Our beautiful daughter Jessica was born in September 2011 with a severe heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome. This was diagnosed at her 20 week scan and we were initially told that she was unlikely to be suitable for surgery. However, a pioneering in-utero operation at 28 weeks to enlarge a hole in her atrial septum was carried out and she was able to make it to term and get through her first open-heart surgery at just eight hours old. Jessica underwent five more surgeries during her life. Her final surgery - the Fontan procedure - took place in December 2017. She initially made a good recovery but sadly passed away suddenly on 14th April 2018 at the age of 6. This is the story of a little girl whose half a heart overflowed with love. She was, and will forever be, our little miracle and brought joy to all who knew her.

Saturday 17 September 2011

Day 11 - A new home

As Jessica was back on nasal specs, it meant that Louise was able to try and breastfeed her again. As the cannulas in her arms had been removed, Jessica no longer had the splints on her arms which made things a lot easier and she finally managed to have her first proper feed! Once she’d had a taste of mummy milk there was no stopping her and she is now breastfeeding on demand rather than having expressed milk through her nasogastric tube (although this remains in place for now).

Jessica was weighed in the afternoon and has put on some weight again and is now 2510g (5lb 8oz). She also had all her stitches and pacing wires taken out although wasn’t too impressed with being poked and prodded about and voiced her objections to this quite loudly!

As Jessica is doing so well, we were finally able to be transferred from PICU to Ocean Ward. Although we were pleased to be making this move, we did feel a little sad at the same time to be leaving PICU as it has become such a familiar environment after having been Jessica’s home for the last ten days and the care from the team there has been superb.

Jessica seems to have settled in well on Ocean Ward though and both Michael and Louise were able to stay on the ward overnight which has made it much easier for Louise to breastfeed whenever Jessica wants to be fed.

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3 comments:

  1. Helen Ogilvie17 September 2011 at 14:35

    Glad to hear she is doing well - my thought remain with you and I hope to hear even more good news over the coming weeks! Xxx

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  2. Sally Eyre17 September 2011 at 20:27

    Awesome news. Sally (Gillian's friend).

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  3. Louise18 September 2011 at 12:04

    Thank you both - we are so pleased that she is doing well x

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