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.

Thursday 2 August 2012

A few firsts


 It’s been a week of firsts for Jessica – waving bye-bye for the first time, saying “Nan-Nan” for the first time, first bus and train journeys and first trip to an Olympic event (not to mention going to watch the torch as it came through Uxbridge).  She is such a happy and sociable baby and really seemed to enjoy her day out watching the rowing today although the rather loud cheering as Team GB won a silver medal frightened her a bit and she wasn’t quite so happy about that!  



Jessica now says three words  - “mum-mum”, “da-da” and “nan-nan” and is very confident now with sitting unsupported – so much so that she doesn’t want to lie down on her mat anymore and prefers to sit and play with her toys instead – particularly those that are musical ones.  It looks like she has definitely inherited our love of music!



It is wonderful to see how well she is developing – she seems to discover something new almost every day at the moment – yesterday she discovered waving and now waves at everyone, and today she worked out how to rock her swing if Mummy is a bit slow turning it on!  When we look at her now, we are seeing more of the little girl she is becoming than the baby she was, which is lovely but bittersweet too – lovely as it is to see her develop and learn about the world around her, we don’t want her to grow up too quickly!  She brings so much joy to our lives and we love every moment of seeing her grow and thrive.  


Posted by at
Labels:

1 comment:

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)