Wren Archives - Tales from the Mommy Trenches

Tag Archives: Wren

Quick Update on Wren’s Heart

Some background on Wren’s heart situation Here, in case you missed it.

The pediatric cardiologist recommended that we take Wren in for EKGs and echocardiograms every six months due to the severity of her heart defect that was discovered at her birth, but not properly diagnosed until she was about six months old. So we have been dutifully taking her every six months and holding our breath as to how the stenosis (narrowing) of her pulmonary artery is faring as she grows.

Clutching my old doll I had growing up whose eyes would appear open or closed if you put warm or cold water on them. Anyone else had one of these growing up? read more

Wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch

So says the Swan of Avon. I say, an apt expression for a post on our little Wren.

Does that photo progression make anyone else weepy? Just me? Ok.

We have Wren’s next heart appointment next month, and those always make me nervous. We have gotten results anywhere from open heart surgery is possibly imminent to her heart looks great and we won’t need to check it as often maybe in the many, many pediatric cardiologist appointments we have had. We got the latter opinion last time, and I am hoping and praying that trend continues. read more

Wren: 9 months

I’m going to do Wren’s monthly update a day early since Rosie’s birthday is tomorrow and two posts in one day sounds exhausting!

The little bird is nine months old! I know I feel this way about every age, but nine months is my favorite.

For this post, I gave up on trying for lovely photos with lots of white space. I am no photographer, and I knew I wasn’t fooling anyone.

Milestones: You are sitting up like a champ now, and sleeping through the night pretty regularly (Alelluia!) You wave, shake your head no, and clap! You also said “Ma,” today, much to your mama’s excitement. You are getting up and army crawling a bit, but seem to have no inclination to get up on your hands and knees. Every time I try to get you to do it, you fall on your face (sorry!) You are also honing your pincer skills while you are killing some puffs! You can hold your own bottle and fruit pouch (that is more of a milestone for me). If you are holding onto something, you can stand for a bit. My children tend to be more brains over brawn. You also cut two little bottom teeth! read more

Wren: 8 months

I feel like the difference from 7 months to 8 months is huge! My husband said, “she is finally getting fun!” I have found that men don’t have as much of an appreciation for the subtle joys of sleeping infants. They tend to be drawn to the more mobile giggling babies. Go figure.

Thumb suckers unite!

Milestones: You started clapping! It is ridiculously adorable. You involve your whole body in this new activity. Sometimes the sheer energy of your clap topples you over! You are also finally sitting up steadily. I thought this would never happen. You have been babbling and gurgling up a storm. If someone blows raspberries at you, you blow them back! My grandmother said I’m going to jinx it by saying this, but you started sleeping 12 hours again! Right after you started sleeping through at seven months, you had your ER trip, horrible fever, and started teething hardcore, and started waking once a night again. Pobresita! You also had your first little tooth break through the gum! This is my first experience breastfeeding a baby with teeth, and ouch! You haven’t started army crawling yet, but you can roll across the room in the blink of an eye. You also FINALLY started drinking out of a bottle! Cue the Alleluia Chorus. read more

Wren: Seven Months

Dear Wren,

What the what?!! You are seven months already. Boy, does the third baby age quickly. Before I know it, you will be fighting with Daddy about whether your outfits are too revealing or not. You might as well give up on that, by the way. By the time he gets to you, he will be an old pro at sending girls back upstairs to change because he will have already been doing it for your two older sisters. Speaking of your sisters, they still never fail to make you smile and laugh. Rosie loves hugging you and holding your face while telling you to look at her. (Why? I don’t know. Toddlers are mysterious.) read more

Wren’s ER Visit

It was the day before my birthday, and my sister and I were having a lovely time playing with my babies out on the patio. I was holding Wren and I heard her gagging. I immediately turned her to face me and she started vomiting. I quickly turned her away from me as she continued throwing up. It finally seemed like there was nothing left and when I turned her back toward me she was deathly pale and her lips had turned blue. I cleaned her up and laid her down in the play pen and she fell asleep. If it had been one of my other children, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it. But because of Wren’s heart issue, I figured I should call her pediatrician. I would have called her cardiologist, but they close the office during lunch time, and it was noon. As soon as I told the nurse on the phone Wren had pulmonary arterial stenosis, she cut me off and said I needed to take her to the emergency room. “Are you sure?”, I said. I did not want to be the hysterical mom in the ER who is there because her child threw up. “Yes, take her in immediately,” the nurse said firmly.
Wren before drastically changing the course of our day read more

Wren Loves Selfies

Here are a bunch of Wren selfies, from a few weeks to six months. You’re welcome.

We hope your day is fabulous and full of moments so happy, you just have to take a selfie. Because that is what the cool kids are doing these days, I hear.

Wren sits up!

So this happened today. Just thought I’d share with you.

She had been popping back up in her car seat for a couple weeks now, so I figured, hey our bed is cushy! Let’s give this a whirl, kid.

She sat proudly for about ten seconds, and then this happened.

Good job, little bird! Daddy and I are looking forward to following your accomplishments in the field of sitting, in addition to your many other talents. We love you and your sisters so much.

How Thursday with the Pediatric Cardiologist went down

So I have had a day to process what happened at Wren’s appointment yesterday and spoken to a few of my friends and relatives who are in the medical field. Honestly, I spent yesterday in shock. I went into the appointment confident that her heart condition is mild and they would tell us no further action was needed and send us on our way. I didn’t even tell my husband to come with me because I figured the appointment would be unremarkable. But when the doctor starting talking not only surgery, but open heart surgery as a necessity for Wren, I couldn’t process it. read more