Maeve Catherine

We found out about Maeve's heart defect a month and a half before she was born. We had a fetal echo because of exposure to the Coxsackie virus, but that ended up not being related to Maeve's problem at all. It was just a lucky break that let us find out about her heart ahead of time.

She was born March 13, 2003 and was taken to the NICU for oxygen, but was released after 6 days to come home to gain weight for surgery. This did not happen easily, and she got an NG tube just before her surgery. Her repair was very successful except for a small leak remaining in her mitral valve.

The biggest obstacle since then has been feeding. She currently takes nothing by bottle and hasn't for several months. In December 2003 she got a G-J tube in the hopes that she can gain weight despite her major reflux problems. So far, she has been doing pretty well with this new tube, and it's much better than the NG tube she had for 7 months.

She has also had surgeries for ptosis and strabismus of her left eye, and she had surgery to correct polydactyly of all four extremities. Despite all of this, she is a very happy baby and is improving daily.