American Girls

God Bless the USA

Appointment with Dr. Baker-Smith

Dr. Baker-Smith is our assigned pediatric cardiologist and she is absolutely AMAZING.  She's very upbeat and caring as well as brilliant.  Adriana sees her once a week for routine checks.  Luckily, her office is in Westminister, MD and not in Baltimore.  Although it takes an hour and a half to get to her office, distance-wise it is actually closer (and more scenic) to us than Baltimore.  Also, it's nice not having to pay $7 for parking for every single appointment!

Today Adriana received an ultrasound of her heart, her oxygen saturation was checked, and she was weighed.  She is now 7 pounds, 11 ounces!  Her goal was to gain 15-30 grams a day, but she is actually averaging about 38 grams daily!  Her goal for eating is between 2.5-3 ounces every 2-3 hours:  She has been eating 3-5 ounces every 2 hours!  This is extremely important because the bigger Addy is when she goes in for surgery, the better.  It is very encouraging that she has developed such a "talent" for eating, because that will make for an easier recovery as well.  As for her saturations, they have dropped, but not by a significant amount.  Dr. Baker-Smith says that she will put Adriana on beta blockers next week if her oxygen level drops any more.  The medication will slow her heart rate, giving her ventricles more time to fill up with oxygen-rich blood to go out to the lungs.  This will buy time for her to grow and fatten up before having surgery.

Since Addy has been born, her heart has changed a great deal.  She still has two ventricular septal defects (VSDs or holes) as well as a hole between her atriums--hence the mixing of oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor blood.  She also still has double-outlet right ventricle, meaning her two valves are pulling from the one ventricle on the right (they should be pulling from opposite ventricles).  However, the concern before was that TOO MUCH blood was going to the lungs and not enough to the body.  Well, our special girl decided that she was going to form defenses inside her pulmonary artery to slow blood flow to her lungs.  Her cardiologist worries that she developed a little too much obstruction in that artery, unfortunately.  Because of the change in her physiology, this affects surgical options.  Surgical option #1 is closing one of the VSDs to make sure her two arteries pull from different ventricles and then doing some "patch work" in her pulmonary artery to allow more blood flow.  These are straight-forward procedures with great statistical outcomes.  Option #2 would be closing the aforementioned VSD, and installing a shunt in her pulmonary artery to allow more blood flow.  Like the other procedure, the installment of shunts is relatively common, and statistics are promising.  However, if Addy's heart requires a shunt, she will have to endure other surgeries down the road to install bigger shunts as she grows.  Obviously we would like to avoid that.  We hope that option #1 is viable, and it will be Adriana's only surgery.

The hole between her atrium will not affect her, and the second hole between her ventricles will most likely close on it's own.

I hope that I haven't confused anyone!  Basically, it's a "wait and see" situation, as before.  We cannot wait until we can put this all behind us and move on--we have no idea when that will be.  Surgery could be a few weeks or a few months from now.  Until then, we will be fattening her up... and she is not opposed to that ;)

Tateum sings to Addy and Cameron Kisses Her

Home Sweet Home...

Addy's labs and xrays looked great so she was finally released from the hospital yesterday! We will be attending many cardio appointments in Frederick and monitoring growth to determine when heart surgery is needed and what exactly it will entail.

We are soooo excited to have her home!!!!!

The girls are simply in love with her too...

Guess what!

Today Matt and I were told that Addy's heart is actually forming defenses by itself inside her pulmonary artery in order to regulate blood flow to her lungs better!  How amazing is our little girl?!  Although surgery will still have to be done to close the ventricular septal defects, her heart has proven to be strong as well as independently proactive.  This means that we will most likely be able to put off surgery for months.  Addy will have to attend many progress check-ups and we'll play it by ear. 

We are so excited that she is achieving all of her goals in regards to eating, oxygen levels, heart rate and blood pressure.  The doctors explained that unless there is a drastic turn of events, SHE WILL PROBABLY BE DISCHARGED ON MONDAY!!!

Adriana Ruth Schoonveld is Born

Matt and i welcomed our third gorgeous baby girl into this world at 12:01pm on Monday August 6, 2012.  Addy was 6 pounds, 7 ounces.  She was delivered via emergency c-section because of some circulation problems due to stress stemming from labor on the umbilical cord.  The doctors were not aware prior to birth, but her cord was not connected in a stable fashion to the placenta.  Instead, it was hanging onto the membranes surrounding it--this is dangerous.  Luckily, the doctors and sugeons were fast-acting when they realized something was hindering her  circulation and heart rate and were able to get Addy out before any damage was done. We are so very thankful.

Less than 6 hours after her birth, Adriana was taken off of her breathing assistance and has been thriving thus far.  Her oxygen levels, heart rate, and bodily functions have been in the normal range.  We are counting our lucky stars! 

Cardiologists are still monitoring her defects and we are still unsure of when she will be discharged.  They have confirmed the dextrocardia, two ventricular septal defects, and double-outlet right ventrical.  The additional monitoring will give them an idea of how to fix these problems.  It is promising, however, that it seems her right ventrical (which is the smaller of the 2) has been functioning very well.  We continue to pray--especially because rumor has it that she may need surgery in a couple months rather than 6 months down the road.

We will keep you updated!

Just a few more days...

It seems my amniotic fluid has increased to 10 since Monday.  This is a good sign and it looks like Monday the 6th will be the big day! We are very anxious (especially me) and hope that everything goes smoothly.  We also pray that Adriana's tests go well next week, as well as her bodily functions outside of my womb.