One Tough Cookie

It's amazing to me that my little girl, who many times seems so tiny and fragile, is really so resillient. In her 8 weeks of life, she has been through more than most people go through in their whole lives. Even after the infections, tests, procedures and health concerns, Emma looks and acts like any other baby her age. No one would ever guess that she's has had so many challenges in the almost 2 months since she was born.



Emma finally got in for her MRI today. When Sarah and I arrived at the hospital this afternoon, they were just getting ready to take her over to Children's Hospital. Another ride across the street in an ambulance. When she goes, they take her in what is basically a little box attached to a stretcher. It's really made for smaller, sicker babies, but they all have to be transported in it. She was swaddled and hooked to monitors just like she is in her crib when we're not there. The box is tiny and looks so serious. I couldn't help tearing up seeing her in there, but she was a happy little thing looking all around. It was then that I realized how tough my little peanut really is. Here I am, an adult, crying over seeing her in a little transporter box, and she's just happily taking in her new surroundings. She's the one having the MRI, ultrasounds, blood draws, spinal taps and possibly surgery ... not me ... yet I'm the one bothered by it ... not her.

Everytime she has a spinal tap the nurse pracitioners tells me what a great job she did with it. After her MRI the nurse and nurse practitioner said she was 'the best girl!' Everyone seems to be amazed at how well she handles everything thrown her way. She bounces back everytime and shows everyone what she's made of.



During the MRI, she tried her best to stay still, but she's a wiggle worm, so she needed a bit of a sedative to keep her still enough to get all the images they needed. I was worried that if she had to be sedated, she would either come back extremely sleepy for the rest of the afternoon or worse, would have breathing difficulties and need some assistance, such as intubation. To my surprise, when she arrived back to her room, she was already stirring. It took about an hour and a half and a diaper change to get her fully awake, but even without the MRI, she would have been napping at that hour of the day.



Tomorrow we should find out what the MRI shows. We are expecting them to confirm that she needs a shunt, but as I keep saying, ' We won't know anything until we know something.' The one thing I do know is that our perfect little Emma is one tough cookie!