Clinic Appt. w/ Dr. Judd #1

Today was an emotionally exhausting day. I feel like I've run a marathon and I've really hardly moved at all (my house is a mess)!
This morning was Tate's first appointment w/ the pediatric cardiologist. Our appointment was at 10:20. Doctor Judd is based in Salt Lake City, Utah and only comes up here every so often (not really sure what her schedule is) so she sees patients at the hospital instead of in an office. Anyway, they had an "emergency" of some sort this morning and it bumped them back and made them over an hour behind schedule. We sat in the waiting room for over an hour and weren't seen until 11:40. I hate hospitals as it is but being so anxious to hear what she was going to say about our Tate made it torture. Finally we were called back. I had to get Tate undressed down to his onesie and then pull that up so they could get to his chest. The nurse stuck about 10 black stickers on varies parts of his body (mostly his chest but also his legs and arms) and then hooked the EKG wires to those stickers. Then she did the EKG which took like 10 seconds, it seriously took her longer to put the wires on him than it did to do the test, which was a nice surprise. I was used to the echocardiogram which took 30-40 minutes. Less than a minute later the cardiologist came in and asked us questions about Tate's behavior.
Does he have trouble breathing? Does it take him a long time to eat (she said more than 40 minutes)? Does his head get sweaty when he eats? Are his hands and feet always cold or do they ever feel warm?Is he extremely fussy?All the answers to those questions were "no". He eats for usually 5 to 10 minutes, his head doesn't get sweaty, his hands and feet are often warm, his breathing never sounds troubled, and he's fussy like a normal baby and usually just right before bed- nothing too crazy.

Doctor Judd said that they give the heart every chance to close on its own. She said most holes will close on their own (oh and apparently Tate has two holes, the larger 7.5mm one that I knew about and then another smaller one in a different location- I can't remember where she said that one was). She said that since he's growing well, has good circulation, he's very active (she said that if there was a problem he'd be a very lazy baby that just lays still, but he was kicking and rolling himself from side to side to look at different things around the room, so she could tell that he was active), and also since the EKG didn't show any hypertension problems (I think thats the word she used??) that they're just going to monitor for a while. Until the hole closes on its own, or until he starts to show signs (all those things mentioned above, if they change those would be warning signs) that something needs to be done. She said that babies grow so fast in the first year that it may just close on its own in that time, we go back in two months to have him checked again. I assume it'll be an every two months sort of thing, unless he takes a turn for the worse. So far, this is a good news. We're feeling really good that the cardiologist seemed hopeful and told us that he's a healthy boy, who for the time being isn't showing any adverse effects from the holes. She also put us more at ease by saying that he's not at risk for a heart attack, turning blue, stopping breathing, or dying suddenly. So its really good to know that, I've been extra worried about the possibility of SIDS with him b/c of the VSD--so maybe now I'll cut back a little and only check to make sure he's breathing and his heart is beating 50 times a day instead of a hundred! lol. (Come on now, all you mothers know you do the same thing... I still do it to Ryley and Jackson in the middle of the night randomly).So there's the super long update... (sorry if its bored you... I want to remember it all and this is my journal)... thanks for all your support and concerns for our Tate.