Hearts - Part One

Good news! If you noticed the plural in the subject, don't worry. Ellie doesn't have two hearts. You'll understand the plural in the next post (was going to be in this post, but I realized it'll take me a while to finish that part of the post and don't want to keep you waiting regarding Ellie). Now on to the good news...

Ellie's little heart is A-OK! The murmur the pediatrician heard is what the cardiologist called a "boring" murmur. He said that actually most kids have a murmur at some point in their childhood simply because the chest wall is thin so you can hear the blood flowing.

Ellie was quite pleased with herself for almost the entire appointment. She loved scrub top of the assistant who brought us back (lots of color and flowers), "talked" up a storm, was pronounced the "cutest baby ever" because of said talking when we took her to the hallway to be weighed (10 pounds, 11 ounces on their scale - without a diaper!) and enjoyed some time on her back staring at the photos of other patients on the wall while we waited for the doctor.

This time we saw the doctor who did her procedure rather than the doctor who had been seeing her in the NICU. They gave us the option when Ellie was in the hospital so I figured we'd go with the guy who knew how he put the coil in and everything. He listened to her heart and told her he had forgetten how small she was. She "talked" a bunch more. He did an ultrasound while she looked at their rotating musical Winnie the Pooh mobile. Until the very end - when they put the ultrasound wand near her throat - she was completely content staring at the mobile, kicking and moving her little arms (and, of course, "talking"). The ultrasound tech commented that she'd much rather have a wiggly baby than a crying baby. Good thing.

The ultrasound looked great, and even I could see where the coil had closed the PDA. So Ellie goes back in a year to be checked out again. And then we're done with the cardiologist! Praise the Lord!