Big Girl

Emma is now a whopping 9 pounds! We got to drive her to get a shot last week in our own car for the first time. It was so exciting. She did so well. Healthbridge is talking about a discharge date of late May to early June right now. We are not holding our breath as we expected her home in time for Christmas, but it is nice to have a timeframe. Emma is starting to be a lot of fun. She entertains herself in bed and has started to give us kisses on our cheeks. It is quite entertaining as it looks like she is trying to eat our faces. We got some great video footage of this. I will create a video file and upload it to the Internet later this week. As soon as I do, I will send you the link. I am attaching a link to a new online photo album. Thanks again for all of your support!

3-14-06 Update

Emma has been cruising along with no real estimate of when she can come home. She turns 8 months old on Thursday. She is currently eight and a half pounds. Since my last update, Emma has started to move a little bit in her crib. Every once in a while she will completely roll over, but she can squirm and turn 90 degrees in her bed so that she can see her mobiles better. We gave her some fingers full of baby food this past week just to see if she would take it. She licks it, but still has a hard time swallowing. We also recently took her on a field trip to a doctor’s appointment off-site in an ambulance. That was a lot of fun because it was almost normal as we sat in the waiting room of the doctor’s office. Next week we get to take her on our own to another appointment. That will be scary, but so exciting. Yesterday we had a professional photographer come to Healthbridge to take some good photos of her.

Emma News

Sorry it has been so long since I last updated you about Emma. She is doing pretty well. Over the weekend she seemed to have a cold and fever, but beyond that she has been cruising along. Last week she took a couple of field trips to doctor's appointments offsite via ambulance. She enjoyed being outside. It was almost normal sitting with Emma in my arms waiting to see her cardiologist in the waiting room. Her cardiologist was very happy with her progress post heart surgery and wants to see her again in May. She is still having issues with oral feeding, but her other devlopment is progressing. She tracks well with her vision and has discovered her hands. There is still no time frame for coming home, but we see gradual improvements.