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, 3 December 2011

12 weeks - meeting Santa

Jessica is now twelve weeks old and is doing so well with her weight gain – she is now up to 3980g (8lb 12oz) which is great, especially as she is still breastfeeding well and taking less and less top-ups of Infatrini.

She had her first visit to Santa’s grotto earlier this week and slept most of the time we were in the queue, waking up just as we reached the front of the line. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of Santa though and looked a bit wary!

We had another appointment at Oxford this week – this time it was for an ultrasound of the veins in her legs as there had been difficulty locating various veins when the team in Southampton did the cardiac catheter. On scan, the veins in her right leg look normal although the doctor was unable to see all the veins he was looking for on the left side. He didn’t seem too concerned though – just said that it was useful information for any future cardiac catheter procedures.

Jessica is cooing more and starting to be quite chatty which is such a joy to see and is such a smiley happy baby. She is also starting to realise that she can hit the toys on her bouncer/activity mat and make them move and gets very excited when she does so! As has been the case throughout this journey, we just continue to live from day to day and enjoy every precious moment.

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