Smiling

I think it has been a few weeks since my last update, which is a good thing because that means we haven’t had any unexpected news or non-typical doctor visits.  Ali is almost 2 months now and she is pure joy.  She’s getting chubby, interacting with us and wiggling all the time.  She’s “talking” and cooing and smiling with her eyes.  I’m trying so hard to get that first ‘social’ smile, but she’s not giving it up yet.  Once I thought she was going to because she made an expression I had never seen before.  I held her really close to my face trying to get that smile, but instead she threw-up. All over my face.  I swear she did a little smile right after that.

Bailey started 5^th grade and has brought home all sorts of germs.  We have been so good at hand washing, sanitizing and changing clothes out of fear of Ali getting sick.  Since she doesn’t have a spleen, it will make fighting off infection much harder.  Somebody is watching over her because regardless of our efforts to live in a germ-free zone, everyone except for Ali got sick this week.  I took her to the pediatrician yesterday just to get her lungs listened to and her O2 sats checked and she is doing fine. Hopefully this means that the combination of her daily dosage of Amoxicillin and the antibodies she is receiving from nursing are keeping her well protected.

Ali taking her meds:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In the middle of writing this post Alessandra gave her first smile! She wanted attention so I lifted her from the swing and cradled her.  She looked up at me and smiled. A real smile! Her first smile.  I’m so happy this happened right now so that I can add this milestone (smilestone? I’m a dork) .  I never want to forget it. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As far as the rest of our life goes, things have been fantastic.  My family put together an amazing baby shower for Alessandra.  My sister-in-law, Ann is a creative genius, especially in the kitchen.  We had tea, white gloves, and food.  It was so much fun.

My thoughts are all over the place this morning.  Ali’s surgery will more than likely be in October.  Her O2 levels are in the mid-to-low 80’s range and we can do better than that.  I’m trying not to think about it too much because its scary. My own heart aches at the thought of her going through this.  I’ve known since 20 weeks gestation that she would need surgery on her heart, but there is really no way to prepare for this.  I can’t imagine giving up my seemingly healthy baby to surgeons, knowing that she will be so very sick and miserable after.  I can’t even think about this. Ugh.

Thanks for reading,

~Melissa