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Two weeks ago today, at this exact moment, Emma Kate was in the operating room.

Today we are home and I can hear her upstairs playing with her sister and brother.

Life is beginning to get back to normal. Of course, there are still a few things that aren't exactly "normal" in our routine. Emma Kate is on about 10 medications right now and will be for the next few weeks, I assume. Tomorrow she has a follow-up appointment with her cardiologist in Macon. She will have a chest x-ray and I think they will be taking off her steri-strips that cover her incision. We do no expect any surprises with this appointment. With the x-ray, they will be checking for fluid buildup on her lungs. And personally, I am a little nervous about it. Emma Kate hasn't exhibited any symptoms of fluid building up, she's on three diuretics and is eating and drinking normally. After the x-ray tomorrow, I will feel more at peace.

I do thank God so much for being so good. He is good in the good times we celebrate and in the bad times when we weep. So many people have told us that God is good. And we KNOW that He is. We know that He is good regardless of our circumstances. We are so grateful that Emma Kate is doing so well. The sound of her playing (and sometimes fighting) with her siblings is music to my ears. Thank you for your continued prayers and love for our daughter. We are completely humbled by your graciousness to our family.

Tomorrow her appointment is at 10 and I plan to keep the blog updated with her progress.

I took this yesterday afternoon. Emma Kate was begging to ride her bike. I compromised and let her ride the tricycle, so it wouldn't be as hard to balance. She rode up and down the driveway a couple of times and then went inside. That was enough for her. :)

December-January Catch Up

Hey faithful blog readers! December was such a busy month for our family and I have lots of stories to share! At the beginning of the month, if you remember, Emma Kate had a regular appointment with her cardiologist. It is a blessing that we have nothing new to report. EK was perfect through the whole appointment. Her EKG and echo went well, and her heart function still looks great. Dr. Cardis only brought up the Fontan (final stage of surgery) to say that he didn't feel it was time for it yet. EK's oxygen saturations hovered around their normal, which was 82-83. Her energy level is really good, she doesn't get over tired in her normal, daily routine, which is what we like to see. When these specific factors begin to change, or if her heart function starts to decrease, it is at that point that her team with begin discussing specifics on when her Fontan will take place. Cardis cleared her for our flight to Hawaii, too!

We flew out on December 13th for an eight day vacation to Honolulu. On the flight there, we ended up having oxygen with us and a pulse oximeter. EK did not need continuous oxygen, which was awesome. But we did need it a few times. However, the lowest her sats got was about 72-73. I was pretty impressed. I think I scared myself into thinking she would drop down into the 60s. I'm so glad I was wrong. 

When we arrived at the airport, it was night time and it was very HOT and muggy, which was especially weird since it had been snowing when we flew out of Atlanta. The kids were exhausted, as were the grown ups. We actually stayed in Waikiki Beach, which was beautiful. It was very surreal to be in such a tropical place in the winter time. I can see how it would be easy to lose track of time in a place like that when all the months of the year carry the same weather patterns. For us, the weather was perfect and we had such a great time. The girls enjoyed the beach and the sightseeing we did. It was hard for them to appreciate that we were in such a cool place, of course, but I am glad that we were all there.

The beach was such a hit with the girls! The sand was totally different than the sand we are used to! Normally, when we go to the beach, it is somewhere in Florida or South Carolina, and the sand is very soft. The sand was quite coarse and harsh on our skin in Hawaii. The girls didn't like that. The water was also pretty cold. We had to keep bringing Emma Kate up to our beach chairs every now and then to warm her up. She would get so cold and turn purple-y blue and start shivering. It was hard to stop her from playing, she didn't understand why she had to get out of the water.

We returned home on December 21st and spent Christmas here at home before flying up to Virginia to visit my parents and brother. We had a great time there, just relaxing and spending time with family. Brooks and I took the kids into DC one day. We went up the Washington Monument, which held amazing views from the top! We also went to the Museum of American History and spent far too little time there. I wish we could have explored the entire place!

 

Showing off some of the contents of her stocking Christmas morning. The kid has Bieber Fever. I need to get a video up of her singing!

  

 They love their Uncle Zach!

Emma Kate is trying on one of the wooden shoes my parents got in Holland many years ago.

EK's favorite activity while at Nana & Papas house: lining up the baby Jesus' from each nativity. 

The girls adored the largest dollhouse in the US and wanted to take it home.

The view from the top of WaMo. 555 5/8 feet!

Nana & Knox. And Aunt Erin's painting. I think she did a great job, even if she is 25. 

Haha! Love you, Erin!

Little mama helping me feed her baby brother. 

I'm so glad we are back home now and into our routine again. We're back to work, school and church and visiting with friends. Good to be home. Right now I am getting in gear for CHD Awareness Week 2011. Still trying to decide what unique ways I can spread awareness in our community. If you have any you'd like to share, I would love to hear about them!

Family Update

It sure has been an eventful month! Our family has had so many changes in the last few weeks and we've all been very busy! I still can't believe it, but we have moved back to Georgia. This is a change we made due to Brooks' job and it is wonderful. He is now working from home and traveling more, but he's still working for the same company. It's really nice having him around during the day. I know he's enjoying it, too.

We left Alabama the last weekend in August. It was a pretty uneventful move, but like anyone knows, moving is stressful in and of itself. This is the first move we've had to make with kids, which makes it that much more complicated. Anna Brooke is still asking when we are going back. Poor thing--it seems as though she is not a fan of change. Emma Kate is doing well, other than having an ear infection at the moment. We met with her new cardiologist and pediatrician a couple of weeks ago. I'm so glad we went ahead and made appointments with them as soon as we got here. I just wanted to be sure we knew our new doctors, in case something were to happen.

I am glad to be back in Georgia. We're a lot closer to family and friends, which is wonderful. It kind of felt like we were on an island when we lived in Birmingham, even though we had my sister nearby. Other than that, our closest family members were at least two hours away. Now they are no more than two minutes, which is super nice! (We do miss our friends, though! Hi, Reynolds!)

Part of me lately has been kind of missing Birmingham. I guess it is not really the place, its more the events that happened while we lived there. Brooks and I spent the majority of our marriage there; both of our girls were born there. Anna Brooke and I spent so much good quality time together for her first two and a half years while we lived there. It was such a fun time! I think about that pretty often now. Hopefully I will be able to get AB in to a preschool pretty soon (if there are still any openings) and that will give Emma Kate and I some focused time together. That has always been really important to me. I realize a lot of moms aren't able to be at home with their kids full time, so I never want to take that for granted and spend as much time as I can with my girls.

Today we discovered our local library. It was fun! We made it just in time for story time. There was another little girl there, who was maybe a year and a half I guessed. The woman with her (who I assumed was her grandmother) asked me how old EK was. When I told her 13 months, her mouth fell open and she just stared. Seriously. Finally, after what seemed like five minutes of staring, she said, "But she's so tiny!" I just said, "Yes, she is." But what I wanted to say was, "Uh, yeah!! She's also had two lifesaving operations, not to mention another stint in the hospital for almost a month!" She also asked a series of other annoying questions, such as how many teeth she has (does this really matter?) and blah blah...

I don't know why it got under my skin so badly. Maybe its because I actually am a little worried about her size. She's about 17 pounds and she's 13 months old, which apparently is not even on the growth chart, according to the doctors. But she's come so far, so its hard for me to feel bad about it for long. And actually, I secretly like having a small baby. It just makes me feel like I can hold her for longer. Is that silly? I better wrap this up because it is storming pretty bad. Did any of you other heart moms have smaller babies and get annoyed with people for commenting on their size?

Catching Up!

Whew! It's been an eventful month. I'll be honest, it will be hard for me to remember all the stuff Emma Kate has done. I can't believe it has been this long since I updated. As a matter of fact, I did sit down a few times and tried posting, but didn't have the time. We have been super busy!

First of all, Emma Kate is now ELEVEN months old! As I say every month, I can hardly believe it! We are so blessed with her and very thankful for the last eleven months she's been in our family. This month she has made some great strides in her development, including getting her first tooth, crawling and pulling up on stuff, plus she's doing a whole lot of talking! Her favorite thing to do is to say "bye-bye" and wave her chubby little hand in sync. (Yes, I know I said chubby. And to the layman's eye it may not look that way, but compared with how she was two or three months ago, you'd agree. It's chubby!)

Speaking of weight, EK now weighs 15 pounds, 8.2 ounces, according to the scale at the cardiologist's office today. She's gained a lot since she was there four months ago! Even better news is that Dr. Law did a quick echo and said her heart function was really good. Go Emma Kate! Her sats were 80 and everyone kept commenting on how great her color is! And of course, she was showing off her waving and saying bye-bye skills to everyone we saw.

Emma Kate & Daddy @ the cardio appointment

Last month, we spent a week-long trip visiting one set of the grandparents, Kiki and Lito, in Georgia. It was so fun to get to play outside and swim any day that we wanted to! Emma Kate loves the water, and I cannot believe I didn't get a picture of her swimming. It was so precious to watch her splashing and laughing! A couple of weeks later, we drove all the way to Virginia to visit Nana and Papa. It was the longest trip E.V.E.R! But well worth it, of course! We had a few setbacks on the way and didn't get there until like, 2 or 3am, I believe. We had a great time just hanging out, walking to the park in my parents new awesome neighborhood, and doing some shopping. My sister and her son (who is the same age as EK) were there, too, so the babies had lots of fun together.

Laughing with her cousin, Alyssa!
Emma Kate & Jackson playing in the pool!

On the way home from Virginia, we made a stop in Durham, NC and got to meet our heart/blog friend Charlotte and her sweet family for the first time! It was so much fun to finally see one another in person! We had a yummy breakfast at Cracker Barrel and got to sit and chat for awhile before getting back on the road. I really hope we can do that again!

Emma Kate & her heart sister Charlotte!

The Latest

Today we had a visit from our home nurse for Emma Kate's last Synagis injection of the season. Thank God for insurance, because according to our ins. company, these shots cost about 1700 bucks a pop! But they are worth it since EK has not gotten sick once! Apparently RSV has been pretty rampant and stubborn this season. We are so thankful that EK is healthy! Emma Kate was weighed, and I was pleased to see that she had gained! She weighs an even 13 pounds! Such a big girl! I'm so proud of her.

Emma Kate's first Easter was so fun! We had a blast visiting family, many of which were meeting our sweet girl for the first time. Sadly, I do not have many pictures of her, she was slightly cranky and slept through most of the fun. Here are just a few...

Eating rice cereal at Aunt Teri & Mamaw's on Friday.

Two beauties! Emma Katie with her little 3 month old cousin, Alyssa.
Emma Kate & cousin Jackson. She is older by exactly one week.
And no, this is not from Easter. But it was so cute, I had to put it up!

I am so glad that she has not one, but TWO cousins so close to her age! It's gonna be fun growing up with them!

Seven Months Old, 4 Years Strong

Well, my sweet baby girl is seven months old (as of March 19th)! It doesn't seem possible that she is already this age, for several reasons. Mostly because it feels like the past two months we've been in the hospital and we have missed out on life so much.


It is good to be home with my little angel. She is loving it! She loves playing with her toys, sleeping in her own bed and actually wearing clothes. She is drinking from a bottle and doing great! We restart Similac MONDAY! (Woo hoo!) I can't wait to fatten that little waif up! She is only 11 pounds 12 ounces-so little! She is slightly behind in a couple of developmental areas right now, but I suspect that after being home for awhile and regaining her strength, she will catch right up to where she needs to be.

Emma Kate,

My sweet girl, I love you! I am so proud of the little person that God created you to be. Again and again you amaze me each day. The sweet spirit God has blessed you with is so incredible. All of the scars on your body remind me every day of how hard these past seven months have been on you. But you smile and laugh despite all you have been through. God has revealed so much to me through you and to me, you are living proof that He exists. There was a 1 in 10,000 chance we would have a baby like you, and I'm so thankful that we were that 1. You make me so happy. I can't wait for you to live life like any other baby would. This spring and summer are going to be so fun for you, I just know it. We are going to have fun, little one! Happy 7 month birthday!

Love, Mommy

Do they look alike?

The first one is of Anna Brooke at 7 months. The second is of Emma Kate. I keep saying how, except for the eyes, I think they look alike. But I had the HARDEST time finding a picture where I felt they looked alike. I don't know, what do you think?

Also on March 19th, Brooks and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary. A LOT has happened in the past four years. I think that they have been the most happy, busy, amazing, trying and life-changing four years of my life. Brooks, I am so thankful for you and the wonderful husband that you are to me. You are an amazing father to our girls. I couldn't have chosen a better Daddy for them! Who knew that just weeks after celebrating our one year anniversary, we would have our precious Anna Brooke? And then just two years after she was born we would enter the most difficult, most scary, yet beautiful time in our lives? I am so proud to have emerged from this storm by your side. I love you!

I Am Thankful

Today right about now I was expecting to be updating my blog with how things were going with Emma Kate and her heart cath. We are not at the hospital, we ended up having to reschedule the heart cath for December 11 because little girlie got sick. She may have a stomach bug, we're not sure. Either way, she has been having really loose stools as well as throwing up a few times. On top of that, she has a low-grade fever going on. It got up to 100.5 yesterday, and has fluctuated up and down the past 24 hours. All seemed well for the first half of the day yesterday, but after the home care nurse left (of course!) she started acting really cranky and not herself at all. She wouldn't take much of her bottle and she's still not doing great on that. I am hoping that she just has some sort of 24 hour bug and she's better by tomorrow. Right now she is passed out cold in her car seat (her fave nap spot) and I am going to use my better judgement to leave her there and let her rest.

Things have been so incredibly stressful for us lately. Most of you know about Brooks' job loss back in August. For those of you who don't, we need your prayers more than anything right now! When Brooks was let go, it was a very tough time for us. We were moving and it was right before Emma Kate was born. We had a lot of stress going on and it hasn't stopped raining since. We've been trying so hard to make ends meet, they haven't completely, but we know tomorrow is a new day. We don't always know when and how we will be provided for but we are! And we are confident that God is going to keep on taking care of us and providing for us. We don't know when or how or through whom, but we know that He'll provide a job for Brooks.

Through our trials, the Lord is still blessing us daily, and showing us that He is in control. Emma Kate is doing so awesome, gaining weight (10lbs 5.5oz as of yesterday!!) and learning how to take a bottle so quickly. She hasn't had any complications and her cardiologist and pediatrician feel that she is doing awesome. Anna Brooke is such a joy to us and she's healthy and happy and doing great! We find so much joy every day in our children! We are so thankful for the blessing we have in them. We haven't gone hungry, not one single day! We have a place to sleep and play and eat and relax. We have cars that run (most of the time) and we have had a very understanding and loving support system in our families. I don't know what we would do without all of you! We love you guys more than you can imagine and are so thankful for all of the blessings God has given us through you!

With Thanksgiving coming up, I felt it was really necessary for me to remember what I am thankful for. I have to. Every day I know I could whine and whimper about what we don't have. And I do that sometimes. I am not strong, it is not me. It is Him. All Him. I could not do this without strength from the Lord.

More Halloween Fun

Brooks took Anna Brooke down to Georgia for Halloween. They had a fun time! I think it was great for them to get out of the house and go do something! :) I wish Emma Kate and I could have joined them! Halloween morning before she left, Anna Brooke & I made cupcakes. Here she is pictured putting on the sprinkles. They look yummy. They tasted only ok.

Trick-or-treating with Aunt Kristy, David Micah (football player) and Aunt Cheyenne.