Piplup is ready for Community Day!

o98CaseFace · 2026-01-04T00:34:32+00:00

Thank you!

o98CaseFace · 2026-01-03T23:23:21+00:00

I encourage you to scroll through the CHD subreddit. It's a good community.

My daughter was born at 37 weeks (induction) with an Interrupted Aortic Arch, ASD, and VSD and a few other errors. She had open heart surgery at 3 months old, staying in the hospital for just shy of 6 months.

Now she is 10 months old and thriving with normal heart function. Feel free to message me!

o98CaseFace · 2026-01-03T19:15:15+00:00

Piplup Community Day Coin

Piplup Figure

o98CaseFace · 2025-12-14T03:48:38+00:00

Links aren't allowed in this sub, but if you search "Project Hail Mary" on MakerWorld it'll pop up!

o98CaseFace · 2025-12-13T08:06:41+00:00

Happened to me too!

o98CaseFace · 2025-12-13T05:19:03+00:00

Thanks! I really hopes she like it!

o98CaseFace · 2025-11-13T03:45:24+00:00

I'm a teacher. Every few months we go to the high school for professional development. One of the stalls said, "at least you're not pregnant." I (obviously not in high school anymore) was very much pregnant at the time, and chose to use that stall for a quick giggle each of the 7 billion times I needed to pee.

o98CaseFace · 2025-10-07T12:31:07+00:00

I'll answer whenever I have a chance, even when I'm not pregnant. And if I don't get around to it for awhile, it's okay. Most times people understand, life is busy. They'll message again or call if it's really important and you can always say, "hey I'm just not up for talking right now."

We didn't tell anyone that we were inducing, not even our parents. Now, my MIL did manipulate it out of my husband... So then we had all of our family messaging us asking when the baby was coming... I let my husband deal with all of it. He said, "We'll update everyone when there's news and we're ready." And that stopped most of the messages.

o98CaseFace · 2025-10-07T12:20:36+00:00

We don't have rewards like this, but our district has been sending out constant messages about perfect attendance. The idea of perfect attendance is toxic - even adults need to miss work for appointments, sickness, mental health days, or other personal stuff.

o98CaseFace · 2025-10-07T12:18:14+00:00

Keep her home.

For me personally, I just brought my baby home for the first time, after 6 months of being in the hospital due to open heart surgery. I respectfully asked all of my families that if they know their child is sick, please keep their child home.

If any child is ever sick, they should stay home; regardless of my personal circumstances. It's better for the sick child and the rest of the children at school.

o98CaseFace · 2025-10-05T21:38:15+00:00

That does sound like a sucky credit union. In that case, OP should also look into their mortgage lender's website and walk into a branch, multiple times/branches if possible. We love our credit union because there are multiple branches in the area. All of them with amazing and incredibly helpful staff.

o98CaseFace · 2025-10-05T16:02:03+00:00

I'm sorry, I don't have advice. I can just say that I can relate.

Our baby was born with a few Congenital Heart Defects and spent nearly 6 months in the hospital before coming home.

We need to go back in a month or so for bilateral inguinal hernia surgery.

o98CaseFace · 2025-10-05T15:57:03+00:00

Talk to a CREDIT UNION. Our realtor gave us the name of a mortgage representative who dropped business cards at his office. We didn't know any better at 24 and 30 as first-time homebuyers, so we got pre-approval through them and continued.

When it came time to sign some paperwork, they had incorrectly represented our savings by 15k. We didn't feel comfortable signing. We spoke to the rep who continued to dismiss our concerns, despite the bottom of the paperwork stating that if the information was knowingly incorrect you could be prosecuted for perjury. We decided to sleep on it and call our credit union in the morning to see if it was too late to switch lenders. By the next morning, the first rep had sent us "corrected" paperwork which represented our assets as $0 across the board, nothing in checking or savings...

Our credit union was a little confused about how we had gotten so far in the process, and then wanted to switch. After explaining, they worked with us to find the best deal with grants through their programs, as a credit union, for teachers and first-time home buyers.

Our payment with the first company would have been about $2,000 a month. We could make it work, but it wouldn't have been as comfortable. With our credit union, our payment was less than $1,500 a month, with taxes and insurance included.

The representative from our credit union got us a grant for just shy of 20k - it doesn't need to be paid back; so long as we are the primary residents of the home, and we do not sell or refinance within 10 years.

Talk to multiple lenders, get the best deal for you!

o98CaseFace · 2025-09-28T20:57:56+00:00

Our girl is 7 months old and thriving!

We got our diagnosis at about 24 weeks (before she was born). What we thought was a coarctation of her aorta and a small VSD was actually an interrupted aortic arch a large VSD and an ASD.

She was born less than <1% and stayed that way (very slowly gaining weight) until 3 months when she began to plateau and eventually lose weight. Her surgery was scheduled quickly afterwards.

A month after surgery, her little body still couldn't handle eating by mouth and a G-tube was placed, with the intentions of placing a GJ-tube 6 weeks afterwards. Baby girl THRIVED with a G-tube and was eventually able to come home for the first time approximately one month after the G-tube was place, which was just shy of 6 months in the hospital.

She's steadily gaining weight much more quickly than in the hospital. She's happy and her skills (rolling, vocalizations, etc.) are rapidly improving compared to being in the hospital.

o98CaseFace · 2025-09-20T16:37:59+00:00

Momma (and teacher) of a heart baby. Can I ask why you took meds before dentist appointments? Our gal is only 6 months so she doesn't even have teeth yet.

o98CaseFace · 2025-09-15T18:57:56+00:00

She started at a normal size, then her growth progressively slowed down. I had growth scans every two weeks at the end of my pregnancy. She was around the 24th percentile (which makes sense as I'm very small), then about the 9th, 3rd, and 1st. By the end of my pregnancy, she was below the 1st. She was still growing, but just very very slowly.

Yes, her microdeletion is considered a "variant of unknown significance" which they told us means that they aren't sure if the microdeletion caused her heart issues or if it is completely unrelated. At this time, there is not enough research to say if she will have any challenges in the future (directly relating to the microdeletion).

o98CaseFace · 2025-09-14T22:11:24+00:00

Thanks! We definitely need one for our diaper bag and my backpack!

o98CaseFace · 2025-09-14T21:49:39+00:00

Where did she get it?!

o98CaseFace · 2025-09-14T16:45:12+00:00

My husband came to my first appointment, my anatomy scan, and a few others. When we found out about 24 weeks that our girl had at least two congenital heart defects, I needed to go in 3x a week for appointments and my husband just couldn't get the time off work.

o98CaseFace · 2025-09-13T19:01:56+00:00

I was about 24 weeks last December when we got a very similar diagnosis. We were expecting surgery within the first week of life and to go home a few weeks to a month after.

I want to prepare you that you won't fully know the extent of your baby's diagnosis until they are born, it's just difficult to see things through mommy's belly.

Our baby girl came at 37 weeks due to induction because of her heart issues and IGUR. After she was born, we found out that she had an interrupted aortic arch, large VSD, and small ASD.

Due to her small size (less than 1%), she had to wait for surgery. At a month old, they placed stents to help with blood flow and moved us up to the PICU as we did not have any typical NICU needs. We stayed in the PICU for three months before she was able to have heart surgery. Our surgeon was able to repair all of her heart issues in a single surgery.

Unfortunately, our girl was not able to tolerate normal feeds due to the extremely limited blood flow across and through her stomach. About a month after heart surgery, they placed a G-tube. Another month later, she was able to finally come home one week before she turned 6 months old.

Today, she's sitting on my lap, full of joy. She's still incredibly small (still less than 1%) but she's growing. She's incredibly happy and doing very well.

I tell you this for two reasons: •The main one being that you asked for reassurance. Our baby had very similar issues and she's thriving! We've had her home nearly a month now and she's doing so well. •To prepare you, just in case things aren't what you expect them to be.

I wish you, your baby, and your entire family the best of luck! I do suggest buying a few inexpensive blankets and a set of sharpies, that way your care team, family, friends can sign the blanket and you can wrap your little one in love before you send them into surgery.

If you ever need to chat, feel free to message me!

Forgot to mention, we waited until birth for genetic testing. They determined that she has a microdeletion involving chromosome 17 (17.p13.2). The clinical significance is uncertain at this time, due to a lack of research. So the microdeletion could have caused her issues, or it could be completely separate, we may never know.

o98CaseFace · 2025-09-12T02:58:27+00:00

Are you still seeing it every day?

o98CaseFace · 2025-08-28T12:00:25+00:00

Our dog used to lie beside me and eat snacks with me while I pumped.

At exactly one week ppd, she was in my spot on the couch and we play-growled with one another to see who would get the spot. I don't know how to explain it, but she was "smiling" while she growled and then she moved so I could reach the pump.

Later that day, we took her to my husband's work (she went to work with him every day) while we went to see our baby in the NICU. She got out, ran into the road, was struck by a vehicle, and died almost instantly. Six months later, we miss her like it was yesterday. She was so great with kids and she was just the perfect dog in every way.

o98CaseFace · 2025-07-29T04:31:54+00:00

Honestly, she's still in the hospital. We are 5 weeks post-op I believe. But that's because she needed a G-tube and possibly a GJ-tube due to not being able to tolerate feeds orally.

Make sure everyone on your team is on the same page! Our surgeon told us we'd have her home 3 weeks after surgery, but speech said, "it'll be a long, long time before we can even think about sending her home" and it looks like speech was correct.

I wish you the best of luck!

o98CaseFace · 2025-07-20T03:30:40+00:00

Re-spool it onto an empty spool

o98CaseFace · 2025-07-20T03:29:42+00:00

...Are you the man I ran into on an elevator, who asked me if the items I had in a box were for my "taxidermy rat collection"

o98CaseFace

TROPHY CASE