Yet Another Ultrasound

Five weeks ago today we welcomed our daughter into the world.  We were excited, tired, and nervous.  Since that day we have found new challenges and rewards.  We have passed most of the first month milestones with flying colors, and the one's we missed were minor.  But today we hit a major one with mixed but good results.

Before Gracie was born we were informed that she was "skipping beats".  Basically her little heart was jumping around a little bit.  After she was born we had a couple of EKG's done on her and we discovered that she was having PAC's.  PAC's are premature atrial contractions.  This simply means that the top chambers of the heart beat early sometimes.  Sometimes this comes from a defect, but is not an uncommon finding in newborns.  You see, they have shunts that run through their hearts and these have to close before the heart can function correctly.

We were also told that she was having occasional PVC's.  These are premature ventricular contractions; meaning the bottom chambers beat early sometimes.  These can be more dangerous because if they are bad enough they do not allow the heart to pump enough blood to the body.  If this happens in adults they feel like they are have palpitations, or they might feel dizzy and weak.  When it happens in an infant it can lead to under development of major body systems.  We have been worried about the both of them for the past five weeks.

Until today; today we had an appointment with the pediatric cardiologists at the Sibley Heart Center.
Everything we had heard about this group was amazing.  I know several parents who have taken their children to this practice and ALL have had wonderful things to say about them.  Even with such a great reputation you worry.  So we set out this morning hoping for good news for our daughter and our nerves.

We had a great experience. The staff was amazing.  They were very professional and very patient with us and our questions.  First Gracie had an EKG tracing done and there they were; PAC's and PVC's.  Not good news.  Initially (5 weeks ago) we had been told that in 90% of the cases the irregular beats would just go away.  SO at least we know we know Gracie is in the top 10% of some group already; Just not the right group.   Then the doc tells us we have to have an "echo".

An echo cardiogram  is basically an ultrasound of the heart.  Good thing Gracie is used to radio waves bouncing off of her!  This should be routine.  Fortunately it was.  The technician running the machine gave us a guided tour through our daughter's normal heart. At least structurally normal.  He let us know that Gracie's heart is perfect as far as he could see.  After the echo the doc walked in a confirmed everything the ultrasound tech had told us.  I can't tell you how relieved we were.

It has been an amazing five weeks.  Poop is smelling now and coming in greater quantities.  Crying is MUCH louder; kid has some pipes.  She is managing not to be as much of a bobble head and she is starting to grab things and pull; like my goatee!  But most of all we are learning how to become a family.  It's pretty exciting to us; I just hope the happy times just keep rolling.


Keep Smiling,
Rob