Little Bella has captured the hearts of our family and everyone that meets her. We want to share her story with all.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Meeting Arabella

We took care of many legal matters all morning, but the excitement started at 10:50 when we meet Arabella’s mother at the hospital. Michele is a wonderful, caring woman. I love her very much. We also got to meet Arabella’s sister – she is so cute!

After Michele signed all the necessary papers, we were allowed into the NICU. We meet two of the neonatologists and many of the nurses that have cared for and loved Arabella for these past two months. They love Arabella! She was a very sick little girl. A lot sicker than I realized. I have so many new words to look up and learn. The scariest thing for me to hear is that Arabella is in heart failure. Wait – don’t panic. The doctor told me that most babies are younger when they go into heart failure. Is that good? We are playing a crazy game now. They want her to reach this all important goal of weighing 10 pounds before they do the heart repair. They can do it before, but it would be better to wait till she is that big. So they support her heart function until she gets to the magic ten pounds and then they operate. She is on Lasix (I thought that was something people did to their eyes, but it is a diuretic) and lanoxin(helps the heart beat stronger and in a more regular rhythm)and aldactazide (another diuretic) as well as sodium and potassium because of the diuretics.

It is scary to sit and watch this little one breathe so fast because her body has to work harder than you and I do to get the oxygen her body needs.

Arabella is a fighter. She has overcome so many obstacles. We will get through this. Now, enough with my ramblings and onto the good stuff……….Arabella.

arabella day 1 006 arabella day 1 007 arabella day 1 008 arabella day 1 009

 

 

I love her toe - it’s higher than the others, so cute!

 





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