Quilting and Baby Gracie

March 31, 2008
Needless to say my quilting is coming along. It helps pass the time away as Baby Gracie is still in critical condition. Saturday they were going to take her off life support and let her heart do the work, but the moment they did that the heart beat was too weak and the blood pressure went way down, so they immediately put her back on life support. They are looking at all the possible complications as to why her heart beat isn't stronger. They went back in her chest, adjusted the valve, coterized a small bleed, and discovered her thyroid was low, so they fixed all these issues and will try on Tues or Wed to take her off life support again.

So my house is clean and my quilt is coming along. I just about have all the fabric cut out. I am winging it since I don't know how big to make it or even what it will be used for, I just needed to get my mind off of Baby Gracie. Off to house work I go, an ever constant vigil we do.

Getting ready to go Swimming.

Today the kids announced to me that it was time to go swimming, so we came up with a way for them to get ready for swimming. We put on their swim suits and life jackets, filled up the big tub and let them practice floating and making bubble faces. they had a great time, and for the last 3 days they have done this.





In Fact today at 7am Hunter comes in and woke me up and said Mom I need to get in the big tub right now so I can practice swimming. It's almost summer.

March 31, 2008

My roller coaster

March 26, 2008. I am on an emotional roller coaster. Baby Gracie did well during surgery, but that night her heart stopped at 1:30 am. They were able to do CPR and then get her on a machine that is keeping her alive. At this time anything could happen. She has a 50/50 chance of pulling through this. Yesterday they gave her a name and a blessing in the hospital. Mom says the blessing was very sweet and very full of love for this little one. We don't know her future but we do know that she is loved very much on both sides of the veil. Tom and Michele are at witts end. They finally got some sleep last night. Today Michele is having a very hard day. She put a poem on her blog (tom, my brothers blog). If you want to see the play by play check out their blog. They have a lot of pictures of this little angel.

Hunter seems to be oblivious to how I am feeling because the angrier I get the more distructive he gets, so I dropped them off at Grandma Evans and told her good luck and I will come back when I can be sure I won't kill Hunter. I went shopping and bought material to do a quilt like the one Melissa showed me how to do. This will be my second quilt. I just needed to distract me and sewing will be that distraction.

I just want to cry. I dont' know how the Baby Gracie story will turn out and it is so hard to watch my Mom, Dad, Tom and Michele go through this. If she wasn't so darn cute and didn't have such a precious disposition about her, but when you look at her and she looks deep into your soul you just cry and wonder what her future will hold.

Gracie's Surgery

Today Mar 24, 2008 Gracie underwent open heart surgery. It took 5 hours of surgery. She was in the operating room for 8 hours doing prep and bandaging her chest afterwards. The Dr. won't close the chest for 8 days until the swelling goes back down and they are sure she doesn't have any complications. The surgery was a success. The stint is in place and it will remain in for the rest of her life. If all goes well she won't have another surgery for 2 to 4 months from now. She will be in intensive care for the next 9 weeks then she will go home until her next surgery. Then her last surgery will be between the ages of 2 to 4. It is a 3 surgery procedure to fix her heart. I am so glad that modern medicine could save this little girl.

Baby Gracie is here

Baby Gracie is here March 20, 2008 at 4PM 8 lbs 1 oz 20 inches long. This is her at one our old.
This is Gracie with her dad Tom. She is so beautiful. She looks like her little sister Callie. All is well.






She is yawning in this picture. She is a good sport and is letting all of the cords and wires be put on her and is just looking around taking in all of the sights.

My Brother Tom

I just wanted to share my feelings for a minute, since they are bubbling to the surface right now. My brother Tom and his wife are expecting a baby girl this next week. I am so happy to have Baby Gracie join our family. I am praying every day that she gets to stay with us. It is a very emotional time for everyone right now. I sure don't know what the future holds for this precious little girl, but I do know that she will be part of the family forever. Tom has asked me to be the blogger for this special event so if you want to see updates on this baby you can get to it from my list of blogs that I watch. I will try to post a picture and a blog as well on my blog. I will be there for you Tom. I love you. Thank you for commenting on my blog.

Jesse lost another tooth

On Mar 9, 2008 Jesse lost tooth #3. He was so excited. He had just gone to bed when he was playing with it and all of the sudden Phil heard him say Yes, very excitedly. Phil ran up there and Jesse was sitting up and said look Daddy I pulled my tooth out. I was in the bathroom brushing Hunter's teeth when it happened so they came in and showed me the tooth, hole in his mouth and the blood of course. He's growing up on me.

Cindy's 50th Birthday dinner

We all went to Louis Itaian food for Cindy's Birthday. It was good food, good company and a fun way to celebrate her day. Shannon brought her new boyfriend. He's a nice guy, his name is Jeremy. Nic and Rachel were the only ones not there. My kids were on good behavior, so the evening went well.