The shunt is in!

I woke up Monday morning  fairly early ... my OB ended up coming in quite early and discharged me from the hospital! She was very nice and made my post - op appointment for this week to get my staples out ... and that was it!
Brian and I left - we were on the way home when the Neurosurgeon called.  He said he was going to do the shunt surgery that day and wanted to get our consent. We gave consent and then asked if it were possible to talk with him beforehand ... so we agreed to meet at one of the hospital rooms once we arrived at Children's.

We got to Children's a little after 10am .. I was so anxious to see Meagan!! It had been 3 days since she had been born - and i'ts just not natural for a mommy and baby to be apart!  We parked and walked to the NICU.  We checked in and the nurse took us over to Meagan's pod.  Meagan was SO cute.  She was just laying there resting ... had some fluids since it was before surgery and otherwise seemed happy.  I sat down and the nurse put Meagan in my lap - because of her head size/weight, it was easier for the nurse to just put the entire bedding in my lap, vs. taking Meagan out of her bed..etc.  It was the best feeling in the WORLD to hold her!! She is so cute ... she has the cutest tiniest little face.. her hands and feet are long, but tiny ... and her body is so cute and delicate. 

After sitting with her for a bit, we put her back in her pod, and walked down to pre-op to meet the NSG (neurosurgeon).  He explained everything to us, and showed us her MRI scan.  In it, you can see clearly the picture of the inside of her head - it was mostly ALL white.. which is fluid.  Around the inside edge of her skull, you could see the little grey ribbon of tissue (her brain). It was an amazing picture as far as realizing just how much fluid this poor little thing was dealing with ...

The NSG was very positive - he was very informative and had a great bedside manner.  We then left Meagan, went to the family waiting area and decided to go get something to eat while we waited for her to get out of surgery.

We were back in the family waiting area - the NSG finally came over and said the surgery had gone very smoothly.  He said he had taken both a fixed and programmable shunt into the OR with him.. and once he was inside, he decided to use the programmable shunt.  (YOu can adjust the pressure levels on how fast/slow the fluid is drained).  Everything else went fine and she'd be in recovery for one hour.

As soon as the hour was up, and Meagan was moved back upstairs, Brian and I went back to her pod.  We stayed for quite a while.  She was still on fluids of course, but she was also on a breathing tube.  She was a little lazy after surgery so they went ahead and put her on a tube to assist with her breathing.  The nurse said she should be off of that within 1-2 days as she gets stronger post-op.  She was also on several monitors for vitals - heartrate, blood pressure, pulse, etc.. Her heart rate and blood pressure did have a few episodes where they spiked up really high - along with this, Meagan would whine or grimace her face.  The nurse gave her some morphine in her IV because she said those vital signs jumping up in little babies indicate pain.... She seemed comfortable when we left and the nurse said they do pain meds very minimally, and only if baby shows signs of discomfort.  So, Meagan should be off of that in a day or so as well.

Other than that, she was doing ok when we left.  We will visit her in the morning again and stay the day with her.  I'm still trying to pump to get some milk stored up for this little one ...

So now, it's basically up to her.  She will recover from the surgery, and hopefully start to learn how to eat again.  Once she is showing stability, and can eat, then hopefully she can come home. That won't be for a few weeks though.  Beyond that it's a day at a time! We just keep making sure her shunt is functioning properly.... and we just see what milestones come and when.  I'm so glad we are beyond this beginning stage ... now is the countdown to getting her home! I will certainly spoil her - but - that's ok. I think we both deserve that! :)