March 20: Open-heart Surgery

Graham's open-heart surgery is scheduled for March 20. I wrote it on my calendar and I just sat starring at it. It's really happening. My baby boy who seems so perfect has a broken heart and it is going to be fixed on March 20. We don't know a lot about the surgery yet. We meet with the surgeon next Friday. Graham has Tetralogy of Fallot and the surgery will be a "full repair" in which they will patch the VSD, the hole between his lower chambers, and expand his pulmonary valve using a patch. Graham will be away from us for about 6 hours and the actual surgery will be about 2 hours. He will be in the hospital 7-10 days if all goes well.

When we told my grandma the surgery date she said, "Well, we have a whole month to pray." Please join us in praying. I know that you will. God has been so good to us so far and I know He will see us through this. My goal between now and then is to get Graham to take a bottle well in case the doctors want him to take a bottle instead of the breast after surgery to monitor his fluid intake. I will post again soon with specific prayer requests and some ways that you can love on us during our hospital stay. I will be squeezing Graham a little tighter for the next few weeks!

Happy Valentine's Day

Graham weighed 13lbs 11oz today at the pediatrician's office when we went in for his RVS shot. We go the cardiologist on Monday. Here are a few recent pics.

Happy Valentine's Day!

 Riding big boy style in the stroller (without the carseat).

Rolling around on the play mat... so close to rolling over.

4 Months Old!

Graham is 4 months old. My how time flies! He had his 4 month doctor's appointment today. He weighs 13lbs 2 oz and is in the 25th percentile for height and weight. The doctors are very pleased with his weight gain. Graham's eating and sleeping schedule did not mesh well with his 3:00pm appointment time and so he arrived at the doctor's tired and hungry. Oops. He fussed during the whole check-up and so I was so distracted I forgot to ask any of the questions I went with. He got 2 shots and was inconsolable afterwards. He was screaming so hard he wouldn't even eat. Poor baby. I stayed in the doctor's office for at least 45 minutes after the we saw the doctor. I eventually got Graham calmed down and then fed him and then we headed out. I haven't heard him scream like that since right before he had to be intubated because he couldn't breathe in the hospital.

So what to document about 4 months old... Graham is talking and laughing all the time and we just love it! He enjoys being on his play mat and hates being put on his tummy. He is on the verge of rolling over from back to tummy. He loves staring at any light. He loves putting his hands in his mouth. His head is still a little wobbly and he mostly grabs things only by accident. He still wants to eat about every 2 hours. He eats, stays awake about an hour before getting fussy and going down (with a fight) for a one hour nap.

He is still waking to eat once during the night (between 10pm and 6am medicine and feeding times). The doctor says he may not be able to eat enough in one feeding (before tiring out due to his heart condition) to sleep much longer. This may be possible but he doesn't seem to get too tired while eating. I know lots of parents do "sleep training" where they let their babies "cry it out" but I am wary of doing this, not wanting Graham to have trouble breathing when he cries too hard for too long. Maybe one day he will sleep through the night! We can work on it more after his surgery. Being in the hospital for at least a week will ruin any schedule he is on anyway.

Here are Graham's 4 month pictures and one sweet picture with his daddy.