Army

Ellie army crawled this morning.

Funny sleeper

Solid Food!

Well, sorta... :-)

Delayed Follow Up

Sorry for the delayed follow up. As it turns out Lizzie slept a lot the morning of the appointment which made things a little easier on Steph. The echo went surprisingly well. Lizzie was definitely loopy from the sedative they gave her (to keep her calm and still so they can get accuracte pictures), but this was by far the easier appointment for me in terms of keeping her arms down. Both the dr. and the tech for the echo were very nice and kid-friendly. They're very good at their jobs.

Then we went downstairs to see Dr. Shaughnessy. Everything looks... the same! Not perfect, but everything is stable. The valve is still a little weak (it leaks a smidge), but it's just about the same as it has been, so that's good news. If we were staying in town, we wouldn't have to go back for another year!

Clarification: We found out at this appointment that Lizzie does NOT have an artificial valve... in the medical sense. Seems artificial in the medical sense means a foreign (read: man-made) substance. Since hers is not Goretex or titanium (or something similar), it's not technically artificial. What was added to her valve was a fixed biological tissue (I want to say pericardium, but I'm not 100% sure on that). It doesn't grow or expand or anything, it's just stable tissue (the Dr. didn't know if it came from Lizzie or from someone else, but her guess was that it was from someone else...) that was added to strengthen things.

More good news: When Lizzie's heart was first fixed up, the guesses were that she would need another surgery sometime before she's age 5 and then again before age 13. Dr. Shaughnessy said on Tuesday that Lizzie probably wouldn't need anything done on her heart until "sometime before she's 20". Woo hoo!

Exhausted and There is More to Come

Well, we just returned today from our extended-weekend-road-trip down to Cali for Grandma Sewell's 80th birthday party. It was a ton of fun to see everyone, and we even got the chance to drop by and see the whole Rexford Clan and catch up a bit before heading back. On the way back we also saw the Serface's and their beautiful new home near Eugene, OR.
It was such a tiring trip, and I am sure that if I wasn't ready to collapse I would expand on that, but for now I just wanted to ask for prayer. Tomorrow is Lizzie's last Cardiology appointment up at OHSU-Doernebecher before we move. It is going to be very sad to leave the people that saved our little girl's life and on top of it all I get to spend the morning keeping Lizzie from eating or drinking anything, but apple juice and water, until noon when she can't even have those things. She is tired just like the rest of us, so pray for her to be patient and for whatever reason not to be hungry or thirsty tomorrow. We will let you kow how it goes.
Thanks ahead of time for your prayers!

Clothes

Finding clothes of Ellie's that still fit her is getting harder and harder. So out of desperation tonight, we tried putting her in one of Lizzie's shirts.

It fit.

(And we're not talking, it's bigger so of course it'll fit. It actually fit.)

Growing up

Our little girls are growing up.

Lizzie got to 'hold' Ellie today. Ellie is about 7/8 the size of Lizzie. No joke.

Lizzie has really picked up on being helpful. She will bring Ellie's things to Ellie if they're just lying around. Tonight, when I was putting Ellie down for 'ni-ni,' I had forgotten to bring Ellie's blanket with me. But not to worry, Lizzie (without being asked) came running in, blanket in tow. She is a very thoughtful little girl who loves her sister very much.

Ellie is now eyeing solid food. Tonight we caught her staring at a chip and smacking her lips.