Road Trip!

Quick Update:  Surgery is Thursday, July 12.  Her surgery date could be changed if an emergency case comes in between now and then.


Well we had a successful road trip to UVA!  We traveled on Thursday (7/5) by medical transport (ie ambulance) from St. Mary's Hospital in Richmond, VA to the University of Virginia Children's Hospital in Charlottesville, VA.  It was an uneventful trip which is a good thing.  Caroline was put into an incubator for the transport.  We didn't know how she would handle it but she slept the whole time!  I sat up front with the driver and Phil drove our car.

funny face and funny hair

Ready to go!
Don't I look cute in my UVA dress?

Thank you transport team!

All buckled up in the incubator.

Hi Mommy!  I'm all warm and happy :)

Into the ambulance we go!

We made it to UVA!

It was a bit of a rough transition once we got here.  We were used to our WONDERFUL doctors and nurses at St. Mary's.  St. Mary's is A LOT smaller than UVA.  It felt like family there and now we feel a bit lost in the largeness.  We had a few issues with her bed not being ready, taking over an hour to get her formula, and not being able to find a pump for her night feed (they eventually found one).  Then yesterday she spit-up four times, poop shot out the side of her diaper and got on her clothes multiple times, and oh yeah my car broke down while I was out getting us dinner.  When the car wouldn't start I just sat there on the verge of tears talking to myself and saying seriously God?  Now my car? 


Today was a much better day.  We are feeling more comfortable here and getting used to our new routine.  We were also able to get my car to start and get a new battery.  Thank goodness!    


One of the biggest differences between here and St. Mary's is that we now have a roommate.  They only put "clean" babies in the same rooms so we shouldn't have to worry about Caroline catching something from him.    He is very cute and seems to be a few months older than Caroline. We aren't sure.  The doctors obviously aren't allowed to tell us anything about him and his parents haven't been by to see him since we got here Thursday morning.  It is kinda awkward when he cries because your instinct is to pick him up and console him or give him his pacifier but that isn't our  place to do that.  We go over and talk to him throughout the day and the nurses and staff come by and play with him or take him on walks.  


One of the cool things here is that they have educators on staff.  So Caroline has a teacher who comes by to play with her!  She is also going to have a Physical Therapist come by and play with her too.  Phil and I are looking forward to learning from her teacher and the PT.  At St. Mary's the PT and OT taught us some baby massage which Caroline loves.  Baby massage will be especially good after surgery.  

Relaxing massage from Mommy.

We like the pediatricians who have checked on Caroline and her cardiology team.  They are very caring and calm about everything.  One of the cool things is that we are included in rounds each day.  Every day our team (pediatricians, cardiologists, nurse, and various medical students, residents, and fellows) stand in a circle outside our room and discuss Caroline.  Phil, Caroline, and I join them too!  It is nice to hear them recount everything.  This is also where you see that this is a teaching hospital.  One of the new residents or fellows is in charge of reporting on Caroline so they get asked lots of questions by the more experienced members of the team.  We also contribute to the meeting by asking and answering questions.  It feels very 'Scrubs' like without the mean comments from Dr. Cox or Dr. Kelso.  


So far Caroline has had an echo cardiogram of her heart and an ultrasound of her tummy.  They wanted to have their own look at her heart as they prepare her for surgery and they did an ultrasound of her tummy to make sure there wasn't anything going on there that had been missed.  Her diagnosis of a complete A/V canal heart defect was confirmed.  The ultrasound found that there is NOTHING wrong with the rest of her organs, thank goodness!  Next week the geneticist will stop by to chat with us to make sure they aren't missing any genetic components (her genetic screening at birth said she had no abnormalities so hopefully this geneticist will say the same thing).  We will also be discussing all sorts of pre-op information.  Right now her surgery is scheduled for THURSDAY, JULY 12th.  This could change if an emergency case comes in. 

Caroline spent most of her echo looking at the screen and trying to learn from the cardiologist.
Hmmmmm maybe a career in medicine is in her future?

All in all we are happy to be one step closer to surgery.  It is nice being back at our alma mater though definitely a different experience.


Thank you to the St. Mary's staff.  They were amazing!  One of our pediatricians even called us the first night here at UVA to check on us!  We feel so blessed to have had such an amazing group of nurses and doctors taking care of Caroline there.

Mommy and Grandma Karen had a couple of great
conversations with  one of the chaplins at St. Mary's.

Two of our medical students, John and Benji.
They will actually get to see Caroline post-op too because they will  be back at UVA then.

Nurse Michelle

Nurse Jena

Nurse Rebecca
Congrats Nurse Rebecca on the birth of your daughter!

Fourth of July

My dad came and visited us before the fourth in Richmond and after the fourth in Charlottesville. It was a great surprise!  He spent the actual Fourth with some of my family in Yorktown.  My cousin Chris is in charge of the Yorktown, VA fireworks and dad always helps out.  


Phil's parents and aunt and uncle surprised us on the Fourth.  We are normally at the beach with them so they brought the beach to us!  They brought us crabs and bacon.  If you have ever been lucky enough to eat Jeanne breakfast (breakfast made by Phil's grandmother) then you know that NO ONE in the world cooks bacon like she does.  You can try all you want but it just won't be the same.  Thank you for bringing the beach to us!  It meant soooo much to us! 

yuuuuummmm

Visitors
In addition to my dad, Phil's parents, and Phil's aunt and uncle, we have also had a few friends stop by to visit!  Phil and I went out to eat with my aunt and cousin last weekend.  My college roommate Megan came all the way from England to see us! Two of my friends from college came to visit us at UVA once we got here.  It was great to see them all!  Trevor and Jackie, I forgot to take pictures of you with Caroline!  Next time :)

Caroline was smiling up a storm at Miss Megan!

While at St. Mary's we also had some of Emily's nurses stop by.  Nurse Heather and Laura (who I also forgot to take pictures of! Booo) came to say hi which was great!  They were a wonderful support while we were at the hospital with Emily.  They helped make everything perfect from our memory box to how we were going to say good-bye.  Nurse Amy was our very special nurse who took care of me and who delivered Emily also stopped by.  It was so great to see her too! My ob/gyn Dr. Tyson also came by.  It meant so much to have her come check on Caroline too.  We have been so blessed to have such amazing doctors and nurses these past couple of years!

Nurse Amy :)

Adorableness
We may be kinda biased but we think we have the most adorable baby in the world :)

I love this photo.

Best Hairdo Ever.


I can't stop laughing when I look at this picture.
How does a 14 week old have this much hair???

hahahaha

Mommy got tired of dressing me today because I pooped
and spit-up on so many things.  Thus, naked time!

Snuggling with the blankie.

Got your nose Daddy!

Phil and I are doing well as we head into the surgery.  We are just trying to enjoy every minute we have with her.  We are just truckin' along and trying to have faith.  


Please take a moment to pray for baby Gavin.  Gavin is the son of a friend from High School and he has a more involved heart defect than Caroline.  Gavin is one tough cookie and has two amazingly strong parents and an adorable older brother.  They have had a tough week and could use some extra happy thoughts and prayers.  


Love,
Megan




PS You may have noticed that her feeding tube switched nostrils.  We had to switch it on Tuesday because her cheek was getting some sores on it from the first one.  The sores are all healed now.  Hopefully after the surgery we will be all done with feeding tubes.