Rockin

The amazing Stella continues to blow us all away. When we first learned about her heart condition and met with her cardiologist, I remember asking how long we would be in the hospital after each surgery. Dr. Lee was very honest with us (and continues to be!) and told us to expect anything from 4-8 weeks, but realistically to plan on 6-8 weeks. She mentioned that occasionally a child will soar through recovery and leave in 4, but that is not the norm. WELL. Stella is not the norm. Her doctors are talking about discharging her this week! (She turns three weeks old tomorrow - but who's counting :))

This little girl is such a champ. She is rarely fussy and only takes Tylenol 1-2 times a day for discomfort. She doesn't even have her stitches out from open heart surgery and only needs Tylenol?! I'm telling you, she is a rock star. Stella continues to do well feeding through her NG Tube and we are working on upping her volume and shortening the time it takes for her to eat. Right now she can handle about 2 ounces over the course of an hour - which may sound small but you should see what it has done to plump up her cheeks!

We have a busy few days here checking off a laundry list of items required to take her home. Momma has learned how to place her NG tube in her nose (which was probably more traumatic for me than Stella) and we attend infant CPR tomorrow. She will go for follow up CTs and echos today, and then begin the "normal" routine of checking out as a newborn (hearing tests, car seat tests, etc). After that, we'll begin to discuss home monitoring and schedule her follow up appointments both here and at our house to keep her healthy and thriving. 

Our biggest hurdle remains oral feeds. Girlfriend has yet to swallow a lick of milk. She doesn't seem to have an aversion to us trying to feed her - just doesn't really get it yet. The speech therapists will run a swallow study on her this week to make sure her vocal chords weren't damaged during surgery and we can work from there (although in order to complete a swallow study, she actually will need to swallow - so there's that!)

All in all, we just feel so grateful. Stella has exceeded everyone's expectations after her first surgery and we praise God for answering our prayers. It is hard to believe she is still a very sick little girl - she looks and acts so healthy. We live in fear of her getting a fever or infection. I'm terrified to take her home, out of the bubble of nurses and monitors that tell us she is doing fine. I know its nothing short of God's divine intervening on her behalf that we are even talking about leaving the hospital this week ... and I pray he will continue to keep her on this stellar trajectory at home.

Some weekend pics - she is so alert and happy all the time. We are just obsessed with this doll baby!