Anna Grace's Logs

When Anna Grace was born after she had been "promoted" to the "step down" floor at the hospital out of PCICU that was really when I first began my training as a heart Mom. One of the things which was so important during this time was tracking Anna Grace's urine output as well as her bowel movements, when she ate, how much she ate, when she thre up, how much she threw up, medicine time and amounts... you get the idea.

So at two weeks old when she was finally taken to "step down" I began the process, in my spiral bound notebook, of keeps charts and logs of all these things each day for Anna Grace. Because of her severe vomiting and reflux it really was important so that we could determine how much food she was getting.

Once we brought her home from the hospital (at 6 weeks old) I needed to continue tracking all this information and it was also a way for me to keep up with her MANY daily medications so that I didn't miss any. So, every day I prepared a chart for her medicine schedule as well as wrote down when she ate, how much she ate, when she went to the bathroom, etc. I did this every day until she was about a year old.

Shortly before her first birthday she was down to only three daily medications so I didn't need a chart to help me remember when to give them. I was an old pro by then. Also, at a year old we had her reflux under control (with medication) and her vomiting was virtually non-existent - so I stopped the daily charting in the notebooks. I just didn't need it anymore.

What this left me with was MANY spiral notebooks full of detailed information on Anna Grace's eating, bowels and medication. As many of you know, we recently moved into our new home (I know... you're still waiting on pictures). During the time of packing to move I was also purging lots of things that I didn't want to take with us to the new house - it was time to clean out the clutter.

When I got to all of Anna Grace's spiral notebooks I was stumped. What did I want to do with them? Did I want to keep them to show her one day? Would she even care when she ate or how many times she threw up when she was 3 months and 2 days old???? So after much thought, I decided to toss them. I know there are probably a lot of sentimental people reading this right now who are shocked that I would do that, but honestly I am thankful that we no longer NEED the spiral notebooks and that she is doing well enough to not have to chart all of it. I really don't think she will be interested (at least I hope she won't) in how many cc's of Portagen she ate when she was 4 months old and so they are gone.

It was really hard throwing them away though. Probably harder to lose those notebooks than anything else I purged during our move - there were just so many prayers and tears cried over those daily notations. But, I am thankful that she is thriving and I really don't want to hold onto THAT part of our journey. So...... I let it go. So continues the life of a heart Mom......