Gemma at 8 months old

Weight: Right around 19 lbs. Still our smallest baby.
 
Height: Around 28 inches
 
Clothing Size: 6-9 month clothes

Daily Schedule: I was really excited for daylight savings with Gemma because I thought it would bump up her bedtime. Nope. She adjusted just fine and didn't seem to notice a difference. She still wakes up between 7 and 8am. She really prefers three naps a day and squeezes in her third nap around 6pm. No matter what time her third nap happens, she is almost always ready to go down for the night around 9/9:30pm. I wish it would bump up a little so I could get more work done but it is nice to put the big kids to bed first and then Gemma.

She has also slept through the night again quite often over the past few weeks. I'm hopeful it keeps progressing. I can't really sleep train her with her heart condition so I just keep hoping she "gets" it eventually.

Special Outings: Wisconsin! She did AWESOME with traveling by plane and car and sleeping someplace else. Gemma is the easiest baby traveler so far. She was very clingy while visiting but still smiled at everyone.

Firsts: More foods that she doesn't like. She likes to gnaw on food and then spits it out rather than swallowing it. I keep hoping one day she'll suddenly wake up and love food.

Heart Update: We had a heart check up finally! Waiting three months was rough. Here's the update as best as I can explain it. Gemma's main number that signifies if intervention is necessary rose a little bit. In August, she was upper 40s/low 50s. This time, she was at about 55. This number is slightly flexible as Gemma moves around during the ECHO and such. Typically, doctors use 60 as the line for surgery or not. Some doctors use 50. It varies a little bit from doctor to doctor or practice to practice. We're grateful the increase was at least a slower increase than the past three visits. However, living right on that fine line is worrisome. The other issue that presented itself at this appointment is her artery coming off of that valve is showing distress. Sometimes, the artery can thicken or dilate due to the blood flow hitting it harder in one spot rather than flowing freely. This is the first time we've seen issues with that artery. This signifies that her blood flow is not flowing properly and could lead to bigger problems later on.

When our cardiologist is telling me this, I kept thinking that we'd just go get a second opinion. We'd discussed doing this as a safety precaution to ensure measurements and opinions matched between doctors. I trust our doctor but would still want to have another opinion before pursuing further treatment. However, our doctor said she wanted to take our case to a cardiology panel in Houston that meets every 6 weeks. There, many local cardiologists meet to discuss certain cases and decide together what would be best recommended. I loved this idea but was not looking forward to waiting a few more weeks.

Well, fast forward a few more days and our cardiologist calls me. She was able to talk to the panel early and discuss Gemma more. They all agreed that the surgery has better outcomes if we wait for Gemma to get bigger. The biggest the baby, the bigger the heart. This allows the doctors to do different interventions, which have better results/outcomes. So, unless Gemma starts showing symptoms associated with this defect, we are having another check up in February. At this point, we are fairly certain she will have surgery. What kind and how invasive will depend on how her heart looks in February.

Monthly Pictures: