A Healthy Heart

Today was Mathew's follow up appointment with the Center for Cardiology. It's located on the Winnie Palmer campus. This was to follow up on his pulmonary hypertension that developed due to the meconium aspiration. When Mathew was discharged, the doctor predicted that the pulmonary hypertension would continue to heal on its own as his lungs strengthened and cleared up, but it needed to be checked just to make sure. So today Mathew had an EKG, an echo cardiogram, and we met with the pediatric cardiologist. We couldn't have asked for any better news. The hypertension seems to have cleared and everything looks normal. There is no need to follow up with them anymore. We are so thankful for such wonderful news. It felt amazing to walk away from there taking a sigh of relief. As much as we love and are thankful for Winnie Palmer, it's not somewhere we have any desire to go back to! The place was quite crowded and full of children of all ages. You couldn't help but wonder what kind of start in life each of those children had. Some it was obvious had specials needs, while some appeared more healthy but it just made us so appreciative of Mathew's continued progress!

We couldn't have asked for a better behaved baby today. He was an absolute angel. He started out so fussy this morning and right when we got there he began his best scream fest. They told us they were running behind schedule and as I was looking around at the crowded waiting room I'm thinking "o great, this is going to be soooo much fun." But my little baby pleasantly surprised me. Once he calmed down he was quite content and when we went back into the exam room and had to strip him down to his diaper and they began poking and prodding him, sticking things on his chest, squirting jelly on him, etc. etc. he was just as happy as could be. He even fell asleep during his echo!! Mat and I were both stunned as we were fully prepared for it to be a tag team effort just to hold him down during the procedures. He even slept most of the time in the car today. I think an angel must've been watching over us and helping us make it through the long day without losing our sanity. :)

After 2 1/2 hours there, we grabbed a quick lunch and then headed to Celebration for my OB appointment. This was the second post op follow up and I've now been released from his care. Yeaaaa, no more Celebration appointments for a few months. I still seem to be having issues with chronic headaches since delivery. I never had an issue with them prior to giving birth. They have definitely improved greatly compared to the intensity the first 3-4 weeks after childbirth, but they continue to linger. He didn't have much advice except to stay hydrated and if they continue to bother me to follow up with a neurologist. Any other mamas experience this after childbirth?....any words of wisdom? I must say I'm pretty pleased at how well I've recovered from the c-section. The last couple weeks I'm really beginning to feel back to my old self again. No complaints at all really. It's funny though how much I miss being pregnant. Well, not 9 months pregnant when I was huge, swollen and couldn't sleep well. But I really do miss lots of aspects of pregnancy already. It seems like just yesterday....time is flying already. Did I tell you that MJ weighed in at 11lbs. 13oz. and is 23 in. long today? Oh my goodness! That explains why he's outgrown his newborn clothes!

It was a long day all together. It felt like packing for a trip for this first full day outing! But it felt awfully sweet to come home together as a family, with good news and progress for our little baby.