Getting better

I think Gabe and Brian are over their jet lag. Gabe slept through the night the past two nights. I, however, can't sleep for longer than 3 hours at a time. I get up for a couple hours and then go back to my series of naps. Gabe went to his pediatrician on Monday and the doctor was very pleased with how healthy (overall - but he has an ear infection right now) Gabe looked and acted. He admitted that he was expecting something else entirely when we described his diagnosis before we left. It was encouraging. He had to get a chest xray, which I convinced my sister to take him in for me. Then we had to try to get blood for some tests, which was unsuccessful and horribly painful to watch. The nurse said that many factors were making it difficult to get a vain and our other choice was to do a finger prick and fill a vial. She went to my doctor and asked if these were critical at this point because we were getting Gabe so stressed out that he was getting more cyanotic (turning blue) which he already has some signs of in his fingers and toes. However, getting so upset was making his mouth and around his eyes turn blue. He will have to get blood work done before surgery, so we decided all of the less critical tests can be done at the same time. It is so heartbreaking to see a child go through pain and not even be able to explain what is going on to them. I know I am going to have to toughen up here, but it is hard, he is a baby. The good news is that the pediatrician and his surgeon (whom we ran into) both commented on how well he was looking and I am feeling that is a good indication. We see Dr. Shah on Friday and he will be ordering tests for more specific information. I think by the end of next week, we will know a lot more of what we are looking at and have a date for surgery. Again, we will keep you posted. I just wanted everyone to know that on the day to day, things are getting better. I have excepted the fact that my house will never look the same and pretty much nothing will be the same. It is all a good thing! Our families have been SO supportive since we have been back. It is great. I know there are many others who would like to meet our little man, so as soon as we have the date of the surgery, we are going to try to throw a little meet and greet together. We love to show him off . We will keep posting periodically, so keep checking back.