Penny, the baby girl: HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

My family and I rang in the new year in West Hartford at my girlfriend's house with her family and our good friend Tanner. Audrey and her husband Tim had a wonderful dinner waiting for us. I have to say, Tim's quiche is even better than mine. We played guitar and sang kareokee until the ball was about to drop on Times Square. Then the 9 of us all waited eagerly as the ball began to drop. Nathaniel was in amazment that he was able to stay up "until the next day." At first he didn't believe me. I guess the concept that the day begins in the middle of the night was tough for him. But it helped when I explained the term "midnight." Tanner and Nathaniel basically ran around Audrey's house for 5 hours straight. I feel really bad that her house is now trashed, but in Tim's words, "it was to be expected." So that alleviated some of the guilt.

2009 is a scary year for me. I don't know where I will be working by the end of the year, but then, with this job market, I am sure I am not the only one. What makes me so special?

Anyway, I am excited to post my first post for the NEW YEAR!!! We made it to 2009!!

1 comment:

Melissa said...: HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU & YOUR BEAUTIFUL FAMILY!!! I'm so glad you guys had such fun...I miss ya'll!!

What makes you special? My goodness Mo, you're the most intelligent person that I know! Whomever is to hire you will be the luckiest company ever...BEST WISHES TO YOU & I will be praying that you find something wonderful & well deserving;) Whatever you do...PLEASE DON'T MOVE...LOL; January 1, 2009 at 5:24 PM

Penelope's Story

After waiting the full 40 weeks for this bundle to arrive, I finally went into labor on Memorial day, 2007. At about midnight, I called my midwife's office. I was told to wait. At 2 am my contractions felt on top of each other and I called my midwife's office again. By the time my dear husband, Scott was ready (I had my bag and Nathaniel's bag packed previously) it was 3 am. We arrived at the hospital at 3:30 after dropping Nathaniel off at my mother's house. When I was checked, it was discovered I was already at 6 centimeters! My wish was for a natural delivery so Scott worked hard at rubbing my back and making me comfortable. Oh, yeah, and I worked hard too! At 4:45 am I was ready to push! I thought this part would be quick since my first child took about 30 minutes at this stage. However, this baby decided to take her time. At 6:30 am I was still pushing and my midwife, Mary, arrived just in time for the delivery. As she was gowning up I had to stifle my urge to push for a few moments and then before I knew it, Penelope Adara Ringrose came into this world at 6:51 am! Scott cut the umbilical cord as she laid on my abdomen.

It was a surprise that I had a baby girl, and I am glad I decided not to find out the sex. Another surprise we learned at birth was that Penelope had a little something extra, as in an extra 21st chromosone. I knew the second I saw her that she had Down syndrome, but I thought I could have been wrong. Then at 7:30 am, the acting pediatrician explained to Scott and me that our daughter had a lot of characteristics of Down syndrome. I couldn't believe that on this day that was supposed to be so joyous, I was receiving what I thought at the time was such devastating news. I didn't know much about Down syndrome. Scott and I were left alone to bond with her for a little while and then she was taken away at about 9 am to be checked over. The worst news was yet to come when we learned at 10 am that they suspected cardiac issues. The neonatalogist introduced himself and advised that Penelope could not maintain her blood oxygen saturation on her own and would have to be transfered to another hospital where she would need life-saving surgery. At CCMC (Connecticut Children's Medical Center), we learned that she has tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia (she is missing the pulmonary artery).

Her first surgery was on June 4, 2007 when she was just 6 days old. The surgeon had hoped to be able to do a full repair at this time, but Penny's anatomy did not enable this to happen. The surgeon was able to put in a Blalock-Taussing (or BT) shunt which kind of gives the blood a detour to the lungs so that it has a chance to be oxygenated. After 20 days total in the hospital, Penelope came home the day before she was 3 weeks old and was able to attend her brother's pre-school graduation.

She was scheduled to have her second surgery on November 27, but during triage at CCMC, it was determined that she had a pseudoanerysm on her right groin and the surgeon did not think it was safe to proceed. The pseudolanerysm resulted from a diagnostic catheter procedure that Penny had on November 14 to see if she was ready for another surgery.

We took our chances that she would be home for Christmas and had her surgery re-scheduled for Monday, December 17 . It was an uneventful surgery except that it was longer than we anticipated. We last saw her at 7:50 am and we did not hear news until a little after 4 pm. The breathing tube was taken out at about 2 pm the next day. Wednesday, the chest tubes were supposed to come out, but a pneumo thorax was found in the chest space and perhaps, leaving the chest tubes in was a better idea. One of the three tubes was removed on Thursday and we were able to begin feeding her from a bottle. Friday, the remaining chest tubes were removed and I was able to breast feed her again! Penny was doing so well she came home the next day and was indeed home in time for Christmas.

We all love her so much and can't imagine life without our beautiful baby girl.

Penny, the baby girl

Thursday, January 1, 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

1 comment:

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