Good-morning.  We just saw Haven off to surgery.  We were able to hold her for a little while early this morning.  Her nurse said she had a really good night.  Haven was in good spirits despite being a little hungry (she couldn’t eat past midnight last night). 

We were thankful to meet the surgeon this morning.  He is a very kind man and everyone here speaks extremely highly of him both as a surgeon and a person.  So far, we agree.  We are also thankful today because we found out that there will actually be TWO cardiovascular surgeons working on Haven simultaneously.  We don’t get the impression that that happens a lot. 

Starting around 9:00am this morning we are supposed to be receiving updates on the hour.  The day could last for a long time.  We will try to keep you updated as we get updates.  If you don’t read a post from us, it will be from Grandpa J or Uncle Justin.

Thanks for all your prayers.  We should all be thankful that Haven has two of the best heart surgeons in the world working on her today.

Haven had a great night last night.  The nurses found out that she just loves to sleep curled up on her tummy.  Alison was discharged from University Hospital this afternoon and is slowly regaining strength.  We met with a lot of doctors on Haven’s “team” today.  She will be taken to the operating room tomorrow morning at 7:00am.  When it’s all said and done, we should be able to see her again around 6:00 or 7:00pm tomorrow evening.  She will now be in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) on the second floor of Riley to be more closely monitored (she has a nurse assigned specifically to her 24 hours a day).  She can be there anywhere from 1 week to 3 or 4 weeks to recover before going to a less intensive unit.  I know some have been asking about an address for us down here.  If you would like to drop us a note via mail, please send it to:

Jeremey & Alison Johnson, Room 15
c/o Ronald McDonald House
435 Limestone Street
Indianapolis, IN  46202

We’ll try to keep you updated as we receive updates throughout the day tomorrow.
 

We can’t express to you how much of a blessing it is to know that you all are out there checking up on us. Every comment we read gives us that much more strength. Thank you!

We are continually being told that Haven is doing very well (considering she only has half a heart, of course). We started nursing Haven yesterday, but she is not quite the pro-eater yet. From the minute she was born, she has been receiving Prostoglandin intravenously (this will keep the hole in her heart open until the first open-heart surgery). Prostoglandin has several side-effects, one of which is making the baby very tired. So, most of the time when we try to nurse, she just curls up next to Mom and sleeps. SO, they put in an NG tube (feeding tube through the nose) last evening just to make sure we can get her plenty of food to keep her weight up. She can still nurse with the NG tube. She is scheduled to eat every three hours and we try to make it to at least three of them a day.

The cardiologists are happy with how stable she is and how big she is and have decided to perform the first open-heart surgery this Friday. We will be meeting the cardiatric surgeon tomorrow. We do not yet know exactly what time the surgery will be, but from what we understand, it is roughly a 17-hour ordeal.

The next bit of good news is that Alison will hopefully be discharged from IU Hospital tomorrow sometime and though as of this afternoon, the Ronald McDonald house was still full, we received a surprise phone call this evening of an opening!! We are very thankful for this because now we can stay here close to our baby!

We are anticipating that we will be able to answer some of your comments and personal emails next week after Haven has come out of her surgery. We will have a little more time then since we will not be able to spend quite as much time with Haven for several days after surgery.

We love you all!
Jeremey & Alison (and Haven Leigh)

THE PICTURES ARE IN!!!

Be sure to check out the picture page for more of this beautiful new addition to our family.

Jeremey is going to try and post later this evening. However, they are staying awfully busy taking care of Haven and running back and forth between hospitals (Mom is recovering at IU Med Center and Haven at Riley).

Haven is doing very well considering her condition and since she is looking strong the doctors will be prepping for her first surgery probably sometime at the end of this week.

We love you Haven!

Your Uncle Justin

Thank you all so much for your wonderful comments!  They have been so encouraging.  Haven is beautiful and we have spent several hours with her today.  Because she is doing so well, we have been able to hold her (which we were told probably wouldn’t be able to happen).  Infact, the doctors are so impressed with Haven’s status that they have suggested that Alison begin breast feeding her.  That is happening even now. 

Currently, the plan of operation is to perform the first open-heart surgery early next week.  They want Haven to do as many “normal newborn” activities as possible before the surgery because this will be better for her recovery:  she will be paralyzed after the surgery to allow things to heal and due to this paralysis many babies “lose” many instinctive reactions (such as breathing or eating), so they say the more things she can do on her own before the surgery, the better she will be when she comes off the paralysis.

Thanks again for all of your support.  It really does mean so much to know we have you in our corner.  We will continue to update as much as possible.  Uncle Justin and Grandpa J will also continue to keep the site current.  I know everyone wants pictures.  Don’t worry, we have them.  We’re just having a little trouble getting them on the site from the hospital.  Keep checking back, I promise to have some up very soon!

Haven Leigh was born on December 12, 2006 at 12:12am. She is 8 pounds 5 oz and 19 inches tall.

Mom and dad are doing well, and the doctors are carefully monitoring Haven. The doctors will now take Haven to the Riley intensive care unit and stabilize her for her first surgery this week.

The first surgery is the Norwood procedure. Learn more about it by clicking the HLHS link at the top of the blog.

Pictures will come soon.