Sunday, March 16, 2008

What a Difference a Day Makes.






The lyrics to the old song played in my head all day as I marveled at Luna's recovery. Not yet even two full days out of open heart surgery and here she is drinking from a bottle and cooing with the best of 'em. The doctors stopped the breathing machine less than 24 hours out, but left the tubes in as a precaution because the standard quo for these babies is they need help breathing-typically for a good many days afterward.

And last night Luna was 'stepped down'-AKA booted from the cardiac ICU. I actually wasn't nervous leaving her for the night so we could get back to Miss Sienna.

Last night Paul and I got a blissful 8 hours of sleep in our own bed (when does that ever happen with a 5 day old?!) and this morning we packed the car and headed back into Boston with Sienna, Memere, Pepere, and Uncle Bill in tow. We arrived to see Luna in her new crib. Just as we entered the room the doctor began the procedure to remove her heart drain (during surgery a drain bulb is placed right underneath the heart to drain excess blood afterwards). A bit of Morphine was administered and the doctor with a nurses assistance pulled out the bulb. I'll admit, I couldn't watch. Luna wailed in pain-and the doctors will admit, it's not pleasant-but it's a 30 second procedure and even better...it is the LAST procedure for a while!! Right now my only purpose in life is to get Little Luna to eat. Once she proves she can eat successfully she's outta the hospital...it's that easy! (though I better knock wood...) Today she took an once here and there of milk, but because she was so sleepy they had to tube feed her. And I'm not going to blame her just yet...if I had just undergone open heart surgery I would be sleepy too!

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Big Sister rockin' the phones at the Ho Jo's, our home for tonight. If you're wondering the conversation went like this:

Sienna: Hi Jasmine. Are you at Daycare? Okay! Bye-bye!

5 comments:

Mommy said...

I am SO relieved and thankful to hear Luna is doing so well. What a miracle! I will continue to send you all my most positive thoughts.

Phaedra (from BBC)

Sarah said...

Luna looks great! Your Mommy looks glowing and beautiful! Glad to hear the wonderful news. Go Luna!!

Love,
Auntie Sarah

Janelle said...

That little girl is a trooper! Who says pisces can't rally when they want to? Luna's got the strength of the moon and tides behind her.

The whole Family Velandry looks like they're doing wonderful -- great to see.

Love and moon dust,
J

Intl Maman said...

Hi,

I just popped over from BBC to say how beautiful Luna is and that I am so happy she is doing so well. The pictures remind me so much of my heartbaby niece (now 6 almost 7 and doing GREAT) when she was born. I remember holding her with the feeding tube still in her nose.

She is gorgeous and so is her older sister. And frankly you look pretty darn good yourself. :o)

Thank you for letting us check on you.

Kim

Anonymous said...

yes baby girl I will be right over to share your bed for the night, you know we won't get any sleep though, too much sucking and fucking to be done