Our Good and not so Good Christmas Eve...

We had a fun Christmas Eve Morning and Afternoon this year. As usual, we ate lunch with the Sanders family. Later we went up to my Uncle's house for our Christmas Eve tradition. Ever since I was born I remember getting together with the Hales family and celebrating Christmas Eve. I always loved squishing our HUGE family into my Grandparents house. I loved getting together with my cousins (there are five of us my age alone) and eating Grandma's orange rolls and Grandpa's carmel corn. I miss that. Now that my grandparents are gone my sweet aunt and uncle let us invade their house and enjoy a night of stories, music and just visiting with one another.

After we left my uncle's house I wasn't feeling great about how Gracelyn was doing. Her ear began to drain and we couldn't wait to get antibiotics in her until after the holiday was over and doctors would be back in. I spent the day calling around to insta cares and no one would see her because of her condition. I couldn't get a hold of my doctor to get a simple prescription. Christmas Eve evening I ended up taking her to the ER. Not wanting to be away from Cole for two years in a row I went alone and left Jeff and him home to get things ready. Thinking we would be back soon. Wrong. Gracelyn wasn't satting well and the doctors didn't like it. She was congested and screaming, she wasn't going to sat well. As long as she is above 75% she is okay. The doctor disagreed with me. He told me they don't let babies (normal babies) leave that are sating at 76% (which was her low...while screaming.) He tested her for everything. Pneumonia, RSV, influenza...nothing. I knew she had an ear infection. He told me she needed to be admitted. I told him no. I knew she was okay and didn't want to take her up and expose her to something more. He insisted. He wanted to monitor her and give her breathing treatments if her sats went below 75%. Finally at 1:00 a.m. I gave in and told him I would be leaving Christmas morning by 7:00a.m. I sat all night watching my baby sleep soundly. I even saw her hit 91% O2. I couldn't help but cry. We didn't need to be there. We needed to be at home enjoying our first real Christmas as a family. 7:30 came and we were still there. Finally I told a sympathetic nurse to get a doctor to release us and he came. Feeling bad, the doctor that came to release could only smile and tell me the ER doctor wasn't educated in her situation. He wrote me a prescription for her ear infection and wished us a Merry Christmas. We were home by 9. So frustrating. Luckily we made it home and enjoyed Christmas with our families. A few days later we saw Dr. Rose. While at him office she was at 94% O2. I was amazed. I haven't seen that number since that day she was born. Dr. Rose was happy to know that she didn't have the breathing treatments. Come to find out it can make the heart "wack out". HHMMM...the could have been an enjoyable Christmas. Luckily she behaved and we were able to spend it at home. The nice nurses brought her in lots of presents. Of course she liked the boxes they came in more. She used them for hats...or should I say "hat

Delivering Care Packages to PCMC

The morning of December 23 we had the opportunity help deliver the care packages that were assembled on Gracelyn's birthday for the heart patients at PCMC. This was the time that had been scheduled for us to bring them down. Coincidentally it was the anniversary of Gracelyn's first heart surgery. Even the exact time. It was very therapeutic to say the least. We were told we could just drop them off at the front door, but that didn't seem very fun. Jeff and I walked up to the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (this is where the children are that have just had surgery) and told them what we had. They were ecstatic. They told us to bring them up. We took a bunch of them there and we were then directed to take them to the floor where the rest of the healing and sick heart patients were at. On this floor Jeff and I and the young man whose eagle project this was, had the chance to hand them directly to the families and introduce them to Gracelyn. She is a great testimony to these parents of the sick newborns of where there baby could be in a year. She looks so healthy and strong. The father of the last child we gave a basket to began to cry. Of course so did I. I knew where he was at and I know how bad it hurts. I left feeling even more grateful. More importantly we went to PCMC and left. :) I am so grateful my family and I had the chance to be a part of something so GREAT! Thank you again Brian! We will never forget this!
After we finished delivering the packages we had lunch in the cafeteria. It just seemed fitting. This time we brought Gracelyn with us. :)