RELIEF

8 Months

Tim and I feel so much lighter. After a winter and spring of hiding to keep everyone healthy and feeling such anxiety keeping Hannah healthy and getting her through her repair, the sun it out, the trees are full, and we have flowers lifting our moods even higher. Such a weight is lifted from our shoulders that we have moved past this huge life hurdle - open heart surgery on our 8-month old! 

My week home with Hannah was lovely. I forgot how free it is to be home with a non-mobile child on a weekday! I actually shopped. For myself! We bought flowers for the house. I treated myself multiple times to Starbucks iced lattes. 

Hannah has been doing well; Children’s adjusted her reflux meds so the Prevacid actually WORKS now. She’s on Lasix to take fluid away from her heart and Epaned to control her blood pressure. Also Tylenol to control any remaining pain. The only pain we’ve noticed is when she has hiccups! 

We cannot lift her under the arms or strain her shoulder too far back or forward for 8 weeks post surgery. We can gently hold her chest, so I cup my hand around her incision. We still practice her sitting in our laps - her core strength is getting better! My goal for her is to be sitting unassisted by 1 year old. 

Our endearing nickname for Hannah is “Hannah 2.0.” She has more energy which is great... until bedtime. Someone now has the energy to cry when she has to lay down. DOH! We’ve gone 8 months with a sleepy baby who you could lay down and walk away from. Now she protests! AND 1/2 hour after she falls asleep, she cries! AND she cries in the middle of the night now! [Yes, she’s still on Tylenol] All this energy is making someone a stinker now. Ack! And we “have” to pick her up because our instructions for home were not to let her cry too long so as to not overstress her heart during recovery - ! So now she thinks she’ll always be picked up if she cries - don’t get used to it, Sister! This Momma believes in letting babies soothe themselves!

8 months old!

I’m going to bring up the new crying to her Cardiologist because some Mothers in this situation wonder if the new crying is due to the side effects of Lasix : P

This past Saturday we went over to the Krons and Amy & the Boys were there too - even that small visit felt new and refreshing to get OUT. I hadn’t seen the Kieffers since Christmas [I still have yet to see Chris!]!! 

Mother’s Day was awesome. Two years ago I was cleansing for a Monday colonoscopy. Last year I was pregnant and actually had a feeling something wasn’t going to be the same with our baby... 

The girls “bought” me a Mitchell’s gift card, some flowers for outside and a lovely handmade card. We went to the park where I attempted to run with Hannah in the jogger - hard! Then we hit Lowes and Kroger [both crazy]. I was able to spend time outside with Nora - I sat and drank a Corona while she played in the water table. Age 3 is pretty good about not running off and having to chase : )

We grilled out. Hannah was a tired mess and grumpy all night. Though Tim and I ended our day with drinks on the deck overlooking our tree-filled yard - Cheers to moving on!