"I got all night to listen to the heart of a girl"

September 22, 2013

5 months 20 days

Many have been asking and we finally have an official surgery date....

Wednesday September 25 at 8:00am

3 days. Only 3 days until I experience the scariest day of my life. 3 days until our hearts stop beating for 4-5 hours. 3 days until everything changes. 

We know this surgery will ultimately be an answer to the prayer to fix our baby's heart. That once this is over she will be hungry, gain weight, breathe easy. But how are you not nervous? How do you not "worry"? Knowing everythig will be fine, until she is back in our arms Wednesday afternoon, I will be human, and I will feel scared.  

Friday we got a taste of what is to come. Brynn had a sedated echo-cardiogram. First, she had an EKG, which looks a lot scarier than it actually is.

This is her 3rd EKG. An EKG checks for problems with the electrical activity of your heart. They hook up these wires to little stickers on her chest and belly and read the electrical activity of her heart which comes out looking like a polygraph test:

  

Doesn't mean much to us, but it does to the doc's.

Now, we knew Brynn was being sedated for her echo (ultrasound of her heart). However, we did not know until 7:30 on Thursday night that she could not eat after midnight. BIG problem. Brynn takes most of her food overnight through her tube. Needless to say I turned into angry mama bear....and it only got worse as the day went on....

She was scheduled for a 3pm sedation, and did not go into the OR until 4:45. UGGGHHHH. She was starving and tired. As apologetic as they were, I was furious. 

Here she is in a tiny gown

They hooked her up to an IV while she was still awake (NOT ideal, but Brynn barely made a peep) because she was so dehydrated and in need of fluid.

 The IV is in her tiny foot :(  Thank goodness she has great veins.

Sucking on daddy's finger so furiously we thought she'd take his skin off. Poor girl.

We waited and hour and a half without our baby.  When they called our names we jumped up and ran to the recovery room. She was starving and raspy. She sucked down 4 ounces of Pedialyte in no time....then threw it up. However, it was so exciting to see her hungry and eating so much.

Of course she is home and doing awesome, but we were not prepared for a 7 hour day at the hospital. I know it's nothing compared to what Wednesday will be like, but we got a small taste.

On a happy note, she got to pick apples with daddy yesterday!  

 We will cherish these next few days with our happy scarless baby. Please feel free to ask any questions about Brynn or the surgery :)

 Peace, love, and blow kisses

~Brynn Laree~

"  I got all night to listen to the heart of a girl"

'Heart of a Girl' The Killers