Today was a better day.  Finley slept very soundly all night and woke up in a great mood and seemingly was back to her self.  As the day went on though, Finley became increasingly fussy and was pretty sleepy on and off today.  She went to bed relatively early and has been sleeping quite well.  Our hope is that this is a normal part of the recovery process.  Since it's not like her though, its hard not to worry.  Tomorrow she goes for her cardiac surgery follow up appointment, she will be fitted for the holter monitor that she has to wear for 24 hours (she had a couple irregular heartbeats while she was in the hospital) and she is going to have a voiding cystourethragram (VCUG - I am sure I spelled that wrong).  The VCUG should confirm whether or not she in fact has kidney reflux which could have been the cause of her UTI.  I guess the VCUG is standard protocol for any child under 1 who gets a UTI.

Overall, we did enjoy the weekend and the weather and got a lot of great pictures.  This first one below is one of my new favorites....

For being three weeks post surgery - doesn't that incision look amazing?

Nate's "porta potty" or as he calls it "potty trainer" in action.  Here he is in the den.

Today, Finley and I spent the day today in the ER at Childrens.  She woke this morning around 4 am and was fussy, sweating profusely and breathing pretty heavy.  All things that are not normal for her.  She was pretty inconsolable and so I decided to run out to Jewel to get some Motrin (I had to throw ALL of my Motrin and Tylenol away because of the recall).  I called the cardiology fellow that was on call on my way to find out the correct dose to give Finley.  She was concerned, and told me that if the Motrin didn't make her 100% better, to bring her to the ER - that they didn't want to take any chances.  After the Motrin, Finley seemed better - for about 20  minutes.  Then she started crying again, and wouldn't stop, and so we packed up and headed to the ER.  She fell asleep on the way there and of course, when we got in to the ER - she was all smiles!

She did great while we were there - they drew blood, took cultures (blood and urine), did a chest xray, echo and EKG.  All of her labs came back normal, although they did show she was slightly dehydrated so her cardiologist (who happened to be on duty today) stopped one of her doses of Lasix (diuretic) and her Aldactone.  Finley was sleeping when the technician came in to do her echo, and so while she was only supposed to do a limited echo, she ended up doing a more extensive one since Finley was so cooperative and since Finley had a fit during her echo before they she left the hospital and they were unable to finish it.  Her echo showed that she has a lot of pressure (90%) around her pulmonary valve.  Based on what I could gather, it sounded like the valve might still be too narrow (although some extra pressure is common post surgery).  So what does this mean?  Well - it could mean that Finley may need another surgery to correct it - either a catheterization or perhaps another open heart procedure.  Both of which we don't even want think about entertaining.  The other option is to wait a bit to see if the pressure begins to subside.  Our cardiologist, Dr. Lay, is going to talk to Finley's surgeons on Tuesday to see how they want to proceed.  Obviously we are very nervous about this.  Dr. Lay said though since Finley seemed to be fine otherwise, there was no need for her to stay at the hospital until she had a chance to talk to Dr. Backer and Dr. Russell - her oxygen saturations were good while we were there (100%!) and she was in a pretty good mood.  Dr. Lay said the fussiness could have been because of the extra pressure or she just might not be feeling good.  Since her labs and everything else looked good - we went home.

Since we've been home, Finley has been very sleepy.  She had a two hour nap and when she woke, she vomited a little and had some diarrhea.  I am hoping perhaps that she has a little bug that is just working its way out.  The thing about having a special needs child though is that the little bugs - that suck regardless of "special needs" or not - are a WHOLE lot more nerve wracking in this situation.  Its funny though because we do tend to automatically go to the worst case scenario when something happens because every issue we have tends to be so complex.  That is why we were so happy when Finley's post surgery infection 'only' turned out to be a UTI.  And so I guess we wait.

In the meantime, mommy is going to have a glass (maybe two) of wine because my run didn't manage to help me unwind.  Please keep Finley in your prayers.

Memorial Day weekend means the unofficial start of summer!  Where has the year gone?  I was just thinking yesterday that this time last year I was pregnant.  Ah what a whirlwind its been!

Its been a day since our last post - I've just really been enjoying my time with my little girl!  And, I am not the only one! We are all hugging all over Miss Finley - I am sure she thinks we are all crazy.

There have been so many things over the last couple of days that have me smiling.  Here are a few (in no particular order).

1) My peonies.  I always forget about these every year - for some reason the man who lived here before us planted them on the side of the house - so I rarely see them (yes, I know - we can transplant them -I don't exactly have a green thumb) - this year I remembered to clip a couple after they bloomed.  Nate is however afraid that they have ants on them and he won't go near them!

2) I love that Nate considers his underwear his wardrobe - he usually wears nothing else around the house and he fibs and says "these are wet.  I had an accident" so that he can pick a new pair.  We also have a morning ritual where he sits on his bed with ALL of his underwear and chooses the lucky pair for the day.  Then he chooses a couple of back ups "in case he has an accident".  These usually become the alternate pairs he switches in to throughout the day.

3) The potty chair. Nate takes the words "porta potty" to a new level.  He carries his potty chair all around the houses with him so that he can sit on it and go to the bathroom yet continue doing what he's doing.  I am sure some of you think its a bad idea for us to let him do this - we figure its one of those battles we choose not to fight.

4) A good bra.  I bought a new bra yesterday - a non-nursing bra - I am SO sick of nursing bras (although I am still pumping).  Its amazing what a new bra (non-nursing) can do for a girl (sorry - may be TMI for some : o )

5) The weather.  I don't really need to say much about this but I couldn't have ordered better weather than we've had this week.  Mother Nature had a special coming home present for Finley : o )

6) Big brother love.  This kid loves his baby sister so much and is so happy to have her home.  Nate has had a little spring in his step since Finley has been home and takes every chance he can get to be with her.  He loves to be helpful - give her toys, cover her up when she's laying down, get her some "majamas" you name it, he's all over it.
8) My cleaning ladies.  Boy was I happy to see these guys this morning.

9) S'mores.  We have a date with our fire pit this weekend!  Graham crackers, Hershey bars and marshmallows (burnt please!) here I come!

10) Finley's "Miss America" wave.  Finley does this thing with her hands that makes us smile every time.  Typically she holds her paci in one and and rotates her wrist around in circle so as to spin it if you will.  The reason we love this though is because she holds her other hand in the air at the same time and simultaneously spins the other hand.  She does this with other things too - sometimes she simply gets so excited and holds both hands out front and open and closes her hands and spins them and really works it out.  We LOVE this.  We call this her Miss America Wave.



Wishing all of you a wonderful, Happy Memorial Day weekend!

Seriously - how cute is this girl?

Finally!  Exactly two weeks post surgery, Finley came home yesterday.  And for the first time in two weeks, our house feels like home again.  Complete.  As I write this, Finley is laying on her mats on the floor rolling around screaming "AHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHH".  Or, as her nurse Jaime described it yesterday because it was the first time she heard it  - she sounds like a screeching teradactyl.   When I walked in yesterday, I could immediately tell Finley was back to herself.  And that was how we wanted her to be when she came home.  It took all day to get her discharged and when she was finally released, I really needed to go and pump but the pain and discomfort of that could wait - I wanted to run like the wind - and so we did!

Nate was thrilled when we got home and his vocabulary last night was limited to "I love you Finny.  I love you Finny".  And we all sat out back on the patio for a bit and Nate ran around the yard picking flowers for his baby sister.  It was so nice to have her home that when she finally fell asleep, I found myself going in to her room every so often to give her a kiss or just to watch her lay in her crib.  It feels SO good to have her home.