Leap day 2012

Jordan's surgery was scheduled to begin at 8:30am with anesthesia starting at 7:30am. We got to children's hospital around 6am and did all the regual registration stuff that one has to do at a hospital. We got called back to a "room" right on schedule where Jordan got wiped down with special wipes (they were warm too!) had all her vitals taken and then she was given a stylish gown :) We were very lucky that it was so early and she's such a good baby, she was sleeping most of the time, thank god becasue she hadn't eaten since 3am. 7:30 came and went, which we half expected, when are hospitals ever on time haha. We were informed we'd have a 30 min delay due to an emergency and since Jordan was perfectlt content we were alright with that. Waiting...waiting...waiting... Finally someone came and told us at around 8:50 that her surgery was pushed back by 2-3 HOURS due to the emergency surgery! I'm all about getting sick babies fixed but I would be lying if I said I didn't mind getting bumped, poor think was starting to get so hungry too. I decided I might as well go pump while I had the chance seeing as how I was going to have to do it every 3 hours anyway why not start now.  You'd think that being in a hospital setting, a Children's hospital setting no less, that one would be able to pump right there, no I had to go into the surgical center waiting room and find the "quiet room" which was occupied. Too bad haha I'm pretty sure I tramautized the teenager trying to do her homework in there by busting out my breastpump. Anywho, 5 mins into pumping Peter called my cell phone and with limited service I was able to make out "they are taking her NOW come back!" I have never moved to quick in my life, not that they would have, but I was just picturing them taking her back and me not getting to say goodbye. Needless to say I made it back within 30 secs and all was well, we had our quick hugs and kisses and that was that. We still don't know what changed from them telling us we'd have to wait 2-3 hours and then they took her 5 mins later. who knows.

in the "holding cell" before surgery, can you tell we'd been awake for 2 days straight

Heart families are special in the surgical center. We got a pager for text message updates and some meal vouchers. And now the real waiting began. We were pretty hungry so we chilled in the cafeteria and recieved our first page around 10:30 letting us know that surgery had started. A quick 30 mins later bypass had been started. Wow, just writing that is weird, my daughter was on bypass :( Everything seemed to go real quick after that. We just "relaxed" in the cardiology intensive care unit (CICU) waiting room; it was much calmer there and we were able go online and watch tv. Before we knew it we were making our way back to the surgical center to meet with Dr. Jonas (jordan's surgeon) because surgery was done. Everything had gone very good and Jordan was doing fantastic. They had closed her VSD and also found another small hole that they closed. They shaved down some "beefed up" muscle bundles in her right atrium, like we had thought, as well. Ever since Jordan was born we had been told that she had a large VSD, that's it. But apparently because of the muscle bundles and the other small hole Jordan's actual diagnosis was "pink tetrology of fallot". I haven't had a chance to look up exactly what that is but I will here shortly. We knew we now had about an hour before we could be reunited with Jordan up in the CICU. I was soooooo excited I couldn't wait to see her, I missed her. We had been told repeatedly that seeing her for the first time was going to be hard, we had went over all the tubes and stuff she would have with nurses and doctors, hell we even looked up pictures of other kids so we could prepare ourselves ahead of time. Whatever. NOTHING can prepare you for seeing your child like that Nothing...