8:45 PM

We've been very busy the last 4.5 hours and distracted by the chance to stare at JG!

There's a lot to update...

At 4:15, we were called back by our wonderful PICU nurse so that we could see Janie Grace. It was an emotional moment to say the least. We'd been warned that she might not look herself (bloated, bruised, pale etc.). However, looking past the endless tubes and cords, she looked perfectly Janie. Her color was normal and her face was pleasantly content. We could kiss her head, hold her hand and touch her toes.









Immediately, our nurse began to walk us through the purpose of each individual IV, tube, monitor etc. Her vital signs were great. We kept hearing how pleased the doctors were with how she was initially recovering. One of the doctors was about ready to give her a try without the breathing machine! But naturally, his expertise thought the better. Initially, she wasn't requiring some additional measures a baby coming out of surgery might need. We really heard nothing but positive news!

The goal for the night is to keep her very sedated. As much as we wanted to see her eyes (which we saw once in a while), as soon as she would perk up they'd give her a bit of morphine to calm her back down. The last thing they wanted was her to wake up and starting pulling on wires!

Our cardiologist (Dr. W) and the intensivists on the PICU floor came to see us to answer questions and walk us through the next 12-24 hours. We're certainly never are concerned about the care JG is under. An awful lot of people have sacrificed many years of their lives to provide the kind of care JG needs.

Speaking of sacrifice, I need to mention that Jennifer is an ultra-committed mother to JG in the way that she has pumped 4-5 times per day in order to give JG the best nutrition possible. Throughout our very crazy day today, she faithfully stepped away to pump when necessary. It's a labor of love that I'm convinced will have life-long impact for Janie G.

In the end, we get the impression that this surgery was more involved than originally diagnosed and maybe even more than what they were seeing up until yesterday. For the medical professionals following along, there were three things addressed with this surgery (1) common atrioventricular canal defect, (2) tetralogy of Fallot, (3) small muscular VSD (which I believe is ventricular septal defect). We knew about #1 early in Jennifer's pregnancy. #2 presented after JG was born. #3 wasn't detected until very recently. Fortuntely, all were addressed today. In the past, these conditions may have required multiple surgeries. The bottom line is that this didn't end up being quite as routine as we'd have preferred, but they took care of it nonetheless!

The local W-S Family Support Network provided a pasta dinner tonight which we enjoyed with the Nylands (wonderfully faithful friends of the family) and even celebrated Len Nyland’s birthday (Lorrie Nyland spends Friday mornings hangin' with Janie G). It was strongly recommended by me, Jennifer's parents, and, ultimately, our nurse that Jennifer join me at RonaldMcDonald house tonight. JG will be very sedated in order to keep her still throughout the night. As much as she'd like to stand at her bedside, Jennifer needs energy to give Janie Grace when she becomes more alert tomorrow. Sleeping in the room tonight would have been a restless night with little to show for it relative to supporting JG. Therefore, we hope to be refreshed for a new day tomorrow.

We hope that her breathing tube will get pulled tomorrow at which time, the tubes that are draining excess fluid from the heart would also likely be removed. This will be the next big milestone. Several hours after the tube is gone and she proves her ability to sustain herself, we'll get to try a bottle. You know from my previous posts how anxious we are to see how she handles this. Join us in praying that she shows an interest and ability in taking the bottle. It would be a miracle to walk out of here without a feeding tube, but we'd be thrilled just to have her on the road to tube-free living even if it's a mix of bottle and tube.

Finally, I'll finish today's updates with the following. If at 5:30 this morning we were told what our day would like, I don't believe we could have asked to be in a better place than we are right now. JG is about as healthy as reasonably possible, and we experienced a sense of peace never felt before. We were granted a measure of assurance from the Lord via your prayers that allowed us to endure a day (we don't want to re-live) free of worry and fear. Being on this side of thousands of prayers is about as humbling as it gets. We could never begin to articulate our appreciation for you.

We'll keep this blog going throughout our hospital stay…and like I said to Zack (Jennifer’s brother-in-law, http://zackmansfield.com/, did I really just shamelessly link to another blog on my first day of blogging?)…”I may have to keep this going”. I mean Jacob, Jensen and JG could give me endless material! (just don’t look for me to be sportin’ some Birkenstocks this summer!)