Caught in UVAs gravitational pull

We're home again and here are the few things we've learned from our four-day jaunt to UVA:

1) We continue our record of not being able to come home from the hospital in a regularly scheduled fashion. Fortunately this time it was just one day extra.

2) Molly likes enalpril now. Phew. She did great with her new medication, though she gave the nurses a horrible time at getting her blood pressure. They can put a pacemaker in a 4 1/2 pound baby, but they can't make a blood pressure cuff that works well. Go figure.

3) Molly actually likes the hospital! No really. I'm almost a bit offended because she was insanely happy the entire time. In fact, she started laughing while we were there. It's more of a partial cackle than a guffaw, but still cute. She smiled huge at every nurse and doctor who came in. I think she likes the attention. Uh oh. That plus this trip was waaaaaaay easier on her because they didn't have to put an iv in her and the thermometers they have in this part of the hospital give a reading in 3 seconds versus the 2 minute ones in the NICU.

4) We still love our UVA family. Those who came by for a visit (word spreads fast when you're back :)— Dr Mike (turns out he rotated to the floor where we were!), Aunt Pam (pronounced Pay-yam), Katie and Laura (Gretchen and Sam's mommy's respectively and fellow pumpers), and of course the cardiac team including my comedy partner Rebecca, Dr Snyder and GMac, our EP. I also ran into tons of others around the hospital that were great to catch up with.

5) Sleeping in a hospital "bed" (aka a chair that reclines) is, sadly, better than having to leave your child at night. We're glad we graduated to the big girl pediatric ward. However, having to share a room stinks. Turns out to infants in one room equals a lot of crying. We shared with Laura, a 2 month old twice the size of Molly that was having unexplained seizures. By day four, her and Molly were actually waking up and feeding at the exact same times all night. Which was weird, but convenient. I also felt like the wise old lady of the hospital because I got to share tons of things with Laura's parents.

6) Lastly, it's that this won't be our last extended stay at UVA. The doctors do want to go ahead with the bi-ventricular pacemaker surgery. They think it's the best chance she has at saving her heart. Dr MacDaniel (aka GMac) told us that there was a 60-80% chance of success to resolve the cardiomyopathy with this new kind of pacemaker. We're waiting for a meeting with the surgeon to discuss timing and procedure, but they want to do it as soon as possible. Everyone is mostly concerned with her ability to heal again (since last time her inability to heal kept us there about 8 weeks longer than we wanted). Because her skin may still be very fragile, they're discussing doing a would vac from the start this time. Meaning she won't be stitched up after surgery so she can't split them again and cause more damage. If they do proceed with this, it means we're looking at about 2-3 weeks recovery with no complications (and we all know how complicated Molly can be). Brian and I are convinced that this new pacemaker surgery is the way to go and we're hoping this time little Molly has a smoother ride. We just can't wait to be on the other side of all this and see her finally improving.

No pics this time because I forgot the camera. I do have cute ones on my camera phone if anyone is interested in getting a Molly text. :) Thanks to all for the continuing love and support!