One year post-Glenn

This time last year Jessica was on PICU having just had her Glenn procedure, her most recent open-heart surgery.  Today, I have been watching my little girl laughing and playing with her cousins as we went to Black Park for the afternoon and feeling very blessed to be able to enjoy these precious moments.

We finally finished decorating Jessica’s bedroom and she moved into her own room for the first time on Easter Sunday.  So far she has settled very well in her new bedroom.  She has very much enjoyed having lots of chocolate over Easter and is still working her way through the various chocolate bunnies and Easter eggs! 

The community nurse visited last Monday and Jessica’s sats were in the 80s which was great and she now weighs in at 10.19kg (22lb 6oz) so is gaining weight beautifully.  Jessica has now got her new glasses which will hopefully help correct her squint – the first day she had them she was keeping them on for 20 minutes at a time but the next day she managed to keep them on all day which was fabulous.  It is clear that they have made a difference to her vision – she definitely looks more intently and concentrates more on her toys when she is playing now and she has become much more confident at cruising around the furniture and is getting very quick on her feet now, particularly if she notices that the safety gate on the lounge door has been left open by mistake!  She has managed to stand unaided very briefly (just a few seconds at a time) and is very confident at crawling up the stairs although is usually quite breathless by the time she reaches the top.

We have a new favourite sign this week – Jessica has now started signing ‘love’ in response to ‘I love you’ which is lovely, particularly when she signs it unprompted!  She has also added ‘rabbit’ (not always easily distinguishable from ‘cow’) and ‘duck’ to her signing repertoire (this one being a particular favourite at bath time!)

It is so wonderful to see how she is going from strength to strength particularly when we think back to this time last year when Jessica had such a difficult recovery from her Glenn thanks to a wound infection and a bout of parainfluenza.  She is such a huge blessing in our lives and we thank God every single day for the fact that she is here and doing so well.  Thank you too to all our friends and family who continue to support us throughout Jessica’s journey.