Re-Entry - Superbowl Sunday with Viv!

After a major heart surgery for Vivien, she wowed the doctors and nurses and was discharged after only 5 days last Friday.  She spent Superbowl Sunday home with us watching the game as a family.

All our little 12s!  Go Hawks!

Tomorrow (2/6/15) will bring us to the one week mark of her coming home. We were a little nervous in bringing her home, but as a nurse reminded us hospitals are full of germs and since she doesn't need all the machines and readings and is doing so well, home truly would be a safer place for her. The docs were confident that she would do well and we can say from a medical standpoint, she seems to be doing great. We have her on the pulse oximeter every night and her numbers are wonderful. We are just so incredibly grateful to God and for all of you and your support and prayers for how well she has done.

From a family standpoint, re-entry to home life was a little rough. For the first couple of days again it felt like

Helping Daddy Homeschool

there were 10 things to do at once and Vivien was a much fussier baby. She needed to be held almost continually, which was sweet, but made trying care of the house and 4 other kids pretty difficult. Being in the hospital, checked on by nurses all night and at odd hours of the day definitely disrupted her previous sleep schedule. I love scheduling because every one of my babies has been so much happier when they are getting the right amount of sleep. Vivien has been no exception. Overtired babies equal fussiness and if they get too much sleep at the wrong times during the day, they don’t sleep through the night which also equals fussiness – on the baby’s part and on our part (And I will not do long cry-it-out training times!) . ;-) We are thankful that Todd has done enough trades to have a couple weeks off, and we continue to be blessed by the Grandparents’ help.

In Vivien’s case it has been difficult too, because with her new heart – she has much more stamina (a great problem to have!) and we are relearning the amount of sleep she needs and the hours that will work for her. It feels like we are starting over with a newborn but one who has the stamina of an almost 5 month old. We are watching her cues while at the same time, trying to get her on a routine that will be helpful to her. At the beginning we were also trying to read her pain level and just remember the fact that she has had major surgery thrown in. But she has been off any pain medication for a while, even Tylenol and is doing really well. I had been suspecting that some of her fussiness has been more from tiredness than pain. Suspicions have been confirmed and she seems to be more of a happy camper after a good night’s sleep. Please continue to pray with us that we will figure out a good sleep routine.

  First Smile!!!  

The other HUGE encouragement to us was that on Superbowl Sunday after she got home from the hospital we were blessed by a beautiful responsive smile! T odd had taken the kids to church and she was sitting in her little chair. I was just enjoying a few quiet moments alone with her and had taken both of her hands in mine and put my face a few inches from hers and was talking and smiling at her. All of a sudden she perked up, looked into my eyes and gave me the most beautiful smile. She had done this once before, very briefly a couple days before surgery but only once. In this case she did it over and over, enough times for me to snap some pictures. We are so thrilled to see this and she has done it several times since. We decided it was the Seahawks gear! While we are disappointed for the Seahawks, her smile definitely softened the blow.

And about those Hawks… (indulge me with this bunny trail). This > may be how we felt after they lost, but we love the Hawks and despite the call at the end that didn't work, Pete Carroll and all of them had an amazing season. He has made a lot of risky calls that did work as this article illustrates (pardon the language). A throw by a punter that gave us a touchdown against GB? Throwing to Chris Matthews who hadn’t caught a ball all season yet caught 4 balls for 109 yards and a touchdown in the Superbowl? Yeah, I would have liked to see Lynch run the ball too, but he and all of the guys did an incredible job.  Vivien joins all of us as a little 12 and we are proud of our guys. We enjoyed watching this during halftime. Proud to be 12s and so excited that Vivien gave us her smile as a Superbowl gift. And as Russell Wilson tweeted right after the game, we are thankful for the opportunity to have seen Seattle at the superbowl, and we know that loving Jesus is most important.

Mom & Dad

Watching the Game with Grandma 

Also we are excited that after a rough few days of recovery, Vivien’s little friend Noah is doing much better. Please continue to keep him in your prayers.

Thank you again for all your meals and prayers and support. We will keep updating here and are so grateful for you!

Go Hawks!