like I said the bottomless room service for myself. So after all of this Cecilia is going to have a super rad heart, Mark is going to be buff, Momma's gonna scrap book some Cecilia pages and I'm gonna get fatter on mac n cheese! Here we go!

And here are a ton of pictures for your eyes to glaze over to! Prost!

4th of july partying with Meredith

red white and blue! go 'merica!

one of cecilia's BIGGEST fans! Lucia is such a good girl
listening to her mom Laura and not licking C from head to toe!

game night at Mike and Amy's means Cecilia goes into sleep mode, nice 

uncle eric and aunt maja feeding and doting- she will never get enough

what cecilia will look like in a few years- just like her mum :)

beach time at the Sandy River-  

sun, 1 hour dog play, 1 mile hike to river, 1 brew= nap time for everyone except me! 

sandy river crew: benny, trish, mario, murphy, cecilia, sara (not pictured) and sam is somewhere...

mark said this is just like being pregnant
then i punched him 

i didn't really punch him- too cute

jane burping (choking??) little cecilia mae

doing a jig, a jig i am doing

baby trance activated with keith

lunch with trish! there was a fan behind cm making her hair go even wilder!!!

nappin in a beer box....

nooooooooo i'm in a beer box!!!!!

took a trip to mark's work- as you can see cecilia has just a few admirers :)

blanca with the little lady- we didn't make it out of her pj's yet... heh heh bad mom

martha has given little cecilia so many gorgeous adorable digs- super stylish!

more and more admiration

aimee in the baby trance

alex knows what he's doing- cecilia is kinda chewing on his arm :)

kristina got in a visit before heading out into the wilderness- yay!

cook outs and sleepy baby=nice

sarah photo bomb!

brad biked all the way out to meet the little lady and she slept up until he was ready to go!

tara cuddling after a hard day's work out in the field

buddies quinn and elise snuggling cecilia with mei mei watching over all

got a new tub! fits in the sink so no more bending over the bath tub! 

clean and smelling like lavendar

prepping for cecilia's first day getting baby sat by kate!

babysitting updates from kate were rad :)

cecilia tried out sunday's nursery- it passes with flying colors (she is passed out)

pool time!

they heat the water to something like 85 degrees
so it is just like a big tub- still refreshing tho!

swimming takes a lot out of you

so happy to run into angela! i didn't get a pic with her
when we were in the nicu before we left so it was a treat to see her!

trish hanging with us during our pre-admission visit-
met a good ole friend while c was getting weighed 

precious precious cecilia days