One day old...

We just got back from visiting our sweet girl. In the middle of the night she had a pic line put in. She did great with that. She is still very uncomfortable, but she is stable. They are not feeding her. She won't receive anything until after the surgery, probably Saturday. They are planning on doing surgery tomorrow. She is third in line for the cath lab and since it is a 3 to 4 hour procedure, she will probably be taken back early afternoon. She still won't open her eyes. The only time she has had her eyes open is when she first came out before she was given the drug she is on. Fortunately, the wonderful nurses took about 20 pictures of her for us right when she came out before she was placed on the drug, since we weren't able to. Right now she just lays there all day, shaking, with her eyes as closed as she can get them. The nurse says newborns are usually pretty alert and keep their eyes open, but feels like she just wants this whole situation to go away and wants to pretend like none of it is there. It is really hard to watch a tiny baby suffer like she is. As you watch her she'll curl up her whole body and her face shows the discomfort that she is in. While we were there the nurse was focused on getting her as comfortable as she could since she has to go through another 24 hours of this. They have a little blanket that they are keeping her in that is keeping her legs curled up to make her feel like she is still in the womb. She looks more comfortable this way. She gave her something that, between her dad holding her and the medication, made her very comfy. I was able to get a few pictures of her without her eyebrows furrowed and down.

I took a picture of the back of her head so you can see just how much dark hair she has.

We left her to rest and we are going to get some rest for a bit. We will update more later.

NICU and the "plan"

I can't believe we have been at this for only a little only 24 hours. So much has happened. Just a few minutes ago Jeff and I went over to the NICU and had the chance to hold our baby girl for the first time. It was so nice to be able to cuddle and comfort her. The drug that she is on is not kind to her poor little body. You can tell by her face in the pictures, she just can't get comfortable. We can rub her face, but if you rub her body it really upsets her. When she gets upset she turns purple. She just wants to be held tight and she stays content. I had a hard time leaving her and putting her down. I really just want to hold her. It has been a little awkward going nine months carrying this little baby and then delivering her, but to lay in our empty room without a little baby by us. We recently spoke with one of the cardiologists who gave us the "plan." They spent several hours doing an echo on her heart this morning and have decided that Friday afternoon they are going to take her to the cath lab and attempt a procedure that they will enter a line through her leg and up through her heart. First they will burn a whole through the pulmonary valve, which is fused shut, and then they will enter a balloon that they will expand. Besides and absolute miracle, this is the best thing that we could have hoped for. If it works I believe we could have her home by Christmas. They would need to get her stable, off of the drug that she is on and teach her how to eat/swallow before she could leave. If it didn't work they would have to go with the original plan of doing open heart and inserting a shut and her stay would be quite a bit longer. I feel guilty asking Heavenly Father for more that what he has already given us, but tonight my dad and Jeff will give her a blessing and we are pleading with Heavenly Father to bless this little baby that she will be ok. We believe that all will be ok, but ask for prayers on her behalf. She is already going through so much as she fights this mean, but lifesaving drug they have put her on. She is also going to be having a pic line put in soon as they need another reliable spot to give her her medications. We are grateful for the calls and emails expressing your love and concern. We will keep you updated.

Transporting to Primary Children's Hospital

Around 9:00 am the Life Flight team brought Gracelyn over to see us before taking her to Primary's. They put her in a little incubator on top of a regular gurney. The two men that took her down were wonderful. They explained everything to us and then gave us the chance to touch her. They also let us follow her over to Primary's. They said she was doing great.

6 pounds 11 ounces and 19.5 inches long

At 4:10 this morning our little Gracelyn decided to come to our family. She is BEAUTIFUL! She was6 pounds 11 ounces and 19.5 inches long. She has a lot of dark brown hair. We had an amazing delivery.

Everything went as planned, we had one little bump in the road where the contractions were too strong

and close together and the had to administer some drugs to slow them down because her heart rate was

dropping. They gave it two hours and everything was ready to go. I feel very blessed. I was told that

many women would wish they could have such an easy delivery. Jeff was right there as she came out

and was able to cut the umbilical cord. They took her from us very quickly and it took about and hour

and a half to get her stable, but she is doing GREAT! She has several IV lines, some going through her

umbilical cord and some in her arms. She has been breathing room air since she was born. She is stable

enough that she didn't need to be intubated nor is she using oxygen. I am feeling GREAT and was able to

go and see her in the NICU 2 hours after she was born. Right now we are waiting for them to get clearance

to take her over to Primary's. They told us we would be able to walk over with her when she goes. We

appreciate all the love and prayers and ask that the prayers continue on her behalf as they study her heart

to see what needs to be done. We love you all!

Gracelyn is on her way...

We finally made it. We have been down at the University Hospital since 3:00. They admitted us pretty quick after we got here. I made it to the "magical number" of being dilated to a four which meant we were here to stay. I have been so impressed with the staff here. They all have been wonderful. The doctor that I wanted to deliver happens to be the doctor that is working until morning. My dad and husband just gave me a beautiful priesthood blessing. I feel so comforted all will be fine. The nurses just left and gave us only an hour or two until we get to meet her. We hope to post pictures soon.

Lots of contractions and Saturday night scare...

As I mentioned in the previous post, things started to progress after being checked last Wednesday. Thursday was ok, but Friday was really bad. I was having bad contractions and often. I got up early and got ready to head down to the hospital. I was a little hesitant since I really needed to spend the day getting ready for our church Christmas party, which I was over and had 300 coming to Saturday morning. Finally, they slowed down enough that I thought I was ok. I made it through the day and even the night. In fact, I had the best night sleep in a long time. I am used to getting up 4 or 5 times and instead didn't wake up at all. I figured I was exhausted from running around all day. I got up and headed to the church and began to realize that I didn't have any contractions during the night nor had she moved any to keep me awake. She continued that way for hours. During the party I tried to drink orange juice and then sit for a bit to see if I couldn't get her to move. No luck. I head home a few hours later and tried to slow down and see if she wouldn't begin moving. We took a couple hour nap and when we woke up still nothing, no movement, no contractions. I spent the next hour eating junk and pushing her around and finally began to panic. Jeff and I took Mr. C to my parents and headed to the hospital just to be safe. Before we got out of the car Jeff said a prayer that she would continue to be OK and grow strong if it be Heavenly Father's will. Before he ended the prayer I had a little foot kick me in my side. I felt some what relieved. When we got into labor and delivery I was changing and Jeff watched my original mid-wife, Machel, who helped deliver Mr. C and saw me up until they discovered the heart problem, walk into another room. As I was getting situated Jeff told me she was there. I couldn't have been happier! She is the only person I would have wanted there to help figure things out. I asked him to find her. While he was out of the room looking for her the nurse began to put the monitors on my belly. She put it on searching for a heart beat. She searched and searched and searched. The baby has been in the same position for weeks. Since I have the weekly non-stress test done I showed her where she had been and still nothing. The nurse got an awful look on her face and I began to cry. About 30 seconds into searching she looked down...IT WASN'T PLUGGED IN! Seriously...did that really happen? Why would you even unplug those things? I felt so bad for her that I began to laugh so that she would feel better. She found a good strong heart beat, she began moving like crazy and the contractions were back. Machel came in and decided to check me. She looked at me and smiled and said that I was dilated to a 3, effaced to 85% and should have a baby real soon. They sent me home and told us to head to Salt Lake once the contractions became consistent. It is Sunday evening and we are still at home waiting. According to Mr. C, who has been right about everything else, told us 3 days ago that it will be in 4 days. We'll see! My mom helped me put things into perspective when I got to her house and she hugged me and said that we will deal with her sick heart, just as long as we still have her. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father that all is okay.

6 Pounds 2 Ounces...

We had our weekly visit to the doctor on Wednesday. As with every other visit things changed some. We started with our non-stress test...perfect. Good contractions, good heart rate. Then we had our prenatal checkup. I was hoping I would be told I was dilated to a 5 and we needed to get down to the hospital, no such luck. In fact, not much happening on that side (well at least there wasn't until I was checked). Then we had an ultrasound on Gracelyn. She has grown to be 6 pounds 2 ounces. I couldn't be happier. Back in August I was nervous we would make it anywhere close to being that big. She only falls in the 22% for her size, but the doctor told me I just have small babies. Fine by me. Next to her heart, all of her other organs looked great. Everything measured consistent, only at 36 weeks and a couple days, but consistent. She then listened to her heart. It sounded perfect! She told us that you would never know that this baby was sick. Then she started looking at her heart. We haven't seen her heart in several weeks, so I wasn't sure what we were going to see since it changed every other time. I don't know if my eyes were poking out of my head, or if my jaw was on the ground, but as the sonographer stared at her heart she turned to me and said, "her pulmonary artery didn't look like that last time, did it?" No it didn't. I couldn't believe what I was looking at. I'm not a doctor, but I have studied enough and stared at her echos enough to know that her PA was large and full of blood (good thing). It had grown some last time we looked at her and this time it was even bigger. I was so happy! We were also able to see her pulmonary valve which was originally said to be missing, but now that we could see her artery was in good condition, it made it evident that the valve was what wasn't working at all. Leaving the right ventricle still without any blood. I was very grateful for her improvement, but as the day went on I began realizing that we had probably just ruled out the easiest procedure that we had as an option. It was a bittersweet day. My next appointment is Wednesday. I will update then, if not before with pictures of a new baby in our arms. Wishful thinking!