Bella.....AKA One Awesome Baby

Isabella continues to do very well. They took the bandage off her chest today. She has soooo many staples in her chest. She also has staples in her neck from bypass. They have lowered some of her vent settings today. They will possibly take out her chest tubes tomorrow or the next day. They will look at her staples on Thursday and see if they are ready to come out. She is not taking much pain meds. She has not had any morphine in two days and no versed in three days. So she is tolerating her pain and recovering. Today she was actually reaching out and touching things with her hands. When her nurse was listening to her, she reached out and touched the nurses hand. Then, as I was holding her and reading, she saw my bookmark dangling and she reached out and grabbed it. I was thrilled to see her use her arms and hands!! We also saw a comparison of her chest x-ray preop and then post op. WOW!!! She has lots more room to breath. It was quite impressive. I guess it is not likely for this to happen again!!

So Matt and I are just spending about 95% of our time in Bella's room. I am missing Abby and Maddy so bad that I think I might go crazy. I cried last night for the first time in a few days from just missing them so much. Abby lost her first tooth, and she wants to give me her tooth fairy money to help out daddy and I since we are in KC!! HOW SWEET. I told her we are fine and she can spend her money how ever she wants. She said she really wants me to have it. Now how can that not just break my heart. We then ate dinner with some really great people last night. They were from a local church and had brought in a meal for the people at Ronald McDonald. So of course I told them all about our story and Bella. They then prayed with us and we shared our stories of faith and hope. It was amazing for both Matt and I.

For those of you from Oswego, you already know about Katherine. So for those of you who do not know. There is a little girl named Katherine from our home town, she is 5. She was shot in the head Saturday afternoon by a stray bullet while visiting their soon to be home here in the KC area over the weekend. They don't know who shot her. I can't even imagine the devastation this family is going through. My little Abby is that age!!! My heart is breaking for this family. She is in critical condition, she I hear is moving some on one side and that is about all I know. I guess the bullet is lodged and is unable to be removed. So please pray for Katherine.