Anna's News

I think I will have to force myself to find time for a post a day to recount all the craziness and moments of the last few days before they become distant memories. I know I need to share the birth story; my adventures in breastfeeding and pumping; life with twins; surviving the first 24 hours at home; ... and much more I'm sure- as things develop.

I think the most important thing for me to blog about right now is some news we were given a day into our hospital stay. It appears Anna has a heart murmur. She was given an EKG to determine what type. I guess PDA heart murmurs are pretty common and resolve themselves. Obviously we were hoping for a PDA. Unfortunately, Anna does not have a PDA- she has a VSD heart murmur. VSD stands for ventricular septal defect. A ventricular septal defect is a defect in the ventricular septum, the wall dividing the left and right ventricles of the heart. It is a congenital heart defect and has nothing to do with her small size at birth. It was not detected during the perinatologist's u/s because she was not using her lungs in the womb so the blood flow through the chambers was reduced- making it not possible to see before birth.

We were referred to a pediatric cardiologist that will see Anna in 2-3 weeks. Then we will be able to find out if it is a small hole (which often close on their own as the heart grows) or larger (which might require surgical intervention, medicine, and I don't know what other possibilities). We won't know more until then. In the meantime, we were told it is not affecting her and there is nothing serious that we need to look for.

Please keep our little peanut Annabel in your prayers. Please pray that it is a very small VSD and send healing thoughts her way.