FROM 30 MIN.OLD TO THE FIRST HEART SUGERY

THE FIRST TIME I GOT TO HOLD ABBIE SHE WAS RIGHT AT 24 HRS. OLD. SHE WAS SO TINY AND I DID NOT WANT TO EVER LET GO OF HER!

WATHING LEE HOLD ABBIE WAS SO AWSOME. SHE DID LOOK SO MUCH SMALLER IN HIS ARMS.

KAYLEE GOT TO GO IN THE NICU TO SEE ABBIE THE DAY AFTER SHE WAS BORN. SHE LOVED VISITING HER. THE NURSES EVEN LET HER TAKE ABBIE'S TEMP!!!

TY ALSO GOT TO VIST ABBIE IN THE NICU THE DAY AFTER SHE WAS BORN. HE WAS ALITTLE MORE NERVOUS BUT HE STILL WANTED TO GO VISIT EVERY 7 DAYS. THAT IS ALL THEY WOULD LET CHILDREN UNDER 15 GO IN.

ABBIE WAS HOOKED UP TO SO MANY WIRES IT WAS UNREAL. THE MAIN THING SHE DID WAS BREATH ON HER OWN. THIS WAS SUCH A BLESSING!

Abbie was taken to the NICU about 30 min. after birth. Lee followed her and got to talk to the Doctors first. He came back to my room about an hour after they took her and let me know she was breathing on her own and looked OK for now. They told me as soon as I could go pee I could go down to see her. You better believe I was in that bathroom right away and headed down to the NICU. She was so helpless! I could not even hold her for the first 24 hrs.

They sent her blood work off to the lab right away but, said it would be 12 to 14 days before we had the results. We had to saver each moment because we did not know if we would have another. This is something I have not taken for granted with any of my children since abbie's birth. There is no garantee we or any one we love have another moment of life at any time.

The cadiologist visited a few times in the first few days. They decided that Abbie would need heart surgery right away if she were going to make it. She had something called Aortic coartation. This meant that her blood flow to her lungs and body was closed off. Every one is born with a hole in their that closes in about 48 hrs. Abbie's never closed because GOD knows what he is doing! If her's had closed on its own Abbie would have died in less than 12 hrs. The surgery they would do would close the hole and open the arch. They wanted us to think about this because if she had trisomy 18 then she would not live even if they did the surgery. We did not care what the blood work was going to say we wanted Abbie to have every fighting chance possible.

So, at eight days old, 3 lbs. 14 ozs. we went to the OR. This was one of the scariest days of my life. Talk about sress! They took us up to the PICU waiting room because all babies from the NICU go to PICU after heart surgery for the cardiologist to be watching over them. Then when the cardiologist is happy they send them back to the NICU for the neonatologist to be in charge until they go home. They were thinking that Abbie would be in the PICU for around 4 days before they sent her back to the NICU. They told us a nurse would keep us updated through out the surgery. The nurse was good. She came in and let us know that things were going well a couple of different times. The Dr., who is the most awsome cardiothurasic surgeon in the world, finaly came in the waiting room to tell us our baby girl was almost ready to see us. He said she did great!.............