I can't believe it's mid-May already. It seems like April flew by in a flurry of birthday parties and doctor appointments. During the last three weeks of the month we celebrated three birthdays. Ava and Maxwell turned two and Grammy turned 2+2+2+2+2...all the way up to 68! As a result Sienna thinks every day is someones birthday (actually, I guess she's right). She doesn't understand the concept that one's birthday happens only once a year. Every time we're packing up to leave the house (usually for yet another showing...in the midst of everything we're trying to sell the house...hence the radio silence on my end...who can blog when all you're doing is cleaning the house) Sienna yells excitedly, "I ready to go to Maxwell's birthday party!". Maxwell is Sienna's best friend at daycare. Apparently his construction-themed party made an impression on her. (and I have to admit, it was good. Claudette, his mommy, completed the look with yellow caution tape strewn everywhere, a huge tub filled with Chex cereal and digger trucks, all while the flat screen TV aired video of buildings being demolished). Oh, to jump in the mind of a two year old where it's a birthday party every day of the week.
Meanwhile, Luna is doing fantastic. Monday she had her two month check-up. Dr. Goodnews entered the room once again donning a mask and gloves and got right to work weighing her and listening to her heart and lungs. Luna weighs 11.2 and is 22 inches long. She's just over the 50% percentile for weight...which I must stress with these heart babies is ah-mazing! She eats all the time, so I was almost expecting it. And frankly I think I would have been a little miffed it she was anything under (it's a lot of work being the sole source of nutrition for an 11 pound human!). She's at 25% percentile for length...but hey, she was only 19 inches at birth, so I think 3 solid inches is great progress. Meanwhile, Mama dropped a quick 30 lbs. I guess there is a bright side to not being able to eat dairy. Now, if I didn't have to go and gain 50lbs I might actually fit into my old clothing. Oh well, all those Friendly's frappes during my pregnancy did the trick in fattening Luna up for birth-which was more than worth it.
Tuesday I took Luna to see her cardiologist. There she endured an echo cardiogram so her doctors could see how well the balloon cath worked. Well, guess what? The balloon cath worked it's magic! Her pulmonary artery is substantially larger-not so narrowed as it was. Her lung scan performed the morning after her balloon cath (now a month ago)was pretty much the same as it was before the procedure. Her left lung is working at about 30% and her right lung is at 70%. This alarmed me at first. But then Dr. Brown explained that most folks don't walk around with 50/50 lung 'power'. Most of us are lopsided and favor one lung over the other. So if we all went and had lung scans we most likely would read 45/55, 40/60, that type of thing. After Luna's lung scan I have to admit, I was imagining the worse. Could she live with just one lung and a single ventricle? Dark thoughts raced through my mind. But we needn't even go that far. Luna did well. The cath did what it was supposed to. And aside from her mild colic (evening time is not...quiet...lots of crying in this household) she is doing amazingly. She is such a happy baby. And peaceful.
From here we have a solid plan. In two weeks she'll go back to her NH card for a follow-up visit. Then in mid-June she goes into Boston for a sedated echo. This isn't as serious as it sounds. The sedated thing is because it's not easy to get an infant to sit still without wailing while a probe is pressed against her chest for over an hour. Then...the biggie...mid-July is when she'll go in for her Glenn operation. That will be her 2nd of three open heart surgeries. July will be a big month. Paul and I both turn 35 years old (I think that's sort of a big birthday, don't you? I remember as a kid when friend's mothers were 35 and it seemed, well, not old, but certainly very adult). And if all goes well with the sale of our home, we'll be moving. So, just a wee much on our plate. But we'll manage. And how nice will it be to be settled in our new home with the Glenn behind us.
