Abbie had a echocardiogram to check out her heart "as a precaution" due to the severity of Cameron's heart condition & Michael's condition & unfortunately we now have a third Heart Child in our family as she has Aortic Stenosis.
She has a mild case at this stage caused by thickened leaves of the valve but because of the nature of aortic valves she has to have frequent echos to ensure that it doesn't get worse, and just stays the same, as we were told that unlike Michael's mild Pulmonary Stenosis where a number of the cases it corrects over time (as Michael's did), Aortic stenosis usually stays the same or gets worse.
Don't really know how to explain how I feel, pretty sad, angry, but relieved it isn't serious, but have very mixed emotions about having another child who need prophylaxis antibiotics, needs echos, and needs follow ups. Would have been nice to have a "normal" child.
We have been told that this will not affect anything with her at the moment, but may when she is older if it gets worse, (especially during pregnancy and extreme exercise!) & but of course it would be nice & we all have our fingers crossed that it will stay the same (or through some miracle get better)
But you know after all we've been through I know its selfish but its just that I wanted my "baby girl" to "not be broken too" if you know what I mean !!
It also proves to the people who kept saying to me that it was the IVF that caused the Congenital Heart Defects - that they were wrong !
We now also have to do genetic testing (which at the moment I can't cope with) but mainly for the boys & Abbie's benefit for if they want to know for if & when they have children. We were again asked about the history of heart defects in our families - but neither Chris or I have any .. so it’s obviously just that Chris & I produce kids with CHD's.
My husband - who always looks at things positively, after giving me a hug, in trying to lighten the situation said "Oh well at least we can bring all the kids to Heart Children special events, as Heart Kids now, so Abbie won't feel left out".
On the bright side - the boys are starting introductory visits to kindy & start "for real" next week - goodness who thought 3 & 1/4 years ago (well 4 years ago before I did IVF) I would be doing that!! Michael is going through the very independent stage & is now toilet trained during the day. He was having very bad tantrums & meltdowns as he was not getting the attention due to all that was going on & still does, but we are working on it as we all know there is only one of me.
Cameron has recovered well, is still spooked by people he doesn't know but is getting better with new people. He has done remarkably well considering all he went through 4 months ago. His heart of course is pretty messed up & he will have more surgery next April for more stuff they found. He is on Warfarin (a blood thinner) so we have to do a finger prick test (similar to a diabetes one) every 2 - 4 days depending on the reading, which we do at home with a machine that we came home with from Starship. It had been stable but in the last week has been up & down so we change his dose to get it back to where it should be. It was really high 3 weeks ago & my GP freaked out so I rang the hospital & they were very calm & said just watch for seizures, or bleeding from his nose & try not to let him do too much vigorous (sp?) play which would cause bruising or bleeding (I laughed at that - very blasé' no big deal to them - but how can you stop a busy full on 3 yr old) so I was a bit on edge as you can imagine.. especially as the boys are really in to play fighting & building castle & jumping from them ! Had a big talk to them about Cameron's blood being sick & that he would get really sick if he got hurt & they looked at me as if I was bananas & kept on playing - hee hee.
My little missy Moo is beautiful & growing really well & trying to roll. She tried solids for the first time last week & loved it, so I am slowly giving her increased amounts & different types. She is so different to the boys, but it could be because I have the time to enjoy her, rather than having to do everything in a production line.
It is a bit of a novelty as she is 75% for weight & height on the Plunket graph & we have never had a baby on the graph before .. but you can never get it right for some people. I used to get comments about how the boys were so small ... blah blah & now I get comments about how she is such a "big baby" - grrr ! She is such a big drinker - but luckily only feeds 4 hourly .. but I have so much milk she gulps it all down !!!
Sleep is interesting during the day but usually 2 hours in morn & afternoon & sometimes a nap late afternoon during dinner. Then in bed by 7.30-8 then up at about 2 - 3am & then back to bed until 6-7. This of course all on a good day .. & can turn to custard quite easily as we all know ..
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