Out of ICU! (For Now...)

Well, I left off last night from the comfort of a real bed, with Jack sleeping right next to me. It was sooo nice to get some quality sleep and spend some time with Jack away from the hospital. I slept like a baby. It was heavenly. Thank you so much to my mom for being willing to stay with Lia at the hospital.

The cardiologist team who looked at Lia today said that she was strong enough to leave the ICU (on oxygen of course), so that is great! Not strong enough to leave the hospital though, so we are on a cardiology floor just for babies. It's so nice to be out of the ICU, because there are no limitations on who can visit, we can actually use our cell phones, and we BOTH get to sleep in the room with her tonight. There is a bed and a recliner in here, plus a private bathroom with a shower. We are on a waiting list to get a room at the Ronald McDonald house, but I'm thinking that as long as we can both sleep next to her, we might as well stay here! The plan is to monitor her here through the remainder of the weekend, through Monday. Then on Tuesday, the cardiology team will meet again, go over all her stats, heart echoes, EKG's, blood work, etc., and pick a date and time for her surgery. We are looking at Wed., Thurs., or Fri., of next week for that. They did say that the surgery scheduling for next week is already very busy, so if there is a case that comes in more serious than Lia's, then she would get bumped, so we'll just have to wait and see. They have already decided that she is too fragile to do a full repair at this time, so the first surgery will be to place a shunt in her heart. For recovery, we are looking at up to a week back in the ICU, and then she'll be moved to the floor again for up to a week before we can come home. So we are looking at being up here about 3 more weeks. Then, in 4-6 months, we come back and do the whole thing over again for her full repair surgery.

Unfortunately, I had to say goodbye to Jack again today. He's staying with my parents in Norwalk this week. My grandparents (Jack's great grandparents) are going to be watching him during the day while my parents are at work. Next weeks stay for Jack is still in the air, but we've had so many people offer to watch him, and we are so thankful for that. I know I've said this before, but I just hate being away from him. I know he doesn't think twice about it, because he's having a blast with grandma and grandpa, but its so hard for me to be away from him. My parents will be coming back down to KC for the surgery, so we may get to see him then. He's at an Easter egg hunt tonight in the dark where he gets to use a flash light to find all the eggs. Sounds fun!

We had a ton of family support here today. A total of 14 family members from both sides of our families made the trip down from Iowa to be here with us. It was so nice and comforting. Isn't family wonderful? Ryan and I are blessed to have such amazing family and friends to help us through this. More family will be coming on Monday too.

Keep the prayers coming! I'll keep you updated as much as I can from here! I hope everyone has a happy Easter. Remember to hug your kiddos extra tight and be thankful for their health.