She's getting out of CICU!!!!!!

Yippeee!!! Great News!! I just went back and found out that You You is going to be moved to a regular room tonight!!! She will be in room 530 and we should be in there before 7pm according to the nurse. She is doing WONDERFULLY now that her mommy and daddy have held her all day.

Prayers are being answered second by second!!!!

We will write more once we get moved.

Hollie Feeling Guilty...

I felt bad that I did not mention how wonderful Aaron is. He is a rock!! He is the best dad, husband, and man. I am so proud of him and take back all the kidding and hard times I have given him. He is really, really amazing and just what Erica needs!!

As another update....Erica just came out to eat a bite. In answer to prayer, the nurses hearts have been softened and she has been able to stay with her baby girl all morning. She can now hold her and feed her ice. There is a possibility that they will move her to a regular room tonight. Aaron is holding her now. Praise the Lord!!!

Talk to you all soon!

An update

Hey ya'll! It's Hollie. I have now switched gears and am in B'ham with Aaron, Erica and You You. I am sitting in the waiting room with Erica's friend Aimee and her sweet little girl (also from China) Lily. The current plan is for Aaron to go home tonight and I will stay with Erica.

I did get to visit with You You. She was sleeping...which is great! She had a very restless night and did not sleep much. She is doing well considering that she is recovering from open heart surgery. There are small issues here and there but nothing out of the norm for this point in her recovery. She will stay in CICU one more night and the doctor said she would go to a regular room tomorrow if all goes well today.

Please continue to pray for her as I know you are doing. Especially pray that she find some peace and begins to rest better. Also pray for Erica...she is a remarkable mommy and really needs to keep her strength...both physically and emotionally.

Love to you all and thanks so much for your prayers!
Hollie

update

This is Melisa - I have not talked to Erica since 5 pm yesterday when I left the hospital, but I do have some information from Hollie and my mom.

Hollie talked to Erica after 5 yesterday and said she was in good spirits. They did take YouYou off the ventilator.

My mom told me that she spoke to Erica this morning before they went to the hospital. They were heading in to see her at 8:30 this morning. YouYou's nurse for last night was a very compassionate man. He has a 2 year old and assured Erica that he would take good care of her baby. Erica was very comforted by his words.

We got to see her

This is Melisa - We all got to go back to CICU to see YouYou. It was difficult for Erica to see her sweet baby with tubes and wires hooked up to her. Erica and Aaron kissed her forehead and whispered sweet things to her. We met her nurse. YouYou is her only patient. She was very sweet and is taking great care of YouYou. While we were in CICU the surgeon stopped by to check on us and answered a couple more questions. She is still running a fever.

After a few minutes we left Erica and Aaron alone with YouYou. They were able to stay with her for about 20 minutes longer. The nurse needed to do a few things for YouYou so she asked them to leave and come back to see her at 4:00.

Erica would really like to be able to go back to CICU outside of visiting hours when YouYou wakes up. Please pray for comfort for Erica and YouYou during this time. Please pray that the hearts of the hospital staff will be softened and allow Erica to spend extra time with her baby.

PS: There is a sweet little boy in the waiting room singing "Jesus loves me." Watching him sing makes Erica want to run over and give him a big hug.

The Doctor

The first thing he said when he walked into the room was "This was a tough one." He gave us lots of details and here are a few.

• The first "tough" part was that she had a fever of 101 after she was asleep. They will be keeping an eye on that over the next few days.
• The other "tough" part was her developing a funny heart rhythm. They almost had to shock her heart. Right before they put the paddles on, her heart started beating normally. (Thank you for everyone that was praying for her during this unknown time...Praise the Lord!)
• The VSD was very, very large. He was able to patch it and there is currently no leaking around the patch.
• The cleft in the mitral valve was very peculiar. The tissue is normally very thick, but hers was very thin and this made things a little more difficult. He was able to stitch the cleft and it seems to be leaking less.
• For some reason her tricuspid valve is now leaking a little more than it was before surgery. The head of cardiology looked at this and does not think it is because of the stitching around the VSD. It will need to be closely monitored.
• They attached the wiring for the pacemaker. This was planned because children with L-transposition are at a higher risk for heart block.
• She still has some bleeding that they will watch over the next couple of hours.
• They had to give her a blood transfusion because she was anemic. (We knew there was a good chance of her needing a transfusion because she is so small.)
• Lord willing, she will be waking up and off the ventilator around 5 tonight.

After the doctor was done giving us an update and answering questions, Aaron shook his hand and Erica gave him a hug. When he left we had a sweet time of prayer and thanksgiving. Thank you Lord for your loving care. We give You all the praise!

Surgery is over

YouYou's surgery has been completed. She is doing fine and we will get to see her in the next 30 minutes. More information to follow later...