Our baby girl ~ December 16th, 2009 ~ 15 hours oldFirst of all I want to THANK YOU for all the lovely comments and congratulations!!! What a blessing it has been to have you all share in our excitement and know that you’ve been praying for us!
Right now it is early Friday (12/18) morning, and the baby and I are still at the hospital… Originally we were supposed to be going home yesterday, but it turned out that the baby’s pediatrician wanted to keep her a little longer to monitor her heart and get an echocardiogram after hearing a murmur. The test was sent to a pediatric cardiologist specialist 4 hours away to be read and it wasn’t until late yesterday afternoon before her pediatrician had spoken with the cardiologist and was able to come back in to go over the results with us.
Apparently our precious baby does have a couple of small holes (Ventricular Septal Defects, aka: VSD’s) in her little heart in addition to a Patent Ductus Arteriosos (PDA). The doctor seems pretty confident that the PDA will resolve itself fairly quickly on its own, but we will need to have another echocardiogram done with the specialist when he is in town in January for the VSD’s. The pediatrician also said that there is a really good chance that the holes (especially the top one) will close on their own sometime in the upcoming months/year as her heart grows, but it is something we will need to watch.
Other than that, she is doing wonderfully. She nurses well and is such a sweet little baby! She is so strong and big (almost a pound bigger than her sisters were at birth!) and hardly feels like a newborn!!
As for me, other than being a bit emotional yesterday, I am feeling okay. Despite a relatively quick (my actual “active labor” was only 2 hrs and 10 minutes, in which the last 20 minutes I went from 7cm to holding the baby!) and “easy” (ie: no pain meds, tears or stitches! Oh and the nurse got the IV, for antibiotics, in on the first try – which was a first ever for me!!) delivery, the recovery (particularly the postpartum contractions/afterpains) has been challenging and so the extra day in the hospital has probably been a good thing for me as well. I do so miss my other children though and can hardly wait to introduce them to their new baby sister!
Anyhow, I better shut off this computer (thank you Dad for loaning me your laptop!!) and try and get a bit more sleep…
Thank you all for your continued prayers. God bless!!
Jessica, Be assured of many prayers from the Meyers in Kansas. I can't imagine how scary it must have been for you yesterday but it sounds like the prognosis is good. Your little Rose is a miracle and no doubt God has such a special plan for her. We will pray for her each day, many times. God Bless you all!
I will keep you and your little Rose in my prayers, Jessica. Just enjoy your time together.
I'll keep your little Advent Rose in my prayers! She is adorable, and I am sure she will do well.
Praying, praying, praying…added her to my Christmas Rose novena to St. Therese.
I'll keep baby Rose in my prayers. And for continued rocovery for you too Jessica.
Blessings to you as you get ready to transition back to life at home and the introduction of your new little family member!
Jessica, little Rose is in my prayers as well.
"Enjoy in peace the joy God is giving you, without worrying about the future. He is reserving for you, I am sure, new graces and many consolations."
–St. Therese, The Little Flower
🙂
Dear Jessica
She looks so strong and healthy with so good, beautiful colors your little rose, i am so sure she will be just fine.
But my heart aches for you during these first emotional days,we too have been there,I know .You know I learned the Christmas Rose Novena from you ,and you can be sure that you and your Rosebud are in my intentions during these days.
Love,Emma in Norway
I will be praying for you and you sweet Rose.
You and baby Rose continue to be in our prayers!
God bless you ALL! May you feel our prayers like a comforting hug…
Jessica, please know that your Christmas Rose will continue to be in my prayers. I will also pray for peace of mind for you.
We all just prayed for little Rose, and I wish I had a picture of Eliza as she prayed the Memorare for her. I think Eliza would say 'Jesus, I trust in you!' ;-)It must have been frightening to hear of sweet Rose's troubles, but those little holes do often resolve on their own. We will keep praying! xo (and yes, while the labors can get faster and easier as you have more children the afterpains do indeed get worse – prayers for those too!)
My son was born five weeks early with PDA, and it did resolve itself with some meds during his ten-day stay in the NICU. It was very scary though, and with postpartum hormones, everything seemed worse than it really was. Be assured of my prayers for your beautiful baby, and for YOU.
Jessica,
We are praying for Little "Rose."
Hang in there!
~Angela
As a mommy who has been exactly where you are, I completely understand your fears and concerns. My little one, who is now a healthy 10 year old girl, was likewise born with two little holes in her heart. They both cleared up on their own fairly quickly, in fact one of them within the first two months and the other was completely closed by five months. I will however, keep you and your precious baby Rose in my prayers and pray that you will be home with all of your little ones soon.
Oh, with tears in my eyes, I will be praying for sweet little Rose!
She is so beautiful, I just want to kiss those chubby cheeks!!!
I'll be keeping Rose in my prayers, and you too! It is so hard when our children have health issues that we can't fix with a nice dose of mama-love! Rest easy, snuggle that baby up; I hope you both are home soon, reunited with your husband and other children. God bless.
Jessica, you and your little one are in my prayers. She is going to be fine. We had a couple scares just like yours, with two of our children. Our second child was born with the same thing as your little rose. One of the doctors scared use to death, thankfully we had several different opinions from other doctors. He had an ultrasound of his heart done and they told us he was going to be fine, that he would out grow them. He is now 12 and outgrew the holes in his heart. He has had many doctors visits and no murmurs have been heard. He is healthy thanks to God. Our third child was not born with murmurs or holes in her heart heart. I took her in for a physical and they found a murmur they scheduled an echocardiogram and everything was normal. They said sometimes murmurs show up and vanish without someone even knowing. You have a beautiful family. Merry Christmas
We will keep you in our prayers during our Christmas novena. Many blessings!
Jessica,
My baby girl (born 3 1/2 months ago) had the exact same issues at birth — and by the time of our follow-up visit two of the holes had closed and the cardiologist feels very confident the third one will also close fully by next year (and even if it doesn't, she does not think it will have any impact on quality of life).
Sometimes I wonder if the downside of all our medical advances is that we mothers must worry about things that would have resolved on their own. I feel sure that your little one will be fine, but I well know the anxiety you must be feeling and I will keep you and your little Rose in my prayers.
God bless!
Mary
Jessica, Congratulations of such a precious baby girl! Know that we will be praying for healing and peace. We will add your family to our intentions during of Christmas novena.
Many, many prayers, Jessica. I am glad you had such a nice labor… my have all been between 12 and 22 hours, most of them pretty hard.
Enjoy your baby moon. Can't wait to hear you're all home together.
Praying for you both Jessica! Hang in there and let God's grace bring you through this.
Michele in Tx (decreasetoincrease)
What a beautiful little Rose! Congratulations!
We're keeping you in our prayers!
Blessings,
Terrie
Again, Jessica, congratulations! As others have stated, this does normally correct itself. My nephew was born with the same thing, it resolved itself, and now he is a healthy, very active 5 y/o.
You and your baby girl will continue to be a part of our prayer intentions. JMJ
Jessica we are praying for you all. Many hugs for you and Rose.
I will keep little Rose in my prayers—and you, too! Take care of yourself and rest as much as possible. God bless!
Praying for your little one!! It must be hard to hear about any potential problems when you are in that hormonal transition right after the birth! I am glad the prognosis sounds good, though and that she is nursing well. And she looks just fantastic! You and Rose will be in my prayers.
Praying for sweet little Rose!!!
Many many blessings and congratulations Jessica, she's absolutely gorgeous!!! Praying for your sweet Rose and for you all :))
Praying for your baby Rose and for you…I know all to well the emotional ups and downs you must be feeling. My 'only boy' had several issues b4 birth and right after, but God is good and he is a healthy 8 year old now.
She is so-so cute! I love the way newborns touch their feet in that very way Rose is doing in the picture. Just precious.
We'll be praying Jessica!
God bless
Elizabeth
CA
Dear Jessica and family; Our prayers are with you for your concerns about your sweet "Rose". I loved seeing your announcement "don't have to make dinner", knowing right away what that meant! 🙂 Also, excitement to hear your news was great alongside of our daughter in law, also in labor at the time. How precious these wee ones are. God bless you and your beautiful daughter! Prays will continue. Rest up, relax and enjoy every second of your bonding time with baby. Hugs!
I will keep your beautiful baby and your family in my prayers.
The picture of those tiny feet is just perfect!
Yippee and congratulations! ♥♥♥
Thanks for taking the time to let us know about your baby girl's birth … She will be wrapped up in the sweetest of our prayers … as will her entire family.
I can understand being emotional. I'm sure the kids are so excited! And what a precious picture of her little feet! We'll keep little Rose in our prayers. Love, Teresa
I am sorry you have to worry about your new little Rose. I will be praying for you, your husband, and her.
Prayers for a quick recovery for you and for little Rose's heart.
I can't get over how picture perfect she looks!
God is so good!
Thank you for sharing. God bless!
with much prayers!!!
Josette
Praying for your little Rose and her heart! Hoping you both get home real soon!
praying for baby rose.
and for you too, mama.
"Jesus, we trust in YOU."
God bless.
Many prayers and warm thoughts… A scary thing to worry about your baby's heart – I know. I think that she is a beautiful and sweet addition to your family. Blessings to you and your family as you anticipate the best as she grows!!
Jessica, you and baby Rose are in our prayers! She is absolutely the most gorgeous blessing!
i love the last photo of her "praying" footsies 🙂
How precious are those little feet at the end! I've still got baby feet under my ribs and I can't wait to squeeze them and kiss them. 😉
If it makes you feel any better, my brother and I were both born with small holes in our hearts which closed as we grew up. We are both very healthy now. 🙂 I'm sure that Rose will be fine, too, especially under close watch. +
God bless your expanding family!