Happy birthday, sweet girl!

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So HUGE!

Charlotte finally figured out how to hold a sippy cup and drink! I know this may seem small, but she has not been able to hold a bottle and drink yet. So her being able to do this today is one small step towards her reaching milestones.

Thank you Jesus for the little things!

Big Girl

Our baby is 11 months old today!

And she really likes a corn cob.

Ten months ago today...

She Killed It

Remember when we used to have a baby girl who could barely keep down one ounce of milk? Remember when we used to measure her volume in milliliters?

She just downed this in less than 10 minutes:

BG in 60 (Okay, 61) Seconds

From today...

In Pictures

Daddy in 1960. Charlotte yesterday.

(I was able to click the picture and make it larger. Notice especially the eyebrows and the mouth...)

Carnivore

Baby Girl just ate her first chicken dinner. I made her a paté of chicken, rice and corn. She ate every bite!

Two Quotes

From Charlotte's cardiologist today:
"I cannot impress upon you enough just how well she is doing."

From Psalms 20:7:
"Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God."

What a Girl Wants

Our little Charlotte is pretty easy to please. She just needs her thumb and her blanket to be happy. I made the mistake of taking her blanket home one of the days she was in the hospital to wash the crust off of it, and she was such a stinker for her Nana and Papa the whole time I was gone. When I got back and gave her the blanket, she was a different baby.



My Grandma (GG) got her the blanket before she was born, and for a while Sam slept with it. (He had to get his big brother stink on it, you know.) But he finally gave it to her, and she has rarely been parted with it since. I got to thinking after the hospital incident that it probably wouldn't hurt to have a back-up, just in case. So I put GG on the case, and she got us another blanket for Baby Girl. Thank you, GG!
Anyway, Charlotte really is so cute with the whole thing... I'll put her in her bed and then put the blanket on her. She'll put her right thumb in her mouth, grab the blanket with her left hand and pull it up over her face. Then she'll roll over on her right side and off to sleep she goes!


In other Charlotte news, she is finally expanding her food preferences. Just today she had a scrambled egg, some angel hair pasta with cheese sauce, and peas (not all at once, of course). She has also sampled (blue) pancakes, bagels and other bread products. And she would down a whole carton of Puffs in one sitting if I would let her.


And I guess the most exciting thing she's got going on right now is that her first tooth has finally broken through! Yay! And we have already had visual confirmation on tooth number two. I'll try to get a picture once it's in better.


Charlotte has her nine month check-up tomorrow, and then we get to visit her favorite cardiologist on Thursday. So it's a busy week, but we don't mind. I am not taking for granted how nice it is to be able to take Charlotte to see her doctors, rather than having her in a hospital bed with the doctors coming in to see her.

It's been a great week here. We hope yours has been as well!

OH - I almost forgot to tell you that Charlotte is now able to chew her little baby aspirin every morning. Yay for little things that make our days easier.

Bows!

I had mentioned before that I bought Charlotte some bows at the consignment sale. I received an email from the seller today which was great because I had no idea that she had a blog. Anyway, check out these adorable flower-shaped bows! How cute are they?

I think I know a girl who'll be getting a few of these...

New video!

This video was taken in late January... I've had trouble getting videos to load on this computer.

Two pictures from today...

This morning on the way to the echo...

And 5 minutes ago at my house!

Update - Monday am

Sorry I didn't get a post up yesterday, although there wasn't much to say.

Except y'all can stop praying for poop. We have had an abundance!

Charlotte and Tim are down in the echo lab right now getting her echocardiogram. The results of this test will let the doctors now if they can send us home today.

She has had 2 chest x-rays, and both were clear. One of the things they are watching for is fluid in the lungs, and so far we are good there.

Charlotte has been sleeping well through the night, and she has been full of energy during the days. I don't think she even took a nap yesterday, which doesn't bode well for my schedule once we get home. I am totally over it, though. Her cardiologist told us to expect a new baby since she will have more energy now.

I think that's it on the Charlotte front. We have been keeping up with Baby K, and she is already doing better. She will need surgery soon, but her doctors are optimistic about the outcome. Her parents have seemed in such better spirits the past two days. And they appreciate all your prayers.

Thanks again! I'll be sure to let you know when we are heading out.

Update from the Floor

So we have logged one night on the floor. I don't know why they call it the floor, but that's where we are.

Charlotte had a great night. She slept most of the night, just waking up when the nurse came in twice to give her meds.

She has been taking a bottle fine, but her appetite is on the small side. But given what she's been through and the amount of pain meds she has been on, we aren't surprised that she's not too hungry. They are going to try taking her off the Oxycodone today. So far she is doing fine without it, and this should help her appetite and hopefully make her poop. (Too much?)

So that's the news. The child is just doing so well! She had open-heart surgery for Pete's sake! She was on bypass! And now she is sleeping peacefully in a private room with just the minimum of sensors attached to her. Her sats (oxygen levels) have been in the low 80s and her heart rate is holding steady around 130 without any medication whatsoever.

It's just all so crazy that you would think maybe her heart condition just wasn't that severe. But it WAS. So all this just points to the fact that we serve a big God who is mighty to save. He can move the mountains, and He can heal little hearts.

I would like to ask you all to pray for a family we met in the cardiac PICU waiting room. They have a five-day old baby who is awaiting surgery. They had no idea she had any heart problems when she was born in another part of NC. She had to be flown in to Duke while they drove here, unsure of what was wrong with her.

So please pray for Baby K and her sweet family.

Thank you friends.

Not too bad...

The chest tubes are out, she is eating and she is heading to her own room later today!

Charlotte is showing off and God is showing OUT!

Pic

Yesterday before surgery in her little hospital gown.

Update - 8am, Friday

Tim and I went back up to the hospital last night to see Charlotte. She was off the vent but she had the little oxygen tube in her nose. She was in that state where she was heavily medicated but still kind of awake.

She still looked good in terms of her color and all, but she was having a time with the headaches. She was pretty pitiful. We could tell that she was so exhausted but the meds weren't quite helping the headaches. (I'm sure that those of you who suffer with migraines can relate!)

The nurse and staff were so good last night - they listened to us when we told them about Charlotte's likes and dislikes, and they quickly took the O2 tube out when we told them that the tube and the tape agitated her. She calmed down lots after that.

We tried everything to soothe her, but nothing was working and we finally figured out that we were making her worse. She knew that we were in there and I think she was upset that we hadn't picked her up. So we left around 11pm.

Tim called to check in on her before we went to bed, and the nurse said she was a little calmer and that they were going to try and feed her a little pedialyte.

We are about to head back up there for the day. If you want to come and visit, just call my cell phone first. If she's still as agitated today we will probably hold off on visitors. But we will certainly be happy to visit with you in the waiting room.

Thank you all so, so much for your prayers!

Update - 7:11pm

Charlotte came out of surgery at 3pm today. Dr. Jaggers said everything went as planned and that she did great. Tim and I got to go back and see her for a minute around 5:00 and she looked pretty good, considering. She opened her eyes a little, but she is pretty much out of it. They want to keep her calm and sedated for a while. She is on the vent for now, but that should come out tonight or in the morning. Her sats were in the 80s with the vent, so we will see how they are off the vent soon.

Please keep praying for her - one of the effects of the Glenn is severe headaches for a while after. And headaches make for cranky babies. So please pray for tomorrow that her sats are high off the vent, that her headaches aren't bad and that she takes a bottle.

Thank you!

Update - 1:30pm

I just heard from the OR, and Charlotte is in bypass (a machine that does the work for her heart and lungs while they work on things). The surgeon said things look great and Charlotte is doing just fine.

That's really all I have for now. I will update later once we know something else.

Thank you for checking in and for praying!