Long Awaited Update

Over the last month, I’ve admittedly been terrible about posting updates.  This is partly due to the fact that we’ve had no new information and partly a testament to my self-induced busyness in trying to get other things accomplished.

My first obsession after our appointments in January became making a new bed/bedroom for Jessica.  I wanted to give her something really special in light of the upcoming baby (here’s our peace offering for kicking you out of your bed/bedroom and making you share our attention with you beautiful baby sister who will need a lot of attention).  Well, doctor nixed this idea at her 18 month appointment in February.  He said if it were him, he’d keep her in a crib as long as possible…especially considering she’s not climbing out of it just yet.  So, cool castle bunk bed was put on hold.

My next obsession has been getting our household organized.  Yes, this inspiration came from Pinterest.  I decided that if we were going to be having another child, especially one with lots of needs and doctor appointments, etc, that we needed to be more plan-full about our schedule and making sure important information is accessible.  So, I set out to create a family command center.  My family binder is done (complete with meal plans, grocery lists, budget details, etc).  I’m still work on the large calendar and mail slot area on the wall, but I’ve made a lot of progress so far in getting us organized.

My third and current obsession has recently become updating our far-outdated website for our photography business.  It was in sad need of repair and we just haven’t had the time or motivation.  While we still don’t have the time, we got our motivation in the way of the fact that our current web server is more than likely not going to be available long term.  So, we set out to redesign the site using another server.  Motivation also came in the fact that we’re coming up on ‘Senior and Wedding’ season and really needed to get organized prior to that because we’ll be even less apt to be on top of everything once Alayna arrives.

So, between my obsessions and a really busy work schedule, it’s been a crazy month.  But, we are back to reality now.  We had another fetal echo yesterday to look at Alayna’s heart.  The cardiologist, whom we love, did NOT see a VSD (hole between the chambers of her heart).  This was really great news.  He also said that her pulmonary artery appeared unblocked and working well (this is a common problem with CCTGA)…so more great news.  Right now he said he is not seeing any other defect beside the fact that her heart is still completely ‘backwards’ in terms of ventricles and arteries.  While this isn’t a final diagnosis (she could still have other problems we can’t see yet), it is really encouraging news.

What’s next?  To our surprise, we were told that we’d becoming back WEEKLY for ultrasounds to check on her heart, make sure there is no fluid buildup where it shouldn’t be, make sure her heartrate stays strong, etc.  They are basically going to be looking for signs of heart failure on a constant basis because if something does begin to go wrong, they may make the decision to deliver her early so they can fix it and give her the best shot possible.  Still, the hope and intent is that she’ll stay put and healthy until her due date.  They said, again, that delivering at Spectrum is totally fine, that Alayna will be in the neonatal unit as a precaution, and that I more than likely will not be induced or have a c-section.  All things that we’re 100% happy with.

Last, I love questions.  If you have any – please don’t hesitate to ask.  The more I talk about what’s going on and what to expect, the more real it becomes to me.  I also love getting questions because sometimes people ask things that I hadn’t even thought of asking…I am, after all, very new to this whole ‘heart mom’ scene.