Comparing

Well Hello Ava supporters! Things are great here in Iowa. The weather has been beautiful this last week. Ava is talking more everyday. In fact on Monday I was giving her a bath and as soon as I was finished washing her hair she starting pulling at her ear saying, “Mommy ear.” I take extra care not to get water in her ears as we know her tubes are still in but not functioning. (She had tubes put in when she was about 10 months old.) I got her out and she continued to cry (huge crocodile tears) and pull at her ears. I called her ENT (Ear nose and throat) doctor that is right here in town. He’s a very good doctor that understands Ava and myself…;) He wanted to see her right away. I knew this was not like her to be so upset.So as you can all imagine I was not surprised when he said she had the start of an ear infection. He wrote out a script for ear drops and antibiotics. He was so happy we had caught it early. He said he had very little doubt that she would have been up that night with a fever. NOT a good thing for this Mom who suspects the worst and would have feared the Swine Flu.

She is feeling much better. So strange that she had no other symptoms. I’m just happy she is staying “the ‘H’ word” Can’t say it for fear of starting trouble!

I thought I would dig up a few pictures of her from last year before she reherniated and got deathly ill. She was a mere 19 pounds. I still have a hard time believing she was this thin. Her little arms had no meat on them. At the time she was skinny but still healthy in my eyes. She was still breastfeeding some…;)

This picture with the bear was taken at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s annual Fetal Reunion. It makes me a little mad and sad when I think we traveled all the way there. (16 hours) They were supposed to have checked her CDH problems closely and they didn’t. I felt it was a huge waste of our time. Luckily we were also visiting the wonderful people we had met while we were there at her birth. Please don’t get me wrong I am so grateful to CHOP for saving her life at birth. I personally think their cdh follow up clinic is a joke. I believe more tests could have showed Ava’s brewing bowel obstruction due to her Gortex patch they used at birth to give her a diaphragm. I say this because this problem didn’t happen over a few days. We were at CHOP just 3.5 months prior to her reherniation. I can’t blame I just wished I could have spared her a little less pain and trauma.

This picture was taken only 4 days before she was air lifted to University of Iowa Children’s Hospital. We had such little warning. She became sick within one day and grew weak  very fast.

I wanted to do some comparing to show you how much progress we have made. She has basically gained a third of her weight in just a year. Oh I should mention she was 34 inches tall last year. She is now close to 40 inches last time we checked. I am in awe really! Here are a few pictures I took of her yesterday. I had to do a Thanksgiving scene right? She is filling out quite nicely I might add. She weighs 30.5 pounds!

See her cheeks? I love them!

A bit too involved with this one.

Such a little lady. She loves to read and read…smart girl!

Well thanks for stopping by and keep praying that we keep our entire family healthy. This month is about giving thanks and we have plenty to be thankful for! God Bless you all.

~Terri