5 month's old

Annabelle has been home for 2 months now. She is doing much better than we thought. She came off her oxygen about one week after she came home. The only thing she was really having a problem with was her feeding tube.

After Annabelle was home she went to her first outing to her cousin's birthday party. That night was the first time she slept all night and since then she has always been able to sleep through the night. She spent her first Easter at Nana and Papa's house. The whole family came to see her, it was so nice.

About 4 weeks after Annabelle was home she went into the hospital for a scheduled heart catherization. They had to balloon up one of her heart steins. When we were finally able to see her again it was so sad. She was back on a ventilator, her coloring was not good and her oxygen level kept dropping. It was so hard to see her like that again. We were not expecting her to look worse. My husband and I stayed for hours until he finally had to convince me that I had to get some sleep. The next day was so much better, they took her off the vent and she looked good. One the third day she was starting to act like herself and we were able to go home. Once again she was doing better than before. Aaron and I now realize that even though it seems like sometimes we're going backwards-we're really moving forward. If that makes any sense.

Now for all the good news. One week after the cath Annabelle's occupational therapist suggested we take out her feeding tube before she comes to her next appointment. The night before her next appointment Annabelle coughed out her feeding tube. We weren't sure if we should put it back in but we also weren't sure how she would eat that night. So we gave her a bottle and...surprise she took more than half of the bottle. The next morning she took took the whole bottle. That day was her last day of therapy. Woo Hoo!

Two weeks ago her at home nurse also discharged her. She is doing so good. She has no problem with the bottle and has started to eat cereal. She is starting to hold on to her toys and is working on rolling over. It seems like everyday she does something new. We love playing with her and making her smile. She still melts my heart every time I look at her.

Her 2nd surgery is just around the corner. Her cardiologist is also talking about doing her 2nd and 3rd surgery at the same time. He said they do it every so often and that Annabelle would be a good candidate because she's growing so good. He thinks she would be able to handle it. We have mixed feelings about it. On one hand it's only one more surgery, but on the other hand it would be so much for her to handle. Right now it is just a possibility, so we're just waiting to hear more.