On the 3rd day, she rose again... (too cliche?)

I find this blog very hard write. I have spent so much time telling and re-telling the story. I want to get it out there once and for all, but it takes a toll on my emotions reliving it. So thank you for bearing with me.

So when we left off in the last post we were about to meet our surgeon. But more importantly we had her baptized.

The day she was born, her Daddy went around the hospital looking for a priest. We were unable to find one. The chaplan said when he returned she would have him come see us. The next day there was a knock at the door. We explained our situation to him and told him she would be having surgery soon. He followed us to the NICU where he proceeded to Baptize her with the Holy Water we had brought with us. We would have liked to have had her grandparents present, but under the circumstances we had to do what we had to do. She was Baptized in the name of The Father, The Son & The Holy Spirit by Father Ajiboye.

The fabulous Dr. Polimenakos would take the time out of his day, on the day of her surgery, to sit with us in the NICU. He grabbed a blank piece of paper and proceeded to draw out a heart. He demonstrated to us exactly what was wrong and how he was going to fix it. We were concerned with it being a teaching hospital, and having just watched the first 3 seasons of Grey's Anatomy, that an intern maybe helping in the procedure. He assured us that he would be the one performing the surgery and that no interns would be touching her. Dr. Polimenakos had 3 baby hearts to operate on that day. Faith would be the last one of the day. It was a Friday.
We sat in the NICU for hours that day. We had not been able to hold our little girl at all. She had so many wires and things hooked up to her, they felt it was not safe. One nurse however felt it was a good idea that we hold her before her surgery. We are forever thankful to you Nurse Megan for bundling up our little girl so that we may hold her before her surgery. This would be the first time her Daddy had EVER held her.

She was wrapped in her cute little lady bug blanket. A red hat to match. Nurse Megan had dug through the bag of knit hats to find a red one to match. We hold this hat near and dear, she would later wear this hat throughout her entire surgery.
So the clock ticked by. We took turns holding our little girl. Tensing up every time the door to the NICU opened. It seemed like the time was never going to come. Not that we wanted her to have a surgery, but we wanted it to be over so she could begin healing. After several hours the nurses offered to call us if we wanted to go get something to eat. We did leave for a short bit to grab a bite, but then straight back up to the NICU to be by her side. Finally the time came. The staff prepared her for surgery. We kissed her and said our "see you laters". Fighting back the tears, we sent her off in the trusted hands of Nurse Kristin. She assured us that everything was going to be OK. That she would keep us updated the whole way. We gathered our emotions and our things and moved to the PICU. It would be several hours before she would arrive there. The other 2 babies were out of surgery and were with their parents. The clock would tick and tick and tick as we awaited the return of our baby. We tried to get cozy in the PICU, but who could get cozy not knowing if their baby was going to be OK.
After about an hour Nurse Kristin came in with her lady bug blanket to give to us. We would put it in the bag with the other blanket we were keeping for her. You see when we were planning a funeral for her, before she was born, I wanted a pretty soft white blanket for her to be buried in. My mother and mother in-law had purchased one for us. I kept it with her the whole time she was in the hospital. I wanted to make sure she had in case something happened. Anyways, I immediatly asked where her little red hat was. She smiled and said, she is still wearing it and will keep it on during surgery. That made me smile. She said they had started and she   would check in with us in a bit. Tick, Tick, Tick... after several more hours she came out again. She told us that she is doing well and that the surgeon would be out soon to talk with us. They asked us to go in the waiting room while they brought her up. That they had a lot of things to plug in and arrange.
We sat in the waiting room for a bit. Dr. Polimenakos came in with a smile. He always had a friendly face. He proceeded to tell us that things went well and that he was pleased. The original repair he had performed did not take well. It did not allow the pressures to be appropriate for her upper and lower body. He had to then take the repair apart and perform a new one. He explained that instead of tying the 2 ends of the coarc together, he had to take an artery from her left arm, splice it and patch it in. This was much more successful than the first attempt. We were relieved that he was confident in the second repair.
and now we wait again......
Finally they came in and said she was all set, that we could see her. Nothing can prepare you for seeing your child go from being wrapped in a cute blanket and hat, to a baby hooked up to wires and tubes and not breathing on their own. We asked Dr. Polimenakos how long she would be on a ventilator? He said he couldn't say for sure. That every baby is different. If she did well overnight, it could be as early as the next day. That excited us, for the time being. My husband was concerned about her eating. She had only been fed nutrition in the NICU through the tube in her belly button since they can not eat before surgery. The surgeon explained that her gut would have to be functioning before she could start to eat. They could not have her vomiting while in this condition. They would start her with a sort of sugar water. If she handled that they would proceed to give her something else and eventually Moms milk. After all I had a quite the stock pile for her. They don't allow parents to stay in room that night since the lights would be on and she would need a lot of close care. We eventually left after seeing her for a bit.
The next day would be the start of another gut wrenching weekend...
To be continued....