Hi everyone,
This has been a very busy week for us as the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix was this week and Brody was very busy "fixing" the "noisy" cars. We started getting Lila used to them and she seems like she will fit right in at the Vintage - she slept through 95% of it and didn't seem to be bothered by the cars at all. Lila has continued to do pretty well this week. She is up to about 7 pounds, 2 ounces. Our home health nurse was a little concerned about her weight gain last week when she only gained an ounce over 3 days and we had another visit to the pediatrician to talk about supplementing/fortifying, but Lila had a much bigger gain by that appointment and the pediatrician wasn't concerned and said she was gaining at a good rate. We will continue to monitor this, but it seems like she ha a least hit the 7 pound mark and hopefully stays over it.
The title of this post has to do with what a small world Pittsburgh is. As most of you know, my dad is a mechanic for foreign cars. Well, this morning a yellow Alfa Romeo pulled into my dad's lot at work and the owner started saying that he was referred to my dad by a few people. My dad has been fixing Alfas for years so this happens often. While making small talk with the owner my dad learned that the owner was a surgeon down at Children's Hospital. The connection was quickly made that the owner of the Alfa was in fact Lila's surgeon, Dr. Burns! I don't know how much I believe in karma, but I feel like this is our chance to pay Dr. Burns back for the amazing job he did and the wonderful care he gave Lila. My dad never got the chance to meet him in the hospital because he typically checked on her on weekdays in the middle of the day. Dr. Burns even told my dad that Lila's case was a "1 in a 100" case in that her quick recovery and successful introduction and tolerance of feeds is not the norm. It made me realize again how fortunate we are and what a great outcome Lila has had so far. Later, I want to write a list of the things that I think contributed to her success (at least what we had control over) specifically for those reading this who are currently dealing with a pregnancy complicated by gastroschisis, but right now, I need to go get Brody. It is storming again and he really does not like the thunder. Before his bath, he asked me to, "throw the thunder in the garbage," (a direct quote!).
I'll leave you all with some pictures from our weekend at the Vintage. Lila also got to meet her Uncle Jimmy this weekend and spend more time with her Aunt Barb!
I love the idea of a list of decisions you made that really helped Lila. That would be a huge help to us, too! Our little guy now has a loop of bowel measuring 18 mm, so I'm thinking delivery might be in the near future. They've always planned to do a c-section at 37 weeks at the latest anyway, but I'm now only almost 33 weeks. Did Lila show much dilation during ultrasounds? Thanks for all the information and the happy progress! You're helping us be hopeful! Take care! Helen
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