Audrina 7 weeks old

I know many of you are checking up on Audrina, and I just honestly have to tell you I've avoided posting the past few days mostly because we had been doing relatively well since leaving the hospital. I guess I was afraid that something else would go wrong. It did, and it didn't come as much of a surprise to our family, because we felt all along last week like it was not the end of these issues. They said she had RSV and they hoped when that cleared up things would get better, but Adam and I both felt very strongly something more was going on.

Audrina had almost 5 days after we left the hospital where she was not having apnea spells, and other than breathing a little hard and her heart a little fast, things seemed to be moving in the right direction. She came home on 1/2 a liter of oxygen and triple the dose of caffeine she was on before we went back into the ER. Then all of the sudden her apnea's went out of control again, she had 14 in a 24 hour span and her heart rate started to climb again, at one point reaching the 230's while she was sleeping.

This prompted lots of calls back and forth from the cardiologist, pulmonologist, and infant monitor people. The cardiologist ended up diagnosing her with something called SVT, Supraventricular Tachycardia, which basically means her heart rate goes crazy for no real reason. It's just a type of arrhythmia. It should hopefully respond well to the medication she will be on for it, called Atenolol.
We see the cardiologist again in a few days and then we will discuss the other issue with her heart, which is that her left ventricle isn't contracting as well as it should be, which has decreased the overall function of that side of her heart.

Her reflux is worsening and I plan on telling them we need something stronger, she's screaming a lot in between feedings despite being upright and taking her meds. She hasn't been pooping again either, which finally culminated in a giant car-seat-soaking explosion today. She's still snoozing away all but about 10 minutes a day... and I LIVE for those few minutes with her eyes open staring at me. As soon as I see those little peepers, I drop whatever it is I'm doing and just sit and talk with her, cuddle her. I feel like 10 minutes a day is all I get to promise her that everything's going to be okay, that we love her to pieces and we are so happy she's ours.

I can't believe she's 7 weeks old today. I wish I had more fun updates on her... like that she's doing baby 'stuff'...... but mostly she's just busy eating and sleeping. :)  I will add that out of our four lovely ladies, she is the most fantastic nurser. I am bottle feeding her mostly now, so I can keep track of her growth and intake better in these crucial first weeks, but she's totally going to be a boob baby and I cannot wait to have an awesome breastfeeding and bonding experience with her through her babyhood....hoping to make it to her first birthday or however long she wants to.

We won't know any more on the metabolic stuff and the future of the heart dysfunction until we meet with those specialists again next week. We're just hoping for no long-term problems and as we've learned with Addison.... EVERY day is so precious. We are just trying to let her be our baby right now, and not spend time worrying about what her tomorrows may involve.