Parenthood, Day 2

It was another great day in the hospital as we were able to spend all day with the babies. Gavin spent almost the entire day in our room and so our family members were able to hold and adore him for the first time. I also changed my first diaper (and it was whopper!), and ended up changing three more; I'm a pro already. The full set of the day's photos can be seen here on Flickr.

Sharon is slowly getting up and about, and was able to eat some food today, but her incision is still very sore. Another old friend happened to be our nurse today: Laarni Medrano. It's been wonderful having familiar faces around.

Over in the NICU, Evie was also a lot of fun to be with today as she was awake and squirming all over the place. She is always sticking her tongue out too; it's so cute! She also has quite a grip! Later in the day she would be taken off of the heat lamp table and placed in a regular bassinet. She still has her umbilical cord IV's though and is still being monitored for oxygen saturation levels.

And she's still feisty! Here's a short video clip of Evie showing us exactly what she thinks of her blanket:

The best part of the day came around 9:30 PM when Sharon and I were finally able to hold her. Sharon had not seen Evie in person since shortly after she was born yesterday morning, so it was a very special reunion. I pushed Sharon to the NICU and Evie was getting her diaper changed when we arrived. She was crying a bit, but Sharon spoke to her and it seem like Evie instantly recognized that Mom was near, because she calmed, turned her head towards Sharon's voice and smiled at her.

Sharon was able to feed her a little bit, but the poor thing passed right out shortly after we started. We stayed with her for about an hour and it was a fantastic end to the day.





The best news of the day, though, was that Evie will most likely be able to come home with us on Thursday. The pericardiologist examined her again this afternoon, and was confident that she will be stable for a while. The doctor explained that Evie does not need surgery this week because her lungs are getting enough blood for the time being. Evie was born without a pulmonary artery, which delivers blood to the lungs. The procedure that was going to be performed was to insert a shunt into a blood vessel that normally closes shortly after birth, in order to keep it open and to keep blood flowing to the lungs. However, her body apparently recognized that it did not have a pulmonary artery, and so it attempted to compensate and adapt by growing several smaller arteries (called major aorto pulmonary collateral arteries, or "MAPCAs") that are branching off like a webbing from the descending aorta and supplying blood to various parts of the lungs, sort of like in the drawing to right.

Here's an x-ray image showing MAPCAs, highlighted by black arrows (although this isn't Evie's x-ray). This small article includes a short explanation and an x-ray that shows MAPCAs with no pulmonary artery, which is similar to Evie's condition.

These MAPCAs are sufficient for delivering blood flow for the time being, while Evie is an infant, but they are not large enough to sustain a growing body. And so, the first major surgical procedure she will undergo in 8-10 weeks will be a "Unifocalization," where the surgeon will remove all of the MAPCAs and attempt to use them to "build" a pulmonary artery. Before they can do this surgery though, Evie will need an angiogram (or cardiac cathoid) in order to evaluate how many MAPCAs they're dealing with and their location. A small camera at the end of a flexible tube will be inserted into her thigh, and snaked up through her arteries and heart, so that the doctors can take a look. It's only a one-day procedure, but she will need to be a bit larger though for them to be able to do this, so it will be a few weeks before the angiogram takes place. For now, we can simply enjoy her being with us at home.

You can see the full day's photo's here.