getting close

Brooke's last check-up in St. Louis on the 13th proved uneventful. Yay! Another echo and EKG...no big deal! She takes these tests like a champ. No more narrowing in the shunt. Her sat level is starting to decline a bit sitting in the mid-70's, which we expected it eventually would do. 

So, what's Brooke been up to since the 13th? Lots of play time on her mat and in her bouncy seat. She loves both. Well, "lots" meaning in the three hours a day she gets to be off the feeding pump, she enjoys some mat time. The bouncy seat is easier because she sits at an incline, which is much more conducive to having her tummy constantly filled up. We are making progress on bottle-feeding, too, many thanks to our fantastic speech therapist who comes twice a week. Though Brooke gets all of her required calories through the NG tube during those 21 hours a day, I also get to give her two bottles each day...and she loves them. We are so excited for the day (sometime after her second surgery) that we get rid of this feeding tube. For now, it's the perfect solution to packing on the pounds. She's up to 11lbs 12oz now!

Brooke loves to play with anything within arms reach. She grabs at everything these days. She loves to roll to her left when she's on her activity mat or just laying on a blanket. And she's become quite the little chatter box especially in the last few days. So much fun!

She also spends as much time as possible snuggling with Mommy. :)

And, we had a fun Valentine's Day as a family complete with making valentines for Daddy, making a big heart-shaped cookie cake, decorating cookies, enjoying a heart-shaped pizza and watching a movie. Perfect for this little family of five. Though I'm not sure how Brooklyn felt about it... :D

 

Brooke's next cardiology follow-up is this Thursday. We are anxious to hear what the doctor has to say about how Brooke is doing. I know from checking her sat level a few times a day that her number is continuing to decline, as we expected. She also has a cardiac catheterization coming up in mid-March which will give us a good indication of how ready her little body is for the second stage of reconstructive open-heart surgery, known as the Glenn procedure. We anticipate this happening sometime in April. 

While it seems Brooke is "doing well" these days, and she really is, as her sat level steadily drops and her little hands and feet continue to get bluer, this second surgery is becoming more of a reality. A reality for which we're not quite ready.