It has been 12 days since my dad's surgery and he had an appointment with his surgeon's nurse today. She confirmed what we have been observing these past few days - he is doing extremely well.

He is recovering fast and they couldn't even tell that he hasn't been doing the required breathing exercises as his lung capacity was looking very good!

The swelling in his feet has disappeared and it was minimal to begin with, but he is required to wear his compression socks for one more week.

You can not tell he just had surgery by the way he walks, which he does a lot. Every now and then he still has a residual cough to rid his lungs of any remaining fluids, but his coughs are stronger and he doesn't feel much discomfort anymore.

All in all, things are looking great and he continues to improve every day.

Rosenberry Rooms is a website I have enjoyed hours of browsing for baby/kid products ranging from diaper bags, growth charts (like the farm animals version at left) and nursery furniture to wall decor (like the "Abby" wall letters below), art, and "green" gifts.

There are a lot of items for just about every category and they carry several name brands not generally found at local retailers.

The number of items I have purchased from this site: 0. Unfortunately. Everything here is either really cute or really different, and most are far from necessities. I mean, who would really go for a $495 high chair shaped like a giraffe?

A few weeks ago, I told you about Abby's fun little ride, which she calls a wee-wee-weeee. She now insists on using it for towing around the house:

a) all of her stuffed animals (not too difficult)


b) our cats (fairly difficult - see video below)

and c) Uncle Allen (not possible)


The video below shows Abby struggling to pull her wee-wee-weeee with our approximately 20 lb cat, Belle-Belle. She even tried to pick up the cat to put her in the box!



Wee-Wee-Weeeee: Part 2 from Cecilia Newell on Vimeo.

Abby began humming tunes back in January - wordless songs. Recently, she has been following along as we sing. This video clip shows her singing a song all on her own. It took hearing it a few times for us to figure out what song she was singing, but it's definitely discernible.

First person to guess the song wins!



Abby Sings A Song from Cecilia Newell on Vimeo.

Dad had his heart surgery last Wednesday and he was in ICU until late Friday morning. When we first saw him Thursday morning, he was able to speak and his voice got stronger throughout the day. He looked well and alert, but slept a lot throughout the day, which was good for his recovery. His appetite was poor for the first couple of days, but even as of Friday we saw a noticeable change in the color in his face.

He continued to improve extremely fast. His pain level on a scale from 1 to 10 continued to stay 1, so the nurses had to push pain killers on him to make sure he was comfortable enough to do his deep breathing exercises and walks.

Mom is doing well, but due to the stress of the past week and constant vigilance caring for Dad, she has come down with a cold. We are trying to make sure she takes good care of herself as well, but she has always gotten over illness fast, so she continues to "Energizer Bunny" on.

Today, the drain tubes in his chest were removed, he was taken off of oxygen, and after an evaluation by his cardiac surgeon, he was given the choice of coming home today or spending another night. Coming home was the choice that won hands-down! Speaking with the nurses, they were confident that he was ready to be discharged and further observation was not necessary.

Tonight at 8:20 PM, he bounded swiftly up (...at least walked with enthusiasm) the steps into the house as if he didn't just have open heart surgery less than a week ago! The nurses did say he had extremely strong leg muscles and was able to get up easily from sitting, which many patients are not able to do, relying on upper body strength (a no-no right now) to get up.

He just finished a shower and as he walked by just now, he was walking straight and in no signs of pain, despite no pain medication since before the tubes were removed.

There have been so many well wishes from family and friends - we've been really touched!

I still can not believe how my dad was able to drive himself to the hospital on Monday morning, with no chest pains or symptoms that day of the severity of his heart condition.

Yesterday, after the angiogram, it was determined that he would need a triple bypass. There were some kidney function concerns resulting from tests done later that day which they were monitoring to see if surgery would even be possible today. This morning, he was cleared. Everything looked good and they managed to squeeze him in for surgery with Dr. Carson - a very reputable cardiac surgeon.

At 11:30, he was prepped for surgery. At 1:00 PM he was in he was in the operating room. The nurse told my mom that the Dr. had studied his X-rays, ultrasound, and EKG and believed that there would actually be 5 bypasses that will need to be performed - they will know more when they see his heart.

At 4:00, his chest was opened and heart exposed. He was not yet on the heart-lung machine as they were in the process of extracting a vein from his left leg and a mammary artery from his chest cavity to be used for the bypasses.

By 5:30, he was on the heart-lung machine and they had performed 3 of the 5 "rewires." My dad had very strong, thick veins and arteries, which made the attachments go very quickly and smoothly. We chatted awhile with the nurse who was providing us these regular status updates and she was able to reassure us that things were going very well.

Shortly after 6:00, the nurse came out again to tell us the bypasses have been completed. He was off of the heart-lung machine and his heart responded well immediately and is beating strong, but he was bleeding a little and they were waiting for it to stop before they would close him up. We were told to get some dinner and they would find us if there were more news. Paul and Abby had arrived by then, so my mom and I went with them to the cafeteria across the hall for a bite to eat.

About 7:00, the nurse told us they were going to need to get some plasma and platelets for my dad to help with the bleeding. This sometimes happened with the amount of blood thinners they had given him over the past couple of days.

Around 8:30 was when we found out the surgery was over and he was being moved to the ICU. We talked to Dr. Carson and he showed us the diagram at the bottom of the post, which showed us exactly where the new pathways had been created - 5 in total; a quintuple bypass.

The bleeding was due to poor liver function (an existing condition we knew about) which caused his liver to not be able to produce enough hormones to stimulate platelet production. So, this was a complication which even a doctor as experienced in the field as Dr. Carson had only rarely seen.

A second point of concern was that they discovered he had fairly severe kidney disease, which will need to be closely monitored from now on.

At 9:00 we were in the ICU, where my dad will stay overnight. So many tubes and needles were coming out of him and his face had an ashen hue - it was a real shock to see. The nurse prepared us well, though, and we knew what to expect, so it wasn't scary. His hands are tied down to prevent him from thrashing or pulling tubes out when he starts to regain consciousness. Allen arrived shortly after we were able to visit Dad. His body temperature - according to the monitors - was high, but his skin was cold. We talked to him and reassured him that we would see him soon. By the time we left for the night - we were not allowed to stay with him after 10:30 - most of the puffiness in his face and upper chest actually seemed to have decreased a lot and the color in his face looked very good. All of his stats were good when we left, but blood work did indicate that his platelets were still low and implied that he would probably need a small transfusion in the middle of the night.

My dad had very high spirits this morning and was anxious to get it all over with. To us, that is a very positive sign.

I want to thank all the friends and family who have provided a wealth of support for me and my family. Your prayers and well wishes really mean a lot to us!

About 2 weeks ago, my father experienced fairly severe chest pains and we were able to convince him to make an appointment to get it checked out. The EKG did not reveal anything, but he was scheduled for a stress test.

Yesterday, he had his stress test and was not able to last more than a couple of minutes. From my mom, I learned he had been coughing a bit, without signs of a cold and that he had complained about not feeling well after carrying Abby up a flight of stairs over the weekend. He also told her he was pretty sure he wasn't going to pass the stress test, so there must have been other indications of issues he wasn't willing to share.

During the stress test, the doctors also found out that he had restricted blood/oxygen flow to approximately half of his heart, so he was immediately admitted to St. Joseph's hospital that morning for an angiogram.

The angiogram was performed this morning at 9AM and they found 98% blockage on a major artery and 70% blockage over large sections of a couple of other arteries. The result was that an angioplasty was not sufficient and he will be having a triple bypass.

My mom is with my dad, but I am sure he is frightened. He really has not had any major health issues until now, so this must feel even more daunting.

For all of us, this is a scary time, but I am so thankful that we were able to catch it before something major should occur. I am also extremely grateful that our whole family is able to be here for him and my mom.

ABCs from Cecilia Newell on Vimeo.

Why has it taken me this long to discover Babylicious Gear?!

If you haven't noticed yet, most of Abby's outfits are heavily polka-dotted. I didn't even know I had an affinity towards dots, but I obviously do.

Most things at Babylicious are polka-dots and stripes - from blankets and decor to nursing pillow covers and teething bibs/collars.

If there's one thing I do not like about Abby's current daycare, it's that we do not get a good idea of what they have been teaching her and how she responds. We get a high-level lesson plan for the week, but I don't really care that my child is learning about transportation, per se, rather I'd like to hear that they're teaching them that cars go "Vroom!" or that airplanes fly in the air while boats cruise on water, etc. What songs/books are they singing/reading and which particular songs/books do Abby get excited about.

None of that.

We talked to the director and they just referred us to our weekly newsletters and the daily reports. (The daily reports are 3 sentences long. Always. And the first sentence is always: "Abby had a great day today!" Regardless of whether or not she actually did.)

So, we're still trying to work through this communication issue.

Anyway, by chance, we discovered something cute that Abby has been learning - she really, really likes the song "If You Are Happy."

(Note: We took this video after Abby had already performed it a few times and she obviously wanted to move on to her books towards the end of the video clip.)


If You're Happy and You Know It from Cecilia Newell on Vimeo.

One thing I have really been looking forward to with this parenting gig is being able to talk to Abigail about her day. Asking her questions and hearing her expand on the topics and having her randomly share with me things of which I have not been a part of during her day.

I knew, obviously, that I had to wait until she could talk before that special time would begin and I knew I probably had at least another year to wait, but Abby surprised me today while I was eating dinner.

I had left work very late. Paul had already picked her up from daycare hours ago and everyone had already eaten dinner. I was eating the leftovers and chatting with my mom, but during a pause, Abby chimed, "I see a moon! I see a moon!" I thought she said she saw my spoon, so I said, "Yes, momma's using a spoon for dinner." She ignored me and kept persisting, "I see moon, I see moon, I see moon!"

My very slow brain finally allowed me to realize she DOES know the difference between "spoon" and "moon." Could she possibly be saying, "She saw the moon today?"

So I asked, "Abby, did you see the moon today?"

"Yes!"

"Did Ba-Ba show you the moon?"

"Yes!"

I couldn't believe it. I was stunned and excited and even more so when I confirmed with Paul that they had gone out for a walk at twilight to see the near-full moon. I believe Abby was very proud of herself for being able to share her piece of news, which meant something special to her. I was euphoric! What will she tell me tomorrow?

Paul and I had our first Abby-less date night tonight in celebration of our anniversary and Valentine's Day which we were not able to do together while he was still in Maryland.

My parents agreed to watch Abigail, so Paul and I left for an early evening showing of Coraline. We were planning on seeing the regular 2D version, having not been impressed by the hype of a new wave of 3D fascination starting around Super Bowl time, but when we arrived at the Highlands Ranch AMC theater we learned that they only had 3D showings, which was fine.

The story was decent, certainly interesting enough for me to want to read the story, but it was dark and at times pretty scary. By the time credits rolled, I was pretty sure I would have a couple of bad dreams thanks to the movie.

On the other hand, the technology that created the film blew me away. The 3D effects were very cool, but we had to put up with very uncomfortable 3D glasses, unfortunately. 3D has come SO FAR in the last 20 years and it created a movie experience that felt more like watching live theater; there was so much depth between characters and backgrounds! Pair that with amazing stop-motion filming and CG effects, you get brilliant, visually stunning scenes. I have always been a huge fan of stop-motion films because the images created have so much more texture than CG or traditional animation.

Overall, if you have geek tendencies and appreciate the technology that went into making the movie, I would really recommend Coraline. Despite an ok story with scary bits, the movie was made extremely well and - 3D or not - the animation was fantastic.

Paul and I went to The Melting Pot - the fondue restaurant - in downtown Littleton after we finished the movie. We have always enjoyed going to The Melting Pot and spending 3-4 hours to enjoy good food and good company. This was our first time at this particular location, though. Colorado has four Melting Pot restuarants and the two we have visited (in Louisville and now in Littleton) are located in converted historical buildings, giving them each a unique atmosphere. The Littleton restaurant is in a quaint little building which used to be the downtown Public Libary over a hundred years ago.

A great date night, but I am still stuffed from all the food! Abby just woke up and was all smiles after seeing both Paul and me. She drank some milk and quickly went back to sleep. I think she woke up strictly to make sure Mommy and Daddy had come home.

I think I'll go read for awhile before turning in for the night.

The picture below is of Abby showing off her new ride. The ride is called (according to Abby) a Wee-Wee-Weeeeee!!!

Most significant news of the week is that Paul is finally here in Denver!!! Of course, that also means that Tigger, Belle, and Gizmo have survived the drive across country. Everyone is great and ecstatic that the family is reunited and we're all here to stay.

Paul drove in to town Thursday evening (2/26). I was still in Sunnyvale then. Paul, Abby, and my dad were able to pick me up from the airport Friday morning.

The kitties have adjusted splendidly (also, my parents and brother have adjusted well to them) and Abby is beside herself with joy, where even her daycare teachers have noticed her extra level of happiness during the day.

A good friend of mine dropped a bombshell piece of information on me today that made me cry and my heart ache for a long time.

She and her husband are expecting a baby soon and have decided to send the baby to live with the grandparents and aunt Monday through Thursday night and bring the baby home on Friday, to be returned on Sunday. They want to try this arrangement out for a year and see how it works. The reason: concern about being able to wake up for work the next day.

I am trying so hard not to be judgemental about this, but I am pretty upset about their decision. Leaving a child at daycare, not being able to see your baby for 8-10 hours a day is excruciating for the parents and not easy on the baby either! To give up parenting on weekdays is generally the result of losing a custody battle for a separated couple, so to hear that a happily married couple willingly agree to weekend parenting is very painful to swallow.

No denying that having family around to help care for a baby is great. I just hope that my friend and her husband realize they will actually want to care for the child for more than 2 nights a week after the baby is born.