I was home a matter of 2 days before her open heart surgery was scheduled. We of course were at the hospital visiting 2 days beforehand. We were able to bring our son twice before as well to meet his sister, which was the most adorable thing in the world. He didn’t know any different with all the wires she was hooked up to, he didn’t question it either, I guess in his young mind this is how new babies had to be at the hospital.

The Sunday night before her surgery, we visited and I was finally able to hold her. I haven’t had such tears of joy in a long time. Of course the day my son was born I did and then when I heard her cry when she came into the world, but something about finally having your baby in your arms and looking down at that sweet face can overwhelm and excite you all at once. A funny story with this visit, the nurses had made an adorable sign for outside her door with her name on it, but they had put “Izzy” on there and I about lost it hahahaha. I swore when we named her, her nickname would NOT be “Izzy,” I wanted to call her “Bella.” One because my friend had a dog named Izzy and two because Bella was much prettier to me. The nurse felt so bad, she kept apologizing. But I couldn’t be mad, it was sweet and turned into a joke from there on out. She of course made her a new one right away and we had that nurse several more times after that. The little things they do to make it a little brighter there is amazing, especially being in the PICU with so much stress, beeping, etc.

That Monday night before her surgery my husband and I stayed down at the hospital to be with her and to make sure we were there the next morning for when they were going to take her back for surgery. More doctors and nurses than we’ve ever seen before in/out of course, explaining the procedure, the anesthesia, etc. Again, super over whelming, so much so, I honestly don’t remember half of what they told us. I know I signed off on everything and just kept thinking they better take care of my baby.

That morning bright and early they came to get her, we were able to walk back to a certain point to the OR and give her kisses and such before they continued on. Yet again I was having to leave my baby, this time with surgeons that were going in to open her up and work on her heart, something the size of a walnut! Completely unimaginable. Naturally, everyone told us to go walk around, leave for a while, go get food and such because it was going to be a long day of waiting. Luckily they called us every 2 hours or so with updates, which helped, but still not easy. There wasn’t much to do being winter so we were somewhat stuck at the hospital.