Some pictures from our two weeks home

We have had a pretty good two weeks home as a family of 5. Caroline is a great baby and LOVES being home as much as we LOVE having her home. She has seen her pediatrician twice and the cardiologist once in the past two weeks. The cardiologist said that he wants Caroline to stay on oxygen until she has her heart surgery. It is a little unclear when that will be. He wants her to be above 11 pounds but being above 11 pounds doesn't mean she will have the surgery. Basically, they are waiting on her heart to show signs of failure. It sounds bad, I know. But, it isn't that bad. She will show signs of increased fatigue, sweating (because her heart is working so hard), and not eating well. We have experienced the fatigue and the not eating well although I am sure it could be much worse and will get much worse.

God definitely knew what He was doing when He gave this little girl these issues. When babies have a diaphragmatic hernia like Caroline, the lungs are under a tremendous amount of stress. Many babies have just a bud for a lung because it never developed due to the other organs in the chest cavity. Nurturing and growing the lungs is usually the longest and hardest part of the healing process. As you know, Caroline also has a VSD, Ventricular Septal Defect. One of the side effects of having this heart defect is that the heart takes on some of the work of the lungs which is a blessing for a baby that needs her lungs to get extra support. Amazing!

Here are more pictures from our time at home . . .

Our first ride in the stroller - a trip to the park!

The timing was right for the first televised Aggie game. Caroline needed a bath and her cannula pads changed so I decided to get some "First Aggie Onesie" pictures with nothing on her face. So cute! (Don't worry, I had the monitor on her the whole time so I could tell what her stats were)

Just hanging out!

My first week back at school was great. It was awesome to see all the staff and students. What a blessing it was to be able to go back knowing that Caroline was home and doing well. For a while there, we felt we were really close to facing the reality of me having to go back to work with Caroline still in Austin. It is amazing to see how God worked it all out!