snapshots

i love how calm and relaxed she looks in this picture



here she is with the surgeon, Dr. Pourmahgadam, at her post-op appt. this past week





looks like ari has something in common with her daddy

david put up a post with some pictures of arianna just after surgery. you can check them out on his blog, http://www.davidasiegrist.blogspot.com/.

reflection

well, it has been a week since arianna came home. first of all, i just want to thank all of you who have left so many encouraging comments. i don't know all of you, but knowing you have been praying and thinking of us has been overwhelming at times. God has provided so much for us. just as an example, not only were we supported monetarily through our church and many friends, at one point, we knew of 13 churches that were praying for us. and we could feel it. at our lowest points, we would turn around and feel blessed even through the pain and uncertainty. there was the peace that surpasses all understanding. there was a passage that i came across while trying to find comfort, and dave and i reread this many times during that long week. the whole psalm was comforting, but these were the verses that were so poignant to us.

Psalm 34:17-19 "When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the LORD delivers him out of them all."

and now, looking back, He was near to us and did deliver us. our little girl is home, safe and sound, gaining weight and as cute as can be! as i am writing this, she is asleep in her infant carrier, sitting on top of the washing machine in our kitchen. dave is at work at the golf course and i am enjoying a much needed cup of coffee while i listen to the new norah jones album. (thanks for that ash!) i am recovering from some sort of cold/virus thing. wouldn't you know it, as soon as we get her home and everything seems great, i came down with a 24 hr. stomach bug last saturday and then got sick with this cold on tuesday. it has made it a little harder to take care of her, but dave has been a wonderful husband! i have been able to get alot of rest too, since arianna has been blessed to sleep most of the night! she has been sleeping about 6 hrs. every night! and she takes lots of naps, which makes it easier for me to get better! but anyway, she had her first pediatrician visit on monday and there she weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz. (up from 7 lbs. 10 oz. when she left the hospital)! the next day she had a cardiologist appt. and there she weighed 8 lbs. 1 oz. so...which scale is right??? this next monday we go back to danville to see the surgeon for a check up. we'll see what she weighs on their scale. either way, she IS gaining weight, and
that is the most important thing. i am putting up some pictures from the past week since she has been home.

this was her going home outfit as we were leaving from the hospital. (i made her those booties when we were waiting during the surgery)

sleeping at grandma and grandpa's

the first bath we gave her. you can tell she's loving it! (incidentally, we gave her another one yesterday and she loved it!) you can see her scar here. i have started rubbing vitamin E oil on it, hoping it helps a little. we'll see as she grows up

peaceful again

here she is today, just before she fell asleep

SHE'S HOME!!!!!!

she didn't gain weight today. she's not coming home tomorrow. we have no idea when she will be.

maybe thursday?

my best friend, ashley, drove here from IN to spend the week with me. she made dinner for us last night and made homemade strawberry shortcake. it's been great to have her here. she's encouraged us alot. today we found out that although arianna is gaining weight, the dr.'s are now saying she can't come home until thursday. so we were a little disappointed, and really hoping that doesn't change again. ash drove me down to see her today, and here are a few pictures from that trip. i LOVE this first picture of her staring at me! she's SO cute! i just want to take her home...we are trying to be patient.

so close...

a quick update before i hit the sack. arianna is off of everything except oxygen, which she will be taken off tomorrow. no more I.V.'s! the only thing keeping her there is a little problem that the dr.'s are trying to figure out. she has a calcium deficiency and they don't know why. they have ruled out some of the more serious issues, and it really could something as simple as a vitamin D deficiency. we are waiting the lab results from the blood they took today. it might be in tomorrow, but they are saying it might be until monday. however, if they figure it out right away, she could be ready to come home tomorrow! although that is great news, we're hoping for sunday because dave is back at work at the country club, and since he is in charge, he cannot get off. sunday is his day off. he works until late saturday and won't be able to get down to danville until after 10 pm. the other good news is that they are finally letting me breastfeed her. i am relieved as i firmly believe this is the best thing for her. because of that, i will be staying down there for sure sat. night and if she stays until monday, i will stay too. my best friend, ashley's parents offered to buy a night at the hotel next to the hospital for us, so we will stay there sat. night. sunday night there is a room in the NICU where i can stay will arianna all night.

so that is the plan. things may change tomorrow but we'll just wait and see. thank you SO much for all of your prayers. even people i don't know are commenting on my posts and praying for us. thank you...it has been so encouraging. you can continue to pray that they will figure this out quickly, and that sunday will be the day to take her home. it is the best day for dave's work schedule. i will let you know what happens!

holding and feeding

i just wanted to put a quick post up before i go to bed. i was able to go down to see arianna today. my friends, sarah and joanna, took me down. joanna is the one who has been putting all the pictures up on my photobucket. we have been so grateful to have them to look at when we miss her. today i was able to bottle feed her, as you can see from the picture. it was the first time holding her since the surgery last thursday as well. she couldn't get enough of it! she loves to be held! she just laid in my arms and stared at me. she started getting sleepy, but she was fighting it. i think she was so satisfied to be held by her mommy that she didn't want to sleep.

the dr. told me that she should be able to come home sometime between saturday and monday!!! we are so excited! tomorrow i will go down for the day and dave will drive down to meet me in the evening. we'll spend a few hours with her and then go home. i am not going to be staying down there as of now. i could if i wanted to, but right now i just need to rest at home a bit more. i have not been able to rest enough since the delivery and need some more time to catch up. i will try to post tomorrow if there is any new news.

goodnight!

Update on Arianna

first of all, david and i want to thank all of you for your prayers for our family this past week. we have been so overwhelmed with the support of the body of Christ, people we know and even those we don't know.

david and i drove home last night and i am resting at home today. there is much to do, but my friend jessica came over and helped me out. david had to go into work at the country club today, and it will most likely open this weekend. this means that he will not be able to go to danville as much to see arianna before she comes home. but it is good in that he will finally be back at work and we will not need to rely on his unemployment checks anymore. i will be able to go down and see her alot this week due to other friends' willingness to drive me and spend their day with me.

i want to explain a little more about what arianna had and how she is doing. we finally found out the name of the heart defect that she had. it is called hemitruncus. every heart has a main pulmonary artery and off of that branches the left and right pulmonary arteries that bring de-oxygenated blood to the left and right lungs where it gets oxygenated and sent out to the body. what arianna had, was her right pulmonary artery was coming off of the aorta instead of the main pulmonary artery. this was, in turn, bringing already oxygenated blood to her right lung. because of this, the heart had to work harder to get the blood oxygenated through the left lung only. it caused alot of high pressure in her lungs and gave her pulmonary hypertension. we found out that it is a very rare defect and hard to find alot of information about. the dr. told us that in their research, they came across a study done in scotland about hemitruncus. in the last 29 years, they have only been able to find 9 cases of it. another dr. told us that in all of the thousands of births each year in boston, they only have 1 case of it a year. we also found out that her surgeon, dr. pourmaghadam (pour-ma-ga-dahm), has done 1 other surgery exactly like this before. at first, this was not very reassuring, but when we realized how rare this is, we felt that God had directed him to us since he has done it before. it is rare that a heart surgeon would ever get to operate on 1 of these cases, let alone 2. he did however, explain that essentially, the operation would be pulmonary reconstruction, and this is something that he does all the time. he went over in great detail what he would be doing, how exactly he would detach and reattach the artery and what they would need to do to her for this surgery. in order to prepare her for the surgery, after the anesthesia, they would cool her body down to 77 degrees to slow her metabolism and protect her organs. then they would put her on a heart and lung machine while they worked on her heart. when they were done, they would warm her body back up, suture her closed and then give her a blood transfusion. and then she would be done. when we saw her, she was a maze of tubes all over her. she had 7 lines directly connected to her heart still (3 tiny i.v.'s and 4 external pacemaker wires). she had 2 drainage tubes coming out of her abdomen that were draining excess fluid from around her heart and about 4 peripheral i.v.'s. she was also on a ventilator, which means she had a breathing tube down her throat. this all took place last thursday. as of yesterday, monday, she had all of those lines taken out of her except 3 i.v.'s. today, they took out another one, so she is left with 2. they have weened her off of almost all her medication and yesterday they started feeding her again. she had not eaten since i last breastfed her the morning after she was born, when they took her to danville. it had been over a week. the nurse let me bottle feed her for the first time yesterday, and she did ok. the dr. said it would be a learning process for her to know what to do. since then, the nurse has told us she is downing that milk every time feeding comes! she's doing really really well with it! this is the last thing she needs to do well in before they will let her go home. once she is established in her feeding and is getting enough calories and gaining weight, they will release her. dr. pourmaghadam also told us yesterday, that he wants the nurses to get her up to par with the feeding, 2 or 3 days, and then he wants me to stay at the hospital and room in with her and take over the feeding! it will be better for arianna and will help her recover even faster. so we are thinking maybe thurs. or fri. of this week, i will go down to stay, and hopefully, she will be able to go home early next week! the way she's doing, she should definitely be home before easter!

thank you again so much for all of your prayers. david and i have had the hardest week of our lives and still feel stressed out. it has been evident to us that we have been lifted in prayer. there were nights when we would break down and cry and not know how we could go on another day. and the next morning God would give us hope and comfort. i still have my emotional swings, as i am still dealing with postpartum hormones. i am trying to get my rest today, and hopefully will have enough strength to stay down there without dave. i don't know how i would've done this without him. he has been a rock by my side, even when we both cry. this trial has strengthened our marriage in a way that couldn't have happened any other way. and even though things are looking brighter, it is not over. arianna still is not with us, and we miss her. i would ask that you would pray that she continues to eat well and gain strength and that her heart continues to be strong. pray that david and i will have the strength to make it through another week without her and be patient until she is well enough to come home.

we were not able to find internet access in danville, so while i am away, david will keep his blog updated as much as he can. www.davidasiegrist.blogspot.com . he has a post there now with some more information you might like to read. i will leave you with a few pictures of our last week.

she would suck on our thumbs when she was hungry. it was hard to see her rooting reflex, trying to latch on to something to eat. this gave us both a bit of comfort.

these 2 pictures were taken the morning of the surgery. it was the last time we got to hold her and was a bit hard to say goodbye when they took her in.

after surgery update

it's 5:50pEastern and Laura and Dave just called me with the update about surgery today--

Everything went really well, according to the doctor. One of his nurses told Dave and La that the doc is a meticulous man and worked hard to make sure the surgery was without flaw. They were just going in to see Arianna, who is on a ventilator for the next 24 hours, to prevent her heart from overworking. The next 3 days are critical, as they doctors will be watching to see how Arianna's new heart and body are working since the surgery.

Please pray for Dave and La, who are not able to hold Arianna. (They did get a good 1/2 hour each this morning to hold and rock her to sleep before the surgery!) They will remain in Danville, until Arianna is able to come home. The soonest they'll be able to access internet may be on Sunday. Please continue to pray for them and the journey ahead.

ashley wittmer

Baby Arianna's Surgery

This is Ashley Wittmer, writing on behalf of Laura. She and Dave have been unable to update this blog because there's no internet at the hospital, so i said i'd do my best to fill you all in on what's happening with Arianna Beth, their new baby girl.

They've been at Geisinger Hospital (Danville, PA) since Monday and have meet with the pediatric cardiologist who will be performing Arianna's surgery. The surgery will begin tomorrow at 7:30aEastern and finish mid-afternoon. it will consist of the doctors opening her chest, cutting through the breast bone, adding cadaver (sp?) tissue to her tiny pulmenary artery and re-routing the artery. She'll be surviving on the heart and lung machine through the surgery and will need a blood transfusion when it's over.

The hardest part will be the recovery. They will be unable to hold Arianna for up to 14 days, while her body stablizes with her newly working heart. Please pray for Laura, who is diligently pumping milk for the baby and for Dave, who is standing by her side. They are doing ok and are encouraged by all the people who they know are praying for them (and for those who have given them physical and financial encouragement!). God will truly use this experience for HIS glory and we are trusting in that--moment by moment.

Ashley Wittmer

a new baby

we have a baby girl! her name is Arianna Beth. she was born at 4:23 pm on March 17, 8 lbs. even and 21" long. if you go to our photobucket site, there are about 24 pictures of our little girl. the address is http://s92.photobucket.com/albums/l6/laura_siegrist/Arianna/ our friend, joanna, came to the hospital just after she was born to take these pictures and she might be adding some more in the future, so check it again in a few days.

some of you already know the situation dave and i have been faced with today. we found out this morning that arianna has a heart murmur and the dr.'s wanted to do some routine testing to find out how serious it was. when they were done, they told us that she will need heart surgery and that they needed to take her to danville, pa, today. basically, from what we understand right now, is that her pulmonary artery is going to the right place, but coming from the wrong part of the heart. what that is doing is giving her pulmonary hypertension and will eventually fill her lungs with fluid. we talked to the dr. down there tonight and they have tentatively set surgery for this thursday. they can't do it too soon because it runs the risk of her heart not getting enough blood to the lungs. if they wait too long, her lungs will fill with fluid. so the trick is to find the right time. ideally they'd like to wait until she is about 1 week old, but they will determine it on a day to day basis. so right now, she has to make it until thursday without having the fluid in her lungs. other than that, she is a perfect baby! she scored an 8-9 on her apgar score and is a very calm baby thus far. since she arrived at Geisinger (the children's hospital), they said she hasn't needed any anesthesia or medicine. she has been sleeping and is in good health. so we are very encouraged by this news.

it was very difficult for david and i to hear the news and have her taken so quickly from us. but we are dealing with it much better as the day goes on. we have had many friends and family around us for support and we already have a family to stay with while in danville. the hospital is about 1 1/2 hrs. away, and the family lives 3 miles from there. we are very thankful for all of the prayers from everyone and we ask that you pray that this will be over soon. we just want her to have the surgery so she can come home.

we will keep you updated as often as we can.

the time has come...

well, it is time. at least, that is what the doctor's are saying. i am not in labor yet, but will be sometime tomorrow. we are in the hospital, it is almost 1 in the morning, and i cannot sleep. not to mention that my stomach is growling so much that even if i was tired, i still wouldn't be able to fall asleep. our routine ultrasound this morning turned into a "you're not leaving without a baby!" my amniotic fluid was low, not dangerously, but since my due date was the next day, the dr. decided that they weren't going to risk anything possibly happening, so he was going to induce me. i won't lie, it was a shock. one that i'm still not quite sure i'm over. we weren't expecting this at all and i really really did not want to have to be induced. not to mention that this all happened at lunch time, when i was looking forward to a good sandwich and now i am not able to eat until the baby is born. which could be saturday night. they did give me a little thing of lime jello and a little bit of raspberry sherbet and some beef broth, which was amazingly delicious, but so far, in the 12 hrs. we have been here, the only discomfort is my starving stomach. i'm having a hard time dealing with not being allowed to eat. i don't really know why. i feel like it's not fair, i didn't have any warning that this was coming like this, i had no time to prepare my mind ...it just happened. with labor, you arent' even supposed to call the hospital until you've had contractions 5 min. apart for 2 hrs. so i had been assuming i'd have time to eat a hearty meal to sustain me, take a shower and finish the final packing. i guess God had other plans. i'm slowly taking it in and dealing with it. i am bad with sudden change like this. and my hunger is making it even more difficult. david is asleep and i'm glad. i need my husband to be strong for me. right now i have a medicine that is prepping my body for labor. i wasn't even close to it, so i may need another dose. it is called Cervadil and it lasts for 12 hrs. if i need another one, it will be another 12 hrs. before they give me Pitocin (pi-toe-sin) to start labor. so i may not have this baby until sometime saturday night. unless my body takes to it quick and then it will be sooner! i am assuming that this will be my last post until after the baby is born, so keep an eye out on dave's blog. he will update more regularly. i think right now he's more excited than me! i'll get there...i just have to wait until labor actually starts and i'm really on the way. i just want to know if it's a boy or girl!

Italian Ice

last night, while on the way home from youth group, we passed by Rita's Italian Ice and saw that they were open! we felt spontaneous and fueled by our sudden thirst and the fact that we had a coupon for buy one get one free, we stopped. just in time too, it was 9 and they closed at 9, but they let us be the last customers of their first day open of the season. i got a mango misto, and let me tell you, it was heavenly! after the nicest spring-like day yet, this topped it all off. and i just saw on their website that next wednesday, march 21, they are giving away free italian ices at all of their locations in honor of the first day of spring! if i'm not in labor, i'm totally cashing in. i'm all for free stuff!

blah blah blah

it is 11:53 pm. i am wide awake and totally bored. we just came home from watching 24 at a friends house and dave is on the phone with matt who is CA. so i decided to write a totally random blog about nothing in particular. i am 4 days away from my due date. i had a dr.'s appt. today, but there's nothing to report. i don't feel any closer to giving birth than i did 5 months ago. i feel like labor is this elusive thing that i will never get too. it's almost like i'm resigned to never having this baby get out. i'm so used to being big (although the extra weight is taking its toll on my body), and so used to feeling things moving around inside, that it seems it will never be different. we've been waiting around for weeks now...everything is ready, we're just maintaining our lives now. washing dishes, grocery shopping, making dinner, doing the laundry, cleaning up the house, it's the same thing over and over. no baby.
i can't decide what to do now. there are a few things i could do to tire myself out enough to sleep. i could wash the bath mat from the tub and scrub down the tub (it needs a good cleaning!), i could pack more stuff in my hospital bag, i could wash the dinner dishes, sweep and mop the kitchen floor, watch one of the movies we got out from the library, catch up on some ironing...i think i am trying to nest. which i've done a million times already. i'm tired of nesting. they always say that alot of women get nesting cravings just before they go into labor. well i've had nesting cravings for the past month and nothing's come of it. i'm going to go clean. i'll let you know how it all ends up. good night!

Yea for pictures!!!!

i now have NEW pictures up on my photobucket site. the link button is not working for me, so here's the website, http://s92.photobucket.com/albums/l6/laura_siegrist//

there are some new albums to check out:

Random Pictures of Dave

Study and Baby Room

Updated Living Room

Wittmer House

for those of you who have been to our house before, you will notice quite a change! we love it. and we are SO glad that the baby's room is finished and david now has a nice office area.

and on a side note, i am feeling much better now! still getting more rest, but otherwise great!

just sick

well, it turns out i really was just sick. really sick. i laid in bed all day, feeling very nauseous and trying not to throw up (which i eventually did). around 8, i started getting contractions (painless) every 2-3 min. and i felt dehydrated. every thing i tried to drink just ran right through me (not to be gross or anything, but i was on the toilet every 10 min. with the other lovely part of a stomach bug!) so we called the dr. and she wanted me to come in and get checked out. either i was having contractions b/c i was dehydrated, or b/c i was starting labor. so we got there about 9 and they checked and i wasn't in labor, but i needed fluids. so they super pumped 2 I.V. bags in to see if that was all i needed. around midnight though, i was still very dehydrated, so they decided to keep me overnight. thankfully, dave and i had brought our stuff just in case it was the real thing, so we got settled in a room and dave went to the car to get what we needed. throughout the night, i got 2 more I.V. bags and lots of trips to the bathroom and just felt really sick. body aches, chills and stomach cramps. the good thing was that the baby was completely unaffected. babies take what they need from the mom when she is sick, so they are protected. so that was a good thing. all in all, i slept terrible, felt terrible and wanted to cry but held it back. since it was a stomach bug, all they could do is let it run its course. if they gave me medicine for the running-to-the-toilet problem, it would just make me sicker longer. the quicker it got out of my system the better.
it ends happy! around 9:30 this morning they did some tests and found out that i was completely rehydrated and they were going to let me go. i still feel very weak and sick, but the chills and cramps and running to the bathroom are gone. i just have to stay on gatorade and bland foods for a while. lots of rest. we got home and i slept hard. nothing feels better than your own bed when you are sick. i love my bed!
david was absolutely wonderful throughout this whole thing! i needed help for so many things. every time i needed to get up to use the bathroom, we had to unplug the I.V. pump, unplug the fetal monitors and wheel the I.V. into the bathroom. he helped me every time. he got up last night to get me more blankets (when i had the chills) and help me turn over and tuck me in. i don't know what i would've done without him! right now he ran to the store to get me some more gatorade and food. i am so thankful for him!
so anyway, i am doing ok now. i need to recuperate some more, but i am much better than yesterday!

maybe not sick?

ok, so now i just read in a bunch of different websights that nausea, vomiting and indigestion are signs of impending labor. it's "nature's way of clearing out your system for an expedient delivery". so....do i have a bug? or am i going to go into labor soon???? you know which one i want!

sick?

i think i might have a stomach bug. i woke up very nauseated and had to run to the bathroom. thankfully my stomach was empty, but it still didn't feel good. i called the OB nurse and since i don't have any other labor symptoms, she thought i could have a bug. i feel terrible. i haven't actually thrown up, but i haven't felt this bad since morning sickness. at least it's only my stomach, and not the other end (if you know what i mean!) but, i would appreciate your prayers. this is not a very good time to get the stomach flu. david's been great! he's always within earshot and has been getting me everything, from toast to water to tea to helping me sit up in bed. i have a great husband!

snow

today was a fun day. dave and i slept in, and awoke to about an inch or two of snow on the ground. after enjoying a leisurely morning of breakfast, coffee and the paper, i bundled up and headed outside for some good old fashioned snow shoveling. yes, i know, you're probably thinking, are you crazy?? maybe i am. but you see, i have my reasons. at 37 weeks pregnant, i am now considered full-term. that means that the baby is fully developed and it is safe to give birth even though i'm not 40 weeks. by now, we are all ready for baby to come, and i am finally feeling the results of carrying all this extra weight for so long. i'm ready. not that i don't want the best for our child, but to tell the truth, i would like my body back. i'd really like to sleep on my stomach again and roll over without having to do a 3-point turn. not to mention the endless trips to the bathroom, or the water weight that's given me carpal tunnel. so yes, i feel a little selfish, but since it IS safe for the baby to come now, i will do whatever i can to 'help' it along. so i went shoveling. and no, it hasn't helped. all it gave me was a backache. but i will say, it was fun! i really enjoyed being outside in the fresh air! david came out and we shoveled out around the house. and i actually have pictures! we borrowed a camera, so here you go.