I Heart Her

On April 29th, Ireland made her first scheduled visit to Children's Hospital. When she was born, our pediatrician detected a heart murmur thus followed by further testing and now a trip to the cardiologist. Having been down this road before, I wasn't really nervous, just a bit anxious to solidify the fact that she only had VSD. I say only, because it was through finding out Pieper's VSD, that we found out she also has WPW and we are grateful for that.

Ireland was a trooper. It's usually the easiest at this age because they sleep a lot through all the testing. She did start to get a little frustrated with all the monitors being hooked up to her, but ultimately it was determined she does in fact have VSD. Basically, VSD is a hole in the heart and the most common of all heart conditions. On the spectrum of small, medium and large, Ireland's is on the upper end of the small range. Pieper's was moderate in size and by the age of 2 had pretty much closed up on its own. We are hoping the same for little Ireland. Because she seems to be eating well, growing and not showing problematic signs, her cardiologist, Dr. Meg Vernon, didn't seem too concerned. She will see her again in a few weeks.

On a lighter note, at this appointment, Ireland was about 5 1/2 weeks old and weighed in at 9 lbs. Still not the size of her biggest sister at birth! Yes, Kennedy was born at a whopping 9 lbs. 5 oz.!!! I still cannot believe I had a baby of that size.