A little scare

I'm holding a peaceful, sleeping baby in one arm as I type this, and after a little scare last night it's just a bit more precious than it was 24 hours ago.


After the evening feed, Petrina checked F's heart rate, and thought it was fast. I had a listen and agreed.  So the girls went off to the emergency ward while I stayed home to look after SP.  Thankfully, the ECG showed that yes, it was a bit faster than it had been, but not particularly fast for a baby of this age, and it had the all-important p-waves, meaning that it was sinus, not SVT, which was our big worry.  Another ECG later on confirmed those results, and an echo this morning confirmed that contractility (heart function) is all as it should be.  F has to wear an ECG recording halter until tomorrow morning, just in case there are some very rare irregularities that need to be picked up.


By 8:30 this morning they were ready to come home, and could have come then except that we had the newborn hearing screening test scheduled for today anyway, so Petrina and F waited to do that.  SP was in rest time when they got home, but when he heard F crying before a feed, he called out in delight "mummy and F... are home, hooray! hooray!"  Petrina is feeling pretty exhausted; the A&E treatment was superb, but after it was clear that (a) things were ok and (b) they'd be staying overnight, it was 3:30 am before the paperwork was ready for them to go up to the ward.


It's slighlty ironic that earlier in the evening, Petrina and I had been musing on how we're still both processing the depths and heights that we've been through in the last two months, and still a bit in shock that it's all turned out so well so far.  Even with this little scare, God's care and provision is unmistakable.  I don't know how long it will take us to get used to the new normal, but I'm thankful that we're in the Everlasting Arms all the way.


In a side note of levity, SP was very excited to watch a bass solo (from a Joe Satriani concert DVD) with me this morning, and is now trying to say the names of all the band members :)  Hey, how else do you teach a 2yo that it's possible to play classical melodies on the bass guitar?