Evie the Extraordinary and Her Mommy: The Journey As We Go

Evie's 2-year follow up with Cardiology was today.  She had open heart surgery at 5 months old to repair an ASD and VSD, and since then, her heart has been strong, and her pulmonary hypertension has resolved.  I celebrate her heartiversary every year to remind us of how far she has come. Taking a 3-year old for an afternoon of an EKG, Echo, and Cardiology follow up takes a lot of energy.  Especially when said 3-year-old does not want anyone to touch her.  "Evie, these are stickers!"  Evie did not think that EKG leads and stickers were fun at all.  She would not stop wailing until we took them off. The Echocardiogram part was a bust.  The technician gave up when Evie start flailing around, even though I had her arms in a lock and my legs around her legs, while my husband tried to hold the iPad and hold her legs as well.  Evie's look of blame when she twisted around to ask me for help was an arrow through my mama heart. We finally got to se...

I am so thankful for the nurses and doctors in the NICU.  Their personal attention and care kept me from going crazy when we found ourselves still waiting to bring Evie home after 6 weeks in the hospital, even though we expected maybe 1-2 weeks. We were at the hospital each day for 8-10 hours, taking turns sitting with her, holding her, and learning to do regular parental duties like changing diapers and feeding her.  If we had brought her home 2 days after birth, we would have been so lost.  The NICU was like boot camp for learning to care for an infant..and more. We quickly got familiar with the food court nearby and the Starbucks downstairs. I think I ate orange chicken from the Chinese place 4 times one week.  Thankfully we had friends start bringing us food at the hospital. Each baby had primary nurses called "primes." Our primes were Maureen and Anna, and whenever they were on duty, we breathed a sigh of relief, because we knew they had a special lik...