One week to go: aka 7 days left.

A week to go. I can play the "what will be doing this time next week?/year?" game.

This time next week, we will hopefully be sitting near our baby who is out of surgery, and probably still sleeping. I imagine her looking pretty wiped, maybe not quite the right color, but content sleeping. Matt and I will probably leave when we feel comfortable that everything is settled and she'll have a good restful night. I will try my hardest to sleep that night. It would be our first night away from her.

Next year? Wow. She'll be walking, maybe talking a wee bit, and probably a crazy girl that keeps us non-stop busy. I imagine her having lots more hair, maybe a few curls and a laugh to melt your heart. I can see her scar healing amazingly well, and that she can keep up with the fastest kids. I imagine you'd never be able to tell she ever had a heart that needs fixin'.

What do we tell friends and extended family?:

The biggest thing people can do for us while we are going through this is exactly what everyone is already doing: just being around. It helps my heart so much to hear that people are praying for us and keeping us in their thoughts. It really does help me cope a little better.

At the bottom of the blog, I have a list of ways people can help, if they are really keen :)

ICU realities:

They do mention in here that there is a possibility of seeing one of the other patients (and their parents) go through some pretty traumatic events, even seeing their child die. I have no idea what to expect regarding what kind of events will be happening in there. Maybe Piper's case will one of the more serious ones, maybe it will be small potatoes in comparison to some. It's nice to have a moment to brace oneself... You just never know.

I do remember Matt's sister mentioning to us very early on in, that maybe Piper has this heart defect so that we could effect people somehow, even the people we meet in the hospital. Maybe it's one of those "for such a time as this" sorts of things. It might be a very "closed" environment, in that, every parent in there is dealing with the weight of their child's recovery, and no one is there to make friends. But maybe, in another way, it will be really "close" because we all have something similar that binds us together.

Anyways, they also say that the privacy of all the patients is important, so the nurses and staff won't discuss what is happening to other patients, though we are free to support fellow parents as we see fit.

Again, I just hope this ICU stint is short, but sweet. I think it might feel the longest, but will actually be the shortest.

Well, it looks like we may have given birth to child who is half shark, or something. She keeps popping out these teeth at a rapid rate.

She now has her top two teeth in, totalling 4, but I can see the two nextdoor neighbors coming in beside the top one! What? This does explain the last few nights, but honestly, baby! Give your parents a break. What do you need teeth so bad for? I haven't gotten a picture yet of the top ones, but they are most certainly there!