It's a green day in more than one sense of the word!

Happy St Patty's Day! And we are having some unseasonably warm weather here in MN. Hey-O! So we ventured out to our neighborhood park to celebrate. Greta & mommy walked/waddled the block and a half to THE PARK! (this is always spoken about with an exclamation point behind it) and Greta even pushed her stroller full of animal friends there. Perhaps she is nesting? Preparing for baby brother? Maybe. Or maybe she just wanted to figure out a way I would let her bring her animals to the park. Either way we made it and daddy met us there after work. It does us all good to get outside and get a little fresh air! I included a pic of myself in the collage. You can see how....substantial... I am. I'm measuring 3 weeks ahead- oiye. And no, I'm not carrying twins, no need to ask. Enjoy a few pictures of us stealing some sunshine today.

One more: Recovery

So, I'll just make one post about Greta's illness and recovery. We have a few pictures of Greta at her most ill...mostly for her one day if she wants to see them. I'm still not comfortable sharing them- they stir up such intense feelings of vulnerability and sadness. However, I will post some pics of the massive machinery that Gboo was hooked up to, just so you can have an idea how she earned the name "miracle baby" in the PICU. I'll then post some pics from various stages in our recovery...and say a little prayer of thanks for where we are today. Hopefully the rest of our postings will all tell happier stories from here on out. However, it feels weird not to acknowledge this huge life changing event too so here goes....

ECMO...here's a look at the Extracorporeal Membrane Oxgenator (machine that oxygenates and circulates the blood outside of the body). The 2nd picture shows our child on her bed...you can see the large tubes carrying her blood in/out of her body that hook up to the ECMO (located to the left of this photo). You can also get a feel for how many meds she was on by the scads of IV "brains" that are at the foot of her bed. She was hooked up to the ventilator but it wasn't doing any of the work for her at the time (the ECMO was doing that) and the big lights were warming lights to make sure her toesies didn't get too cold. You can see why we couldn't just hang out in her room....there was no space.

Waking Up:

A few pictures of Greta once we got up to the 5th & 7th floors. She loved the wagon and it was a great way to get her out of the room when she was still too weak & sedated to get around herself. We had to re-teach her how to walk & swallow. Thankfully we did not have to re-teach her how to snuggle...

Going home & further recovery:

Greta slept through her departure from the hospital- but daddy's happy face says it all. She continued to have muscle weakness including weakness in her left eye. We've been going to PT & OT (leg work & upper body work) weekly since home and have seen remarkable progress. Finally when we said goodbye to all of the weaning drugs this week we are really seeing our little girl shining through again...an amazing gift. Kissing mommy's baby tummy & standing beside her amaryllis, you can get a glimpse of what we're seeing today.