Emotional Roller Coaster, Pt. II

Who knew we could love this little one so much? Leaving the hospital, we had a 3 1/2 hour drive up to Salt Lake to spend time with the grandparents while we recovered. It was a pretty surreal, emotional few hours. We finally realized we were entering the real world as Mom and Dad.
We spent the week with family, slowly introducing her to people and getting used to the new challenges and rewards we were experiencing. We visited the pediatrician (Bryan's cousin, Sarah, who is wonderful) for her first check-up. It was here we learned some great news and some not so great news. The good news was that Ada was finally kicking the jaundice. Her bilirubin levels had gone down significantly below dangerous levels! We were elated to hear it- no more bili lights and no more heel pricks (of which she'd already had 7). Sarah was performing all the routine reflex tests, and all were perfect until she got to Ada's eyes. There is a test where light is reflected off of the retina resulting in the "red eye" you see in photographs. Ada didn't have that in her right eye. Sarah wasn't confident in telling us why she couldn't see it, so she referred us to a pediatric ophthalmologist at Primary Childrens Hospital. After a long visit there, we found out that she has a cataract in her right eye. When the doctor told us she needed surgery as soon as possible and years of treatment and therapy, I broke down. After dealing with the jaundice, and everything else seeming perfect, this was the last thing we expected. Since then, we have researched the condition. Because it's not a hereditary form, the chances of a baby having this problem is one in 10,000- so I guess this makes Ada even more special. The whole situation is not as scary as we thought at first- I cannot imagine parents who have to deal with actual life-threatening conditions. We are most worried about her undergoing general anesthesia- the surgery itself is relatively short and the outcome looks good because we caught it early. Post-surgery, we will have to deal with patches and contact lenses until she's about 8 or 9, but it really could be a lot worse. And Ada does this enough we are confident she'll be able to handle it. It's probably going to be much harder for her parents than it is for her.
Anyway, besides this little hiccup, she is the perfect baby. She feeds well, sleeps well and is so fascinating that we don't need any other form of entertainment for a long time to come!
Here are a few more pictures:

Just hanging out with Dad

Practicing ballet

Getting confused by body parts

Wearing the cool new shirt Katie made for her