Saturday, April 7, 2012
It's been a while...
4/7/12 - I was showing a friend at work this blog and telling her about our family. When I visited, I saw that I hadn't posted since January 2010! I thought I should update this with new information and pictures :)
Firstly, we are 25 weeks pregnant with our 3rd child. This was really scary after dealing with Ava's pregnancy, but her Dandy Walker is not genetic.
Eddie and I still have the same jobs aside from mine changing within the company. I can gladly say I have been blessed with a more manageable schedule and great colleagues to work with including the attorney I support. We also added another family member. DaMarco moved in with us nearly 2 years ago when he needed a place to stay and has become a big brother to our children. They look up to him which is fine with us since he has proven to be deserving of the admiration. He couldn't have worked harder or behaved better while he was here. Now he is going to college in Baltimore and is only home for holidays.
Nicholas just turned 6 and is an amazing big brother and an amazing student!! He is reading and doing his math really well and spends his days playing outside or with family or friends from church. Most recently he joined upwards football followed by upwards basketball and is getting ready to finally start swim lessons. He is excited while waiting to meet his new little brother.
After Ava's shunt being completely replaced in July 2009, I believe we had one more revision done and we've been neurosurgery free ever since!! All of her shunt surgeries but this one were performed by Dr. Maher but this one was performed by Dr. Garton and he had a different post-op technique which finally worked for reducing all of the excess fluid that was collecting before the surgery took place. He wrapped her head much more tightly and made us keep the dressings on for an entire week. She was uncomfortable, but it worked!!
Since then, Ava has had a plastic surgery procedure (a tissue expander) that stretched out some skin on her face to be used to graft and replace much of her scarring. She is due for what we hope is the last one for a while in just a couple of weeks to address the remaining scars and a Z-plasty to release the scar tissue around her eye that pulls it down a little. Either way, Ava is looking much different than previously and is thriving at school and in all social settings to be honest. I have said in the past and still believe that God gave her the best possible personality and outlook on life considering all she has been through. I don't think she will have many problems with her peers as she ages because she is such a confident and joyful girl. Ava can't wait for her new brother to come. She thinks she is a doctor and frequently reminds me to breath deeply and PUSH!! LOL!
Firstly, we are 25 weeks pregnant with our 3rd child. This was really scary after dealing with Ava's pregnancy, but her Dandy Walker is not genetic.
Eddie and I still have the same jobs aside from mine changing within the company. I can gladly say I have been blessed with a more manageable schedule and great colleagues to work with including the attorney I support. We also added another family member. DaMarco moved in with us nearly 2 years ago when he needed a place to stay and has become a big brother to our children. They look up to him which is fine with us since he has proven to be deserving of the admiration. He couldn't have worked harder or behaved better while he was here. Now he is going to college in Baltimore and is only home for holidays.
Nicholas just turned 6 and is an amazing big brother and an amazing student!! He is reading and doing his math really well and spends his days playing outside or with family or friends from church. Most recently he joined upwards football followed by upwards basketball and is getting ready to finally start swim lessons. He is excited while waiting to meet his new little brother.
After Ava's shunt being completely replaced in July 2009, I believe we had one more revision done and we've been neurosurgery free ever since!! All of her shunt surgeries but this one were performed by Dr. Maher but this one was performed by Dr. Garton and he had a different post-op technique which finally worked for reducing all of the excess fluid that was collecting before the surgery took place. He wrapped her head much more tightly and made us keep the dressings on for an entire week. She was uncomfortable, but it worked!!
Since then, Ava has had a plastic surgery procedure (a tissue expander) that stretched out some skin on her face to be used to graft and replace much of her scarring. She is due for what we hope is the last one for a while in just a couple of weeks to address the remaining scars and a Z-plasty to release the scar tissue around her eye that pulls it down a little. Either way, Ava is looking much different than previously and is thriving at school and in all social settings to be honest. I have said in the past and still believe that God gave her the best possible personality and outlook on life considering all she has been through. I don't think she will have many problems with her peers as she ages because she is such a confident and joyful girl. Ava can't wait for her new brother to come. She thinks she is a doctor and frequently reminds me to breath deeply and PUSH!! LOL!
Saturday, January 2, 2010
It's been another good year!!
Hi all!! Hope this finds everyone else doing well. We just past our "Happy New Years" moment and I thought it was more that time for us to update. A few days off from work makes it feel tolerable to get on a computer...LOL. Ava gave us quite a scare back in July. She had to have her whole shunt removed and externalized and was admitted for a week to remove any possibility of infection and re-internalize it. Ever since, she has been doing great! She has now had 4 brain surgeries and this is the first time that we are really confident that it is working the way it is meant to. It has been the best 6 months I can remember. She is happy, healthy, and thriving. Ava is learning all sorts of new things and enjoying her mobility. Shs is able to sit on her butt and scooch all over the house. She is imitating faces, nodding yes and no, and performing things like "pat-a-cake." She is using some sign language and more words. She is saying cheese for pictures, mine, more, hi, bye, mama, dada, baby, and no. I have heard all of these multiple times, but she refuses to say them on command aside from mama and dada. She is a little stubborn that way, which we are more than fine with. She is pointing and showing interest and just started moving her feet around as if to mimick walking when we put her in a standing position. She is rolling over more since she isn't hating tummy time so much. This might not seem like a ton for a girl who is 20 months old, but for us, this is miraculous, and for our own good, not what we had set ourselves up for mentally. The last 2 years have been so scary, exciting, and rewarding at the same time. Our family is flourishing and Nicholas is proving to be a great big brother. We couldn't be more blessed as a family and I am so thankful that we stopped going to the doctors we were using the first 20 weeks of our pregnancy with Ava. The news that was given to us with no compassion. respect or understaning and was followed by encouragement to terminate our pregnancy has become God's perfect way of blessing our family and receiving the Glory for bringing multiple people to know Him.
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