Get out of Jail Free

Today, it feels like we were handed a "get out jail free" card. We took Bayla for a follow up visit to Dr. Rosenthal, and amazingly, he said to come back in THREE MONTHS! Over the last year, we have had at least 15 visits to the cardiologist, and to not have to come back for three whole months feels like a tremendous triumph. Besides answering all our questions (No, captapril does not have to be given in the middle of the night, 3x a day will do), Dr. Rosenthal spent a large chunk of time explaining heart function to us. Aided by a large wall chart, we were given an extensive tour of the heart, arteries, ventricles, etc. etc. I certainly know more than I ever thought I would. Regardless, it feels great to be free...shabbat shalom.

Birding Help

Anyone out there know what this is? He appeared on our lawn this afternoon, stalked around a bit, scared off the little birds, and then flew away.

Yes Sir, That's My Baby

Wow. It seems like Bayla is recovering by the hour. I figured that she would lay down for story time, and instead, she sat up straight as can be for the whole thing. She especially liked the bubbles at the end, which were blown around by a small fan.

Recovery is a funny thing, and it really hit home today when I was looking for something, and Abe remarked, "I haven't lived at home for the last two weeks either." Right. We weren't living at home. That really hit me. That's partly why it feels SO good to be home. I'm rediscovering the things I like about being here, and remembering the harsh side too (laundry!). Mostly, normal never felt so good.

And on Being Back at the Clinic

We went back to the Clinic today for post-op follow up. Everything was going along well, until we laid Bayla down on the exam table. Man, did she put up a fuss! You would have thought we were going to operate all over again. We were so proud of her for expressing her displeasure. Happy to say that so far, everything looks really good. She's almost up to her pre-operation weight, her blood is fully oxygenated, and funny thing, her voice is much louder than it ever has been. Go figure. Tomorrow, if she's up to it, we're going to try out a baby class at the library. I've never been so excited by story time in my life. It feels like such a miracle...

On Being Home

The doctors and nurses at the Cleveland Clinic often commented on Bayla's sweet personality. How little she complained, for instance, while they poked her over and over again last Sunday and Monday, searching for a a vein. But the truth is that from the moment she woke up from the surgery last Shabbos until she was discharged, she never babble-talked and showed, at most, the occasional hint of a smile. So it has felt like a miracle to hear Bayla talking and to see her smile again this weekend.

Getting Better All the Time

Happy to report that Bayla is making a smooth transition to home. She's wearing an adorable outfit, courtesy of my manager, and let me tell you, it feels GOOD to be out of the hospital, and IN clothes. For those of you who remember Bayla's sweet little voice, it's funny, but she has a much louder one now. After all the worry about her vocal chords, maybe she just needed more oxygen? maybe the one vocal chord was un-paralyzed during surgery? Hard to figure. Either way, she was up babbling from 2-4 this morning, which while irritating on one hand, was great to hear on another. Bayla is still a bit pale, but over all she's doing really well.

A Good Shabbos

Here we are--it's hard to believe it--at home! I can truly say I've never been so happy to see a house. Our kids are amazing--we came home to mushroom barley soup and homemade bread, both courtesy of Naomi. She also had challah rising, and things generally in control. Dalia and Smantha helped us get packed and out of the hospital, Dani had shoveled the walk, Coby showed us his home improvement projects (eat your heart out HGTV). Back to the hospital for follow-up on Monday. And just remeber, "You gotta have heart, all you really need is heart" and thank G-d, Bayla's got a GOOD ONE!

Shabbat Shalom from Cleveland.

Channeling Tony Orlando and Dawn

We're coming home! We've certainly done our time (if the narrator had "done his time," wasn't he a convict? Explain to me why we now use yellow ribbons for people who are heroes).

Auntie Gina predicted that after this was all over we would feel like a black cloud had lifted from our lives. In most ways, she's right. After recovery, it's time to move on and enjoy our little girl.

Bayla and I (and the rest of our family too) just need some quiet time at home to recover from the surgery, the extreme lack of sleep, beeing poked, prodded, and examined. We are DEFINITELY looking forward to this Shabbat.

Mother and Child; Unhooked and Reunited

Shoshana and Bayla, unencumbered and off for an electrocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart).

Show Me the Way to Go Home

As Tennessee Ernie Ford, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and most importantly my father used to sing:

Show me the way to go home
I'm tired and I want to go to bed
I had a little drink about an hour ago
And it went right to my head

Well we wish we had had a drink, but for some reason the Clinic doesn't have a bar. Bayla has been fever-free for over 24 hours, her last drainage tube from her chest was removed a while ago, and they're about to remove her pace wires (never needed, thank G-d, but there just in case). This afternoon, we'll have an echocardiogram, and then another round of waiting. It's hard how time moves here--both too fast and too slow.

Let's Go! Home Edition

Getting There: Automobile is preferred, RTA will do in a pinch.

Accommodations: Wonderful beds, topped with homey covers, squishy pillows.

Dining: Meals to taste, including scrambled eggs, buttered homemade toast, tea upon request, and the occasional chocolate for desert. Be sure to ask for the house special of harisa on top of anything and everything. Dani's fried potatoes are the highlight of the dining experience.

Getting Friendly With the Locals: Be sure to check out the icicles, present everywhere. Touch the snow, ponder the fact that Eskimos have 50 different words for it. Transport yourself back to the time you found out that that information is actually false. Wonder at the cold, and how the animals and natives survived.

Entertainment: Bayla's antics.

Sites to See: Pay homage to G-d in the living room, make a stop in the sun-filled family room for a beautiful view of the back yard.

Kids/Pets Friendly: Definitely.

Reservations: Make yours now, we've reserved the near future.

The Key

As it turns out the key to Coby's Honda was in my (Abe's) inside jacket pocket. Since this is Cleveland, and not LA or NY, it still cost only $16 to get out of the lot.

The Next American Idol

Look who's ready to play, ready to sing, ready to sing out the fact that she is SO much better...Bayla has not had a fever since early this morning, which is really a big step towards going home. As of late this afternoon, she and we had been moved to the step-down unit, and then to a private room in the step-down unit.

The private room is really only because they think she might still be infectious. We think it's a bonus because there is a bathroom, and an extra bed. Don't tell the nurses that we're going to actually USE the extra bed. Coby dropped off Naomi and Dalia on his way to wrestling practice. Abe took Dalia and himself home, and Naomi is staying for a sleep-over/sewathon. Let's hope for a quiet night, no more fever and mention of the "H" word (HOME).

Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

You might, and I certainly might, but I can't get there without the CAR KEYS that I've lost somewhere in the hospital. Coby, I hope you don't mind your car being snowed in at the Cleveland Clinic long term, as I search and search and search for the key...if anyone out there knows where the spare is, let me know.

Much more pressingly, Bayla's fever is down to 99! And it turns out that Dr. Mumtaz "didn't know" that you're not allowed to sleep in bed with a child under the age of two. Whoops. Really, in the end, I didn't sleep anyway, more just laid awake with her all night...

Good Morning Sunshine

Well, things are a bit better--Bayla is down to 101.1, a manageable fever. We spent a restless night curled up in bed together, so at least that part was nice. I really wish this fever would break, she deserves to just heal from the surgery. Oddly enough, no one even mentions her heart any more. The results of the surgery have been fabulous, which of course is so exciting. Now, if we can just get past the fever, past the chyle, I think we'll be headed home. Not holding my breath though, since we're still in the PICU.

Yesterday, Coby drove Anna to the Akron airport (2 hours round trip), and then came to the hospital on the way to wrestling on the West Side. Frustratingly, his coach got a business call and had to leave almost right away. Instead, he drove to the JCC and worked out there, but got stuck in traffic on the way. Anna went back to college, and got to NYC in time to hop in a cab and make it to work. Naomi took Dalia to get braces. She just has braces and wires on her front two teeth at this point, but we anticipate more later. Dani was back and forth to the hospital, and I think caught the inauguration at Gramma and Grampas house.

Let's hope for more improvements today.

Bayla Improves

Bayla really is improving, as Dani and Shoshana's smiles suggest. Yesterday's high fevers were frightening (you feel your life's concerns suddenly shrink to just one), but the worst of this episode, G-d willing, seems to have passed. This morning I watched the inauguration with her in my arms, though it was hard to concentrate on the civic moment. Bayla seemed to perk up for Aretha. Good taste.

Reunited

Happy to report for the evening:

1) Dr. Mumtaz pointed out that since Bayla's chest tube drainage is still milky-white, we are not 100% meeting our goal through de-fatted breastmilk. Instead, he says, just nurse her, sleep with her (phew), and we'll wait it out, checking w/daily chest x-rays for a resolution. Yippee!
2) Bayla's fever is trending downward, and she hasn't gone over 102 all day long.

Answer of the Day

Evidently, the answer (see previous post) of the day is a resounding YES. By the time I arrived at the hospital, Bayla had woken up with a small smile for Abe, and the CT scan had been cancelled (not enough information for the amount of distress for the child). Bayla, as you can see, has always been a great kisser. She's also guzzling her milk, which is gratifying given what we've had to go through to get it ready for her.

Question of the Day

Got Hope? That's the question of the day. Bayla seems to have stablilized a bit in terms of her fever (106.7 is SCARY), and her chyle is mostly done. Yesterday, she had one drainage tube from her chest removed, leaving just one more. Today, she's scheduled for a CT scan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computed_tomography) to rule out anything to do with her fever, specifically something going on in her lungs. The scan requires six hours of not eating, which I highly doubt she'll be happy about. (I wouldn't!) Loads and loads of snow out there, more expected today.

On the family front, Anna goes back to college today, and Dalia gets braces. Coby and Dani are going to clean their room (right?), and Naomi will shuttle back and forth. Off to the hospital.

Today was a nice one for visiting. As you can see from the blurriness of the picture, Bayla was pretty active. She was up to all her tricks, flailing, doing crazy crunches to try to get upright, and rolling over. We aren't allowed to let her roll onto her stomach for fear of hurting her scar, but we could hold her on our laps in an upright position, which she seemed to enjoy. Being able to hold her was terrific.

Bayla continues to be feverish, though it now seems to be dropping, her temp hasn't gotten below 102F in a while. Because of this, the doctors decided to put an IV in her. Keep Bayla hydrated and start the antibiotics, that's the plan. Our anesthesiologist is great, and she managed to get her just sedated enough to tolerate the needle without it being so much that she would need to be intubated. It also let her nap a bit, though she has yet to get even a solid 60 minutes of sleep.

Happily, we have gotten the OK to feed Bayla breastmilk again, provided it is skimmed. We're trying all sorts of shenanigans to skim the fat off the top, and saving it until she is digesting well enough to need it again. The formula we were giving her smelled, and not in an appetizing way. She is loving the breastmilk, and eating much more enthusiastically now.

The day was capped off by a great dinner over at Grandma and Grandpa's, and we all --except Dad, who is staying the night-- came home to collapse into bed.

-Naomi

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun or in which Big Bad John Takes More Bloood

Another day of waiting. Bayla is up, fidgety, in our arms (or Naomi's arms, Anna's arms, or Dad's arms), and quite feverish. She's hovering between 102-105 + which is just too hot for comfort. Right now, they're culturing everything in sight--nose, blood, urine, chest tube gunk, etc. Maybe something will turn up (RSV?) maybe not, we'll see. Of course, since Bayla's a fighter, it took John, (the huge human) a baby vein specialist to find her vein. Still waiting on results.

Meanwhile, the chest tube drainage looks a bit better, and she's on special short-chain-fat formula which should help improve the situation. The only part that's truly hard is that it looks like we're in for the long haul. It's so disorienting being in the hospital for so long--is it day or night? Warm? Cold? We could be in Tahiti, or we could be in Cleveland, it's hard to tell because we're so continually inside (although, I'm pretty sure it's NOT Tahiti). I'm loving these kids wherever we are.

Front Step, Back Step, Side Step, Cha Cha Cha

Back to the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) for us. It took a team of many to find a vein for Bayla--she's got an IV antibiotic in right now, and things are not super great, so they're sending us back. Really, that's fine with us, and we probably were sent out a bit too early anyway. Anna came and sat with Bayla this morning, Gramma and Grampa came for a long visit, and Coby is going to go get Naomi from the airport. Thanks again for all the food, good wishes, prayers, visits and cards.

I Feel Your Temperature Risin'

Actually, things aren't so great right now--Bayla had a fever over night--I kept telling them that, and the nurses just took her armpit temp and said it wasn't high. She fretted and fussed ALL NIGHT LONG! I literally had no sleep. To go a step further, she really spiked a fever, and now we're waiting for infectious diseases to tell us which antibiotic to use. What's more, they couldn't find a vein and had to poke her again and again to get the iv in and a blood sample. Rats. Poor little girl is glassy eyed and fussy. More later.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Sideways

Bayla had a really rough night--fussy, feverish, kicking, etc. At rounds today, I discussed the situation with Doc Rosenthal. It seems she has a lot of milky white drainage from her chest tubes (chyle, in case you were interested), and the tubes will have to stay in at least another day. Definitely an impediment to going home. What's more, if the milky-whiteness doesn't improve, she will have to go off breastmilk, and on to a short-fat formula which will hopefully reverse the situation. That's problem one. Problem two is a fever (102.2) which I mentioned all night long, but wasn't taken seriously until the morning. As a result, Bayla has been blood and urine cultured to check for infection...let's just hope these are sideways steps and not major steps backwards.

How Being in the Hospital is Like a Game of Poker

3 yoga mats on the floor beats one miserable green plasticy chair.

1 Bikur Cholim meal beats any number of Mon Cuisine (or is it NON Cuisine) hospital meals (even if they are delivered on styrofoam trays).

1 cup of tea with hot water from the Ronald McDonald room beats weak coffee from a vending machine.

1 fussy baby up all night beats 1 sedated baby, too weak to open her eyes. We love you, Bayla.

And to quote Uncle Sam, "One full house beats them all, and at this rate, you'll be there soon."

Coming Around

Bayla is getting stronger every hour. I left the hospital tonight to go home, shower, and see the kids. By the time I returned, she was even more alert than before. She is nursing well, and is SO happy to have her arms free so she can suck her thumb. I read her a story (courtesy of Dalia), and hopefully, we'll pass another uneventful night.

A Great Shabbos, In Fact

Shoshana, Bayla and I had a great and eventful Shabbos in the hospital, though the sleeping accommodations were less than ideal. Shoshana slept on 3 yoga mats next to the bed, while I slept on the extra-wide window sill.

In the morning Bayla woke up, made intent eye contact and by 10:00 a.m. Shosh was nursing her with Dr. Mavroudis' ok. We also ate well, courtesy of the remarkable Cleveland Bikkur Cholim organization which even had a hot cholent in their hospitality room. (19th Cen. poet Heinrich Heine on cholent: "Cholent, ray of light immortal!/Cholent, daughter of Elysium!/So would Schiller’s song have resounded,/ Had he ever tasted Cholent).

By the afternoon, Bayla had gone from her initial 6 pumps, and leads without number to just 1 open, but unattached peripheral line on her foot, and her cumbersome chest tubes which will come out tomorrow. Admittedly one of these lines came out by accident, which was messy and initially scary (Shosh can tell the story--I was downstairs getting the cholent), but not dangerous.

We have been moved out of intensive care in the PICU to ... I'm not sure what they call it aside from M40. "Less Intensive Care Unit" would be LICU, which has an unhygienic sound. This all suggests that Bayla may really set a record for infants here at the Clinic who have had a complete repair of Tetralogy of Fallot and AV Canal defects (bli ayin ha-ra etc.)

Good Shabbos

Getting Ready for Shabbos

Abe and I are home for a few minutes (tried to master the new SET board game with Dani and Dalia, but we're all too blown out to figure out the nuances) getting ready for shabbat. Thanks to Auntie EE, we're set for shabbat candles in the hospital. The set you see above actually turns on with a little switch, and the flames actually flicker! Pretty neat. Just can't wait to get Bayla in that "Got Bagels?" t-shirt...Anna took the kids to Barnes and Noble today, they spent their gift cards from Auntie Sarah. Dani got a novel about a hippie kid who doesn't have a TV and ends up getting sent to school. As Anna said, "It's a biography of himself". I'm looking forward to some quiet time with Abe and Bayla, and perhaps even a nap. Exhaustion is the key word around here. The Bikur Cholim hospitality room has not only a pantry, not only microwaves, but hot food including cholent...shabbat shalom.

Mercury Sinks But Spirits Rise in M43-05!

It was -13 Fahrenheit outside the Cleveland Clinic this morning and felt like -235 with the windchill (slightly colder than the surface temperature on the moon according to astronomers at Case Western Reserve University). But inside in room 5 of the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, pron. "Pick You," as in choosing up teams for touch football), feelings were warm, as Bayla was extubated. Here she is, pictured without breathing tubes, wearing the hat knitted by her sister Anna during surgery. Dr. Mumtaz says she is recovering at a record pace for an AV Canal-Tetralogy of Fallot patient.

Normal--98.6

Bayla's little foot with her thermometer attached via a sticker.

Ha Ha

Bayla makes the nurses laugh with her antics--in this instance, kicking her legs up and down--while she's supposedly sedated.

How Bayla got her candy heart, or parallels with Raggedy Ann

You may not realize that Bayla is a lot like Raggedy Ann. Raggedy spreads good cheer to all she meets, just like Bayla. What's more, when Raggedy falls in a bucket of paint, the painter's mother cleans her up and re-stuffs her. While she is open, a candy heart with the words "I Love You" is inserted, and she is stitched up, good as new. As any dolly aficionado knows, Raggedy has a heart with the motto stamped on her chest, right over the candy. Bayla needed a new heart, and had this holey thing flapping around in her body. The painter's mother is actually Dr. Mavroudis, who did the hard work. Her "new" heart is complete, very sweet, and she is stitched up, good as new. The scar is her mark of love--that we love her, and always will.

Leaving Bayla Behind

Well, it was another day, another day of waiting. Bayla is not ready to come off the ventilator, but she's trying hard--kicking around her legs, fluttering her eyes...shhhh little one, stay calm! Various medical terms bantered about, doctors in, doctors out, Samantha explaining everything to us. Tammy brought roast beef, so at least she could feed her baby, even if she couldn't feed ours. Bikur Cholim is amazingly set up, and don't forget the MealMart meals that show up on time, over-microwaved, and generally bland, but there. Anna made a smashing dinner tonight of a vegetable and feta souffle and creamed spinach over homemade toast. Eat your heart out MealMart.

Further on Day 1

The medical team rounded this morning. Dr. Mumtaz, the second surgeon, said that they were particularly pleased to find that Bayla's valve (pumonary, I assume) was a "beautiful 4-leaf," as opposed to something irregular. They hope to have her breathing tube out within the next 24 hours.

Dr. Rosenthal, the attending cardiologist, says that his overall "gestalt" was that Bayla was doing very, very well. This is perhaps the only English sentence using the term that I have been happy to hear.

Thank you all for your emails, voicemails, comments and thoughts.

Day 1

Day 1 of recovery. Pretty good so far. Bayla is a bit swollen, and has a breathing tube in, but she is a fighter, and we're trying to get her to stop thrashing around. She kicks her little legs around, sometimes all the way up near her head.
Abe slept here over night, I went home to see the kids...we're holding up ok at this point. 1st step to recovery is to wean off the breathing tube, and sedation. Right now, they're working on making sure her lungs are properly moist/dry, and making sure her sodium levels are correct.
More as things develop.

Daisy Dolly

Wow. What a day. What a tremendous day. I made this little daisy dolly to keep busy during the long, and sometimes trying hours. It's deep winter right now, but Dalia and Bayla and I will plant a garden come spring, maybe even some daisies.

Successful Surgery!

We just spoke with Dr. Mavroudis, who was very happy with the outcome of the surgery and described it to us in great detail.

My quick ignorant summary: he patched 4 holes (2 with gore-tex, 2 with borrowed pericardium from the pericardial sack that surrounds the heart), sutured another one closed, and left a tiny one, which she can live with. He also removed an obstructing "mystery muscle," which is occasionally found, and apparently known in the literature as "muscle x." Finally, he determined that the pulmonary artery was wide enough, despite the stenosis.

We should be able to see Bayla within the hour, once she is situated in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

CLOSING!

Bayla is off the heart-lung bypass machine, and the surgical team is beginning to close her up (might take up to two hours). The surgeon will come speak with us within an hour, and let's hope we see her within 3 hours or so. Needless to say, we are very excited

Still Waiting

Still in the repair phase of the surgery, then an echocardiogram (heart ultrasound) to check the results...

Surgery Update

Bayla is now on the heart-lung bypass machine and they have begun the first repair (the ventricular-septal defect, I think).

Surgery (& Waiting) Begins

We are waiting in the Ronald McDonald family room with cousin Samantha who is just off the night shift. One of the surgical nurses called to say that all of Bayla's lines are in (there are a lot of them) and surgery is about to commence. It is about 10:00 a.m. and we expect surgery to last 5-7 hours, though perhaps that includes the last hour.

Shoshana is sewing a little doll for Bayla. The pattern is in Dutch, which makes it harder. (If you know what knip de rest van de tricot kort af means, let her know).

I worried a lot about what to read and ended up with a siddur, Wordsworth, Aristotle's Ethics and The Thin Man, none of which seems quite right at the moment. Neither Aristotle nor Hammett was particularly interested in children. The Nicomachean Ethics may have been edited by Aristotle's son Nicomachus but the subject of childhood never comes up. Aristotle does say that if one isn't brought up into the virtues early then a good life is impossible, but how this is to happen and what it means for the parent as well as the child is left a mystery.--A mystery in which Hammett's Nick & Nora are entirely uninterested.

The Day Of

4:45 am Cleveland time, (Yes, that's Eastern Standard Time) Abe and I are rolling around in bed, trying to figure out whether to wake up, doze off, or just lay there and worry. We go for waking up.

5:45 am Cleveland time, we gather Bayla, and head out in the 11 degree morning for the dark, solitary drive to the Cleveland Clinic

6:15 am we arrive at the hospital, and every one seems a little cheery given what we're about to go through. Check out the baby hospital gown--Bayla doesn't seem to mind it at all.

8:30 am Time for the big hand off. Bayla has blissfull fallen asleep, and we put her in the very capable arms of Julie Niezgoda, pediatric anesthesiologist. Our friend RR, a med student is going to observe the surgery, and rounded up Dr. Mavroudis' text book. It's both a wonder that anyone would want to observe open heart surgery, and a comfort that she's there.

After a tour of the facilities (thank you Samantha), we're sitting in the Ronald McDonald room. It's probably as close as we'll ever get to McDonalds...thanks, Bayla.

No Nail Polish, 5 Psalms

Well THAT was a long day. We left home at about 10:30, and didn't get home until 7:30 this evening. Luckily, SM had made us chicken soup, and our amazing kids had heated dinner, made muffins, and were ready and waiting. Our winning team at the Cleveland Clinic includes top notch surgeons, anesthesiologists, surgical nurses, cardiologists, and so many more people it's hard to name them all.

One bummer is that they have a no nail polish policy! Don't they know a girl needs to look good for surgery? They need to attach the pulse-oxygen sensor to her toe (looks like a little band-aid), and don't want anything slippery. Oh well. That will give us something fun to do during recovery.

Later Coby, Anna, David and Abe went to Shul for Ma'ariv and Tehillim. We want to thank everyone who came out to pray for Bayla's health on a cold night.

 

 

Feeling the Love

Just want to thank everyone for the good wishes and prayers as we enter the final countdown. Tuesday is pre-op day, with x-rays, EKG, echocardiogram, exam with the cardiologist, etc. etc. Then home for a quiet night before the big day.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

How amazing to wake up to two sisters who can't wait to get you cleaned up, diapered, dressed, and beribboned for the day. Besides having a great start to her day, Bayla has learned to ham for the camera, doing her goofy grins and lip smacking kisses.

In case you were wondering, we have 8 inches of snow on the ground (I know you Californians are jealous), and it's 23 degrees out, but feels like 17. At least it's not Minnesota.

The Stuff Before the Stuff

A list of random things to take care of before surgery:

• return all library books
• make sure Bayla has a pedicure
• call the diaper serivce to stop the flow of clean diapers for a few weeks
• find something good to read during the surgery
• buy a new winter coat

Well, the list could be never-ending, but luckily, we're hoping for a shabbat shalom, a big snow storm, and hunkering down under covers for a few days.

Bayla playing.

Tova Bayla Socher

Tova Bayla Socher was born on February 24, 2008. After a rough start, she has thrived. Bayla currently enjoys:

• Playing with her parents, Shoshana & Abe and her older siblings, Dalia, Dani, Coby, Anna and Naomi.
• Nursing--a major accomplishment, given her long hospital stay, heart surgery and low muscle tone during the first few weeks of life.
• Messily eating mashed carrots, mushy peas, challa etc--and feeding others (her dog, her parents) the leftovers.
• Visiting her grandparents, Tammy & David, and cousin Samantha around the corner.
• Kissing and waving hi.
• Sitting up and rolling around.
• Blocks, books and eloquent babble.

She is scheduled for open heart surgery at the Cleveland Clinic on January 14th to correct an AV Canal defect and Tetralogy of Fallot. This is a serious, complicated surgery, but her surgeon Dr. Constantine Mavroudis is a world-famous pediatric heart surgeon and Bayla is a very strong baby.

Shoshana and I will try to update this blog, which will replace her earlier carepage, on a regular basis.