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Wait...who had surgery?!?!

Here she is!!! Does it look like she had open heart surgery a few weeks ago???

Well Madi continues to amaze us and is doing great. She has a lot more energy now that her heart is fixed and is definitely on the mend. The staph infection is gone and the incision is healing nicely. It is still open and we are continuing to change the dressing twice a day but it's closing up well and is much smaller now. It doesn't bother her at all. She is back to rolling all over the place and doing tummy time like a champ! It is amazing to see how much more stamina she has already. I still worry a little bit when she is on her tummy but she will let us know if it is too much too soon. Plus, it is impossible to keep her still!

We are very excited to get on with life now that the surgery is behind us. We have a lot of fun to look forward to and are excited for the summer! We spent last Sunday watching Daddy play in his Triple Play alumni baseball game. Triple Play is a competitive baseball team that he played on in high school and now coaches for. It was a lot of fun to watch. Daddy definitely still has it but paid for it a bit the next day. Oh the pains of getting older!!! :)

Dave and Madi had a lot of fun spending time together while I went back to work this week. The transition wasn't too bad...Madi definitely had more fun than I did! :) She loves being with Daddy and they bonded even more these last 2.5 days. I am very excited to be back home with her until next Monday!

Settling In

We are back at home now and trying to settle back in to a "normal" routine. We were released from the hospital on Sunday are are definitely glad to be back home. Madi received quite a few doses of heavy antibiotics by IV while in the hospital and is now on oral antibiotics for the next 2 weeks. We still have to change the dressing on her wound twice a day and it is definitely getting better each day. I finally looked at it a few days ago! My stomach still turns a little bit when I see it but I am getting better each time as well! :) Madi is feeling great...she is happy, looks healthy and is having lots of fun playing at home. She is very active and squirmy and doesn't seem to be in any pain or bothered by the massive amounts of gauze on her chest. She even keeps rolling over onto her tummy (which they said to try and avoid) but I can't seem to keep her from doing it unless I sit next to her all day long and basically hold her down! She is used to taking her medicine and does it for the most part without a fuss. Her antibiotics don't taste good so she does end up spitting it right back in my face every once in a while (which is how I know it tastes awful). The biggest challenge now is getting Madi back into a routine. She has been sleeping through the night for months but got pretty off schedule when we were in the hospital. She also got a little spoiled while we were there (which I think is well deserved) and now likes to be held and rocked to sleep. She has also been waking up at 2am wanting to be held and when I try to put her back in bed she just keeps waking up. So I have given in the past 3 nights (mostly out of pure exhaustion) and brought her into bed with us. Of course, she sleeps great there and literally rolls over to snuggle up as close to me as she can...I love it! I also think she deserves a little extra cuddling after all she has been through but I don't want to get in the habit of this so hopefully she will just stay asleep tonight!!! :) I am planning on going back to work next week and Dave will stay home with her the days that I work. I now work part time so I will only be away from her on Monday, Tuesday and half the day on Wednesday. I think this is going to be rough on both of us.

Dang!

Well we are back in the hospital...taking residence here at Mary Bridge. Madi woke up yesterday morning at 2am and just didn't seem right. She was super clingy all day and by the afternoon she was starting to get a fever. I looked at her incision sight and the top was starting to get a little red and was oozing...yuck. I called the cardiologist and they prescribed an antibiotic in case there was an infection. A few hours later her fever spiked to about 103 and she was absolutely miserable. I couldn't set her down...she laid on me all afternoon and basically moaned and whined. We finally made the decision to take her to the ER. The ER was packed but she was top priority and we got right back. Her surgeon met us there and immediately knew she had an infection. The solution to the infection is not pleasant! He had to sedate her and literally cut open half of her incision, drained it, and packed it with gauze. I didn't watch but Dave said the hole is pretty big (he said you could fit a golf ball in there) and you can actually see her sternum...yuck! :0 Needless to say, Dave is gong to be the one responsible for changing the dressing. I don't think I can handle seeing my baby's chest opened up. The Dr said we will be surprised how well it will heal. He said we will probably need to pack it with gauze for about 2 weeks and then it will be small enough to just put a bandaid on it. The hole needs to heal from the inside out.
They also started her on IV antibiotics. She is currently on the strongest antibiotic there is and we are waiting for the culture to come back to see what type of infection it is. We do know it is a "staph" infection but they want to see what type so they can prescribe the best antibiotic for that specific type of infection. Despite this setback Madi is doing great. She continues to absolutely amaze us. She woke up from the sedation with her chest open and she was smiling and giggling at everyone (and it was 2am). She has been a happy baby all day and only cried a little bit when they changed the dressing this morning. It is such a relief to see her feeling better. I have never seen her so miserable as she was last night. Even though we are sick of being in the hospital, we know this is where she needs to be and seeing her feel so good has made it easy to be here. So, once again we are asking for prayers...prayers for quick healing! We truly appreciate all of the love, support and prayers we have received. We feel so blessed to have such amazing family and friends.

We're HOME!

We were released from the hospital Sunday morning and are loving being home. We have been spending most of our days relaxing outside on the deck. Madi loves being outside and really had a hard time being cooped up in a tiny hospital room for 10 days! Those of you in the area know how nice the weather has been for the past few weeks...and it is nice to finally get to enjoy it. Madi is doing great. She was on a little oxygen when we first came home which proved to be a little challenging logistically. We have a HUGE oxygen tank set up downstairs and we also have a few travel tanks in a little backpack. When she was hooked up to the big tank downstairs you would hav to unhook her and use a little travel tank just to take her upstairs. She went to the cardiologist yesterday and we were able to take her off of the oxygen now...yeah! No more toting around an oxygen tank everywhere we go. They did another chest xray and echo of her heart and it all looks good. Her chest xray is actually starting to look better. She has been on prednisone since Saturday as she had some fluid build up around her heart. They put her on prednisone to get rid of that inflamation and it also seemed to have helped her lungs out...woohoo! The fluid around her heart is gone as well...so things are looking good for Miss Madi! She is in a much better mood at home and giving her medicine is not an issue at all! :) She still has a little bit of a temper that she never had before...it could be from the prednisone which they warned us may make her more irritable or it could be that she actually has more energy to get mad and cry! Her cardiologist said a crying baby is a good sign of a helathy heart and lungs. She still is pretty happy...we are down to about 1 minor meltdown a day...not bad for 2 weeks after open heart surgery. Grandpa and Nonna are still in town from Sacramento but are leaving on Saturday. :( They have been a huge help and Madi has had fun with them. She thinks Nonna is pretty funny and constantly giggles at her. She loves to play with Grandps and pull on his hair and face. We will be sad to see them go but Madi and Mommy are planning on going to Sac for July 4th so we will see them soon! I will get some more pics posted soon of our pretty girl with NO wires or tubes...I just wanted to post a quick update while I have a sleeping baby!