Our daughter was born on August 12, at 4:29pm, in Edmonton, at a whopping 8lbs. I am so proud of Leah for all she went through and didn't give up. We have named our girl Lily Marie.
She has a congenital heart disease which basically means she has a heart defect. She has TGA (Transposition of the Great Arteries) and a VSD (Ventricul Septum Defect). TGA is where the two main arteries which come into the heart from the lungs and from the body, enter the heart into the wrong ventricles. They are "Transposed" or switched. The VSD means she has a hole in the wall which separates the left ventricle from the right ventricle. We are still waiting for all the cardiologists to do their tests and analysis to decide which surgical path is going to be the best for Lily. Usually a baby with TGA requires surgery within a few days of birth, but because she has such a large VSD, the oxygenated and deoxygenated blood are mixing quite well and Lily is very stable. Also, due to a few other complications with her heart (a small Right Ventricle and others which would take to long to describe without drawing a picture) they will not be able to do the typical arterial switch to correct the TGA. We are waiting until Tuesday for more information from the Cardiologists and surgeons as to what they will recommend. It is looking like they will wait 4-6 months to do a surgery, which will then require another surgery in 2-4 years. The good news is, the nurses in the Neonatal ICU have told us that she is the most stable, and doing the best out of all the other babies in the NICU. They have also said that she is doing really well and is really stable considering her heart condition.
If you ask me, there is nothing wrong with her. Or at least it appears so on the outside. She is so beautiful and I love her so much. It is hard for me to describe how much I have instantly fell in love with my little girl. She loves her Daddy so much. Lily was born in the Royal Alexandria hospital and right after birth she had to be transported to the Edmonton Stollery Children's Hospital or the University Hospital. Leah had to stay behind to recover a bit. This allowed me to follow the ambulance and then spend some alone daddy daughter time. I was so tired, but I couldn't say goodbye to her. I was able to hold her for about two hours that night into the early hours of the morning. I don't have the pictures to show it, but I hope when she is older she will know that I hardly left her side and we had such a long bonding time just me and her. The nurses would tell me whenever I show up to visit her that she has been crying and that she has a good set of lungs on her, but I have hardly seen her cry. She just loves it when Daddy comes to hold her. You can see the look of satisfaction of being in her Daddy's arms in the picture below.
She loves mommy too, but because I am the one blogging, I get to write whatever I want. Right after she was born, she had to have a lot of needles, IV's, blood tests, ultrasounds etc, but as I watched her she just laid there looking around at the world. She has been so peaceful in my observations. She is so cute and it is just so hard for me to believe that there is anything wrong with her.
3 comments:
She is perfect Justin. Can't wait to snuggle her.
Hej, naš najljubši Kanadčan:-) Sem zelo malo na Facebooku, a sem danes slučajno videla lepo novico in povezavo na vaš spletnik-blog. Congrats to all three of you! What a cute little gift from heaven you have. Wishing you all the best and keeping you in our prayers.
shes beyond beautiful guys!
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