Congratulations to our Friends!

We congratulate and welcome Melanie Rose to the world! Our dear friends Mike & Kim entered the new parents club yesterday and we couldn't be more happy for them!

Can't wait to meet her!

A Lunch Date

Today, Lauren & I went into the city to meet a friend for lunch! She was in Pittsburgh on business. We had never met in person before and it was really fun to finally lay my eyes on her in real life.  And a momma's lunch out. Debbie got to eat her very first Primanti Bros. sandwich, a Pittsburgh tradition.  What a nice lunch!

Trick or Treat!

We invited our friend Jessica over to ToT with us this evening. We didn't go to *that* many houses, but stopped when the boy's buckets got too heavy for them to carry.  It was great! They had a lot of fun & so did we!

Ian was Buzz Lightyear, Aaron was Sheriff Woody, & Lauren was Bo Peep. 

Twin Update

As many of you know, my friend Molly had twins a week after Lauren was born.  She posted a great update about them today.  In case you were wondering how they are doing or want to see some pictures of adorable three week olds:


http://mollypiper.com

Recovery is Slow Going

But Hannah is smiling again!

Hannah Update

This update comes directly from Hannah's mom Sharon. (with permission to repost it!) Please continue to pray for sweet little Hannah & her parents as they continue this journey. They really need it!

Hello All-

I am so sorry that I haven’t been updating this much. We’ve been at the hospital all day, every day, and at night when we return to the hotel, we’ve been crashing from exhaustion!!

Rather than give a blow by blow description of the week, here’s where we are right now. Tomorrow Hannah is scheduled for a cardiac catheter. This is the same procedure that she had done last winter. Her O2 saturation is sitting in the 70s, and it needs to be higher. There are two possible reasons for this, both of which can be fixed via cath. The first potential issue is that she may have more collaterals forming, which are bypassing the necessary parts of her heart, and mixing blue and red blood. If this is the case, they will need to coil them off. The second option is that when they put a fenestration in Hannah during her Fontan, it might have been too big, and rather than working as an overflow valve, it is continuously letting the blue and red blood mix. If that`s the case, they will need to temporarily plug the hole, see what happens, and if she tolerates and responds well to that, they will plug it permanently.

Another ongoing issue is Hannah`s eating. We have created a mini-mart in the hospital room fridge, and nothing is appetizing to Hannah. So, tomorrow when they knock her out for her cath, they will be putting in a feeding tube. Hopefully is won`t last long, and will just get her over the hump and on the road to recovery.

The next new development is that Hannah has somehow caught RSV. Apparently many of the children in the PICU have caught it, and some of the medical staff has been sent home for being sick. Both Hannah and the 5 week old baby in her room have caught it, and though neither child is showing the true symptoms, they are now isolated from the other children. When we go in, we now have to wear masks, gowns, and gloves...IT SUCKS!!!! I am so mad that I cannot kiss my baby goodnight or hold her hand without a mask or gloves getting in the way. It is so not fair!!!

On the brightside, Hannah has been able to go for walks with us in her stroller, stand and play at the indoor play area, and we were able to wheel her outside for a bit today!! Unfortunately because of her RSV, we won`t be able to do this anymore, but it was wonderful while it lasted!!!

Aside from all of that, Hannah is now breathing room air and doesn`t require oxygen. She has also had her IV line disconnected, and had her central chest tube removed. All that is left are two chest tubes that drain her lungs, an arterial line that will be replaced by a venus line tomorrow, pacer wires that are connected to her pacemaker (which is still using when she is sleeping...grrr), and an IV in her hand that isn`t being used. All in all, not bad.

Prayer Request for Hannah

**UPDATE**
Hannah is out of surgery, she did not need a pacemaker or a breathing tube! Great news! Will post again after her parents have gotten to spend some time with her and can give us the "full" update. (5:05pm EST, 5/11/10)


Original Post:

This sweet peach...


**
is having surgery tomorrow morning.

Sharon, Hannah's mom & I became friends through a message board before our 3 year olds were even born. So over the past 3+ years we've shared quite a bit with each other, though the beauty of the Internet, and journeyed though life as first time mothers together.

Hannah has a congenital heart defect. To be honest, I don't know much of the particulars about it. What I do know is that this surgery has been a long time coming. A lot of worry, a lot of waiting, a lot of time to love on sweet little Hannah as her heart surgery approached.

Tomorrow morning, Hannah's doctors will try to repair her heart defect. I think I remember Sharon saying at one time the procedure was called Fontan. I will update that if I am remembering incorrectly.

Please pray for Hannah. Pray for Sharon. Pray for their whole family. Pray for her surgeons, nurses, & medical staff. I've been in the waiting room during heart surgeries on my loved ones. I've also been in the waiting room during surgeries on my children. I've never been in the waiting room during heart surgery on my child. I can only imagine what tomorrow will be like for Hannah's parents... that's why I'm asking you to lift them up!

I will update this as information about how Hannah is doing comes to me (and I get permission from Sharon to share publicly).

Thank you! God Bless Sweet Hannah!

**This photo was taken yesterday, by Sharon, on the way to the hospital. I'm using it with her permission just for this post, a prayer request for her daughter.

DEAL of the DAY!

Today, on a whim, the boys and I packed up and went to Grove City to meet Emily & her boys for a little sun, shopping, and playing.

We didn't find many great deals and of course, I could've probably spent $1000 and still not gotten everything I was drooling over for Little Miss... anyway...

We did find ONE super deal. (And Only on my way home did I think, "duh, I should've picked up 2 additional ones for Molly Piper!" Mommy Brain is REALLY frustrating sometimes.)



I know you can't see the tags on these, but the tag says $29.50 on each. And the final marked-down price was $2.99. That's right. $2.99. I am tickled pink...literally! Adorable AND inexpensive. Awesome.



They had a TON of them and even some blue ones, in size 0-6 on the bunting and 6-12 on the coat... I seriously suggest checking out to see if your Children's Place has them. And... if you really ask me nice, maybe I'll send my parents over to pick one up for you. (Or two, if you're Molly!)

Have a great day!

Random News

• I had a doctor's appointment this morning. Little Miss is growing just fine. Her heart rate was 155bpm, my blood pressure was 115/69 (which is what happens when you are kid & caffeine free for the morning), only gained a pound (so, 2 so far) and everything is right on track.

• We'll be having another ultrasound in a couple of weeks because my OB is cool like that. He believes peace of mind is priceless for parents who have had trouble in previous pregnancies. So we'll get another peek at Little Miss!
  

• Dr. S. was grinning ear to ear with the news that baby is a girl and moreover that the kidneys are perfectly normal. He is truly a caring doctor. I happen to love him for his excellent care.

• Aaron is weaned. He skipped bedtime nunnies on Saturday because he was so tired when Roger & I got home from our night out w/o the kids. He was exhausted again on Sunday from a short nap day & skipped again. So I just went with it and intentionally we've skipped bedtime nunnies ever since.

• Aaron currently has a sinus infection for which he is on Augmentin. He's also still coughing from the cold Ian lovingly shared 2 weeks ago. Aaron's pediatrician called it "an asthma cough" and said if it wasn't better by Friday we'd have to do some oral prednisone to help him recover. It isn't better, but I really don't want to do prednisone. I think I'll give it until Monday.
  

• Ian is being his cute self. I don't really have much of an update for him!
  

• We're celebrating the birth of a sweet baby girl to our friends the Luskys. And news that practically everyone we know having babies this summer/fall are having girls! I seriously know about 20 women who are expecting right now and only one of them is expecting a boy. It's the summer of baby girls, I believe. Good thing, too, because the girl clothes right now are so stinkin' cute. Feel free to buy anything you see and send it to us. (Ha ha!) We also just found out that the Pipers are having TWIN GIRLS! Really, REALLY wonderful news this week on many fronts.

• *update* I just saw our neighbor out and she had a nice little baby bump! We've been cooped up all winter and hadn't seen much of them. She's due the same day as me (weird). They're having their 2nd baby, and it's a boy. I'm just amazed at all the new life around us!

• In not-so-wonderful news, Roger got rear-ended on the Parkway West last Friday (he is fine, never felt any ill-effects from it physically) and his car is crumpled. Apparently NOT unfixable, however, and for that we are grateful. We had just paid off the Camry in August and were really loving not having any car payments. We're also getting a new car seat out of the deal, too, because once a car seat has been in an accident, you really shouldn't use it anymore. The insurance will pay for its replacement. Love that.