That is are poking fun, but actually there is a more serious tone to this post.
January: Standard baby 6 week check up at local doctors. Doctor heard a heart murmur. It was quite loud which indicated that the hole causing the sound was quite small (think putting your finger half over a hosepipe). Heart murmurs are the sounds made by turbulent blood flow through narrowed or leaking heart valves or walls. The doctor suggested it was likely the hole would clear up on its own, but worth getting it checked out for sure.
At this time she also started to drop down the weight percentiles (still putting on weight but not at the correct rate for a 'normal' baby. )
For these two reasons we were referred to a pediatrician who we then saw in February.
February: Pediatrician at Warwick Hospital. At this appointment she was again listened to and weighed, and had an electrocardiogram - 10 wires stuck to her body plugged into a machine to print out the electric currents going through the blood to check the heart was firing correctly. (Baby was more distressed at being weighed than having the electrodes stuck to her, as she was allowed to keep her clothes on for that bit!)
At the end of this appointment it was determined there was a hole between the bottom two parts of the heart, probably a Ventricular Septal Defect.
This usually fixes itself over time and some people live with that and it's never detected so not to worry.
They referred us to Birmingham children's hospital for an Echocardiogram to confirm the diagnosis.
July: Birmingham Childrens hospital. 6 months later and we've finally had the Echocardiogram.
We went assuming it would be a simple, 'yes its closed, no further checks' as surely the hole would have closed by now, but good to check.
The outcome was a little different that this...
We've been told that actually she has 2 holes in her heart, the initial hole has not closed up yet, but that's ok and we can leave it to do its thing.
However, the other one, that we didn't know of before, is a hole that is usual for babies in the womb but should have closed by the time she was 6 months. As she is now nearly 9 months then it will need to be plugged. This is an Atrial Septal Defect. Its likely that this is a reason why baby is so small, shes on roughly 5th percentile for weight, as her heart is working extra hard and burning calories rather than fattening her up into a chubby baby!
So now we are waiting for an appointment, probably in Aug/Sept for key hole surgery to put a plug into the heart hole, like a tiny umbrella, which her heart tissue will grow over as she gets bigger.
If you are of the praying variety, theres a few things we'd like to you pray for please if you are willing:
That us as parents can stay calm and un-worrying, we are reassured that the BCH team are great and its the best place for her, shes in good hands.
That baby will stay healthy so that she can have the surgery when its scheduled.
That surgery will be scheduled in Aug/Sept rather than in October which is when she is due to start nursery as R will be going back to work.
That the other hole will close up on its own with no issues.
That there will be no complications.
GaRo - As parents who happen to be engineers its an odd situation. At the moment we are not really phased by this situation. We seem to be thinking like engineers, there is a problem to be fixed but there is a plan on how this is going to happen so no problem.
That all said, baby is having heart surgery, we think there should be emotion, but its not arrive yet.
Technical info here: Atrial and Ventricular Septal Defects
