Drew update

We took her yesterday for her checkup at the cardiologist yesterday. It has been 4 months since we last saw her. She said Drew was doing great and the echo (ultrasound) of her heart looked good. There was still a tiny hole last time that the surgery did not fix and it is now completely closed up! She said everything else looked good and we go back in 3 months.
Her one concern was Drew's weight. Though I am not completely convinced they have the best scale. It is always way off from the pediatricians. Theys aid her weight was 17 pounds 13 ounces.
We have an appointment today to get an RSV hot so they will check her weight there. It is possible she lost a little bit b/c she has been sick with a cold and not wanting to eat much but 2 pounds? Hopefully it was just a mistake.

Hope everyone is having a great and non stressful holiday. Merry Christmas!

Back from Vacation

We went to Disney again. Rylie and Drew had so much fun! They were completely exhausted by the end of each day. The weather was awesome. I don't think we will ever go again in the summer.

Mommy's little helper

CHEESE!

click on picture to make bigger

Happy Thankgiving

Trip to New Orleans

Sick :(

It has been a rough week here.
I had a cold and tried my hardest to not get the girls sick but I mean com on I am their mother and I am with them 24/7. So of course they both caught my cold. Rylie worse than Drew.
The colds are gone but now Rylie has an earache again but I just put some herbal stuff in her ear and it is now gone. THANKFULLY. She was screaming her head off while covering her ear. :(

DRew was taken off of her formula completely so the milk wouldn't cause more mucus and now she wont drink more than 10 ounces. I guess it is finally time to ween her milk down anyway.

She weighs about 18 1/2 pounds and besides the cold she is doing great. She now climbs on EVERYTHING! This girl has no fear what so ever.

Hopefully I will put some new pics up soon.

Pictures!

I was wrong

Steve noticed tonight that Drew was cutting some back teeth. She has two at the bottom in each side that broke through and 2 at the top on each side that are about to breakthrough. That would also explain her short naps and crankiness the last couple of days.
Now she has some chompers and wont have to swallow her food whole. LOL
But she will look funny with 4 teeth on top and only 2 little ones at the bottom. hee hee......
Now that I know what is wrong I feel much better although I am sure she feels awful. :(

Appointment Update

Drew had an appt. with her pediatrician last week. She now weighs 18 POUNDS 2 Ounces!!!!!!
She is such a spectacular and beautiful little girl. She is almost walking but just on her terms, definately not when I probe her to do it. LOL
She got her RSV shot 1 1/2 weeks ago and the got her 4 months old immunizations a week ago. She has develpoed a weird cough so hopefully it goes away soon. I am trying several things but nothing seems to be working so I am thinking it may be allergies b/c she has no runny nose or any other symptoms so maybe it is a sinus drip?????
Just pray it disappears.

Pumpkin Patch

I was not able to get on the pc to post pics fpr the past week.

More!

Pictures

We went to Germanfest in Rayne today and thought I would share some of the pictures.

Drew is doing great!

She is all over the place, I can bearly keep up.
We almost have a walker! Where have the past 14 months gone. :(
She now says mama, dada, bow bow for bounce bounce, hi, and bye. She did try to say Rylie today and she got excited when she managed Ry Ry.
She is just growing so fast but we are loving every single second.

Pictures as promised

Rylie has recently started going to Dancing School and is thrilled with it. She has gone to 3 classes so far and after each one she comes out with a small frown and says "we still did not spin". I guess in her mind the entire class is supposed to be about spinning around the whole time. LOL

NO MORE MEDS!!!!

We took Drew to her caridologist appointment today to see her doctor here in town. She said she looked great and took her off the last medication she was on! That is such a huge relief b/c that means she is a million times better and also b/c I have such a forgetful brain and always forget to give it to her on time. LOL We don't have to go back for another check up for 3 months! YAY!!!
I will post some new pictures soon.

Just another Thank You to all of you who have followed us in this journey. God has blessed us with a sweet and gorgeous BIG miracle. Thank you and we love you all.

Also I will still keep this blog open to just post random things about our family and lots of pictures.

New fish

And "her"name is Aloyisius, pronounced A-la-wish-us. My creative little 3 year old is quite something. When Steve got home Monday night she was so ready to walk out the door to get get a new one. So we ended up with a cute little black goldfish who is now Aloyisius. LOL

Drew update:
We brought Drew to an appointment today to see Dr. Bob this morning in Baton Rouge.
He said she looked "Absolutely Awesome"! She gained another pound in the last month, she is now 17 pounds! Rylie was only 18 pounds at 1 year old so I think Drew is pretty much on target. He changed her medicine she was on to once every other day. I had a hard enough timr emebering to give it once a day and this is really going to thro me for a loop. I am already so forgetful. He said eventually he will take her off he is just doing it slowly b/c her lungs may still not be fully developed from all of her problems.
Friday I am bringing her to get her 1st RSV shot of the season for precautionary measures. We don't need to take a change of her getting that with her lungs not beingas strong as they should.
She has another cardiologist appointment next wee on the 22nd. I am sure we will be told the same thing as today. I will update then.

OOPS!

We will be making a trip to the pet store tonight. "Lucy" is no longer with us. :( Steve transferred her to her new fish bowl yesterday and lets just say he missed a step or 2 in the transfer. This morning Rylie fed her and she was kind of just floating about. I checked on her at noon and she was bobbing up and down and we watched her pass on. I told Rylie that sometimes fish just live for a few days. She accepted that and asked when we were going to buy her a new one. LOL! At least we did not have a total meltdown like I thought we would. I wonder what this new fish will be named?

THANK YOU!!!!!

Thank you all so much to everyone who came to the party! We had a blast and are so blessed to have such great friends and family. Drew spent all night till we went to bed playing with each and every toy. If you click on the flickr box to the right you can see all of the pictures we took.
Also, to those of you who had a camera, if you have some good shots could you please email me those. I would love to see them!
Thank You! Thank you! Thank you!

Also, just a short apology to those you you who had to take home a fish, in my head it was a cute idea. LOL If it is any consultation I had to take one home too. And of course mine is still living(unfortunately)so Steve went out and bought "Lucy" a new home today along with some fish food. I think Lucy is here to stay for a while. Sorry if you were sent home with one. I hope I didn't cause too much trouble. :)

Thank You!

Thanks for coming to Drew’s Party. It has been a long journey but the pain of every second this past year will be worth the pleasure of our little girl’s future. Having the vision of celebrating Drew’s birthday is what has kept us going while sitting in OR waiting rooms and hospital ICU’s.

While I was enjoying Magic Mike’s performance at Drew’s party, I was thinking “even though the performance was flawless, it was still an illusion”. I am so thankful that I serve a God who is not an allusion artist but a miracle performer. Sometimes it is easy to forget how fragile Drew was during her crisis. God miraculously pulled her through so much.


Thanks to everyone who helped out with the party, thanks for keeping Drew in your prayers.

Gift ideas

People keep asking what Drew needs. Really she doesn't "need"anything so I will just tell you this. She wears size 12 months clothes which is either 9-12month or 6-12 month. Pajamas size 12-18 month but not the ones with the feet things on them. She is way to tall for those to fit in the correct size. As far as toys go, just anything educational for her to learn and have fun.
Can't wait to see you all Saturday!

Drew's party, RSVP

I mailed the last of the invitations yesterday. Sorry it took so long. Drew has been keeping me super busy while Rylie's been talking my ears off.
Please if you will RSVP as soon as possible. I need to account for everyone so I can buy the food.
Email me, call me, or reply here. I have only recieved 2 RSVP's so far.

One more week till party time!

My Hairy Monster

And NO I am not going to get her a hair cut. :) I am trying to just let it grow out. We fight all day long with bows and barrets. She is obviously more stubborn than me. LOL

It is hard to see but that is where drew's tube was. It looks even better than that now. The other picture is what was in her stomach. The bubble part was inside. Sorry the picture is so blurry.

Sorry I forgot to post yesterday.
Drew's appointment went fine. The doctor said she looked great and also did another echo (u/s) on her. She did say that there were a couple of places on her heart that we need to keep an eye on. I did not ask much about it because honestly I just don't want to know. They were not overly concerned and said they would just watch her. We just need to pray that her4 heart heals 100% perfectly.
We borrowed a walker from a friend today and within 3 miutes of her being in it she decided she was done and climbed almost all of the way out of it before Steve caught her. Good thing I didn't spend money to buy her one, crazy girl. I thought maybe it would help her to get some balance, I guess we will do it the old fashioned way. :)

Shots :(

I took Drew for her 1st set of shots today. She only cried for a minute and told the nurse bye-bye so she would leave. lol
She is sleeping now and doing well. She has a cardiologist appointment tomorrow so i will update again then.

Can you tell they are sister..LOL

If you click on the picture it will enlarge it and you can see Drew's bottom 2 teeth.
There is absolutely no doub that they are sisters. :)

No more feeding tube

To make a really long story short Drew no longer has her feeding tube.
It was quite traumatic how it happened, maybe more so for me than her. Her tube attachment got caught under the side of the door and I picked up and did not notice and pulled it out of her stomach. She cried for like 30 seconds and was completely fine and still is.
We rushed to the ER and they could not get it back in so they gave me 2 choices, either send her to New Orleans to go into surgery to put it back in or leave it out. I instantly opted for leaving it out. I called Dr. Bob and he also said to leave it out. They were going to take it out in 5 months anyway so why put her through another surgery. The hole has completely closed up already. They said it takes like 24-48 hours. Hers closed up in one hour. I was at the Er within 15 minutes but I guess still not fast enough.
It was totally my fault and I feel awful for having to put her through all of that but it ended up working in her favor. NO MORE TUBE!
We were not sleeping well at night worried that she would strangle herself witht he feeding tube cord. We would wake up several times a night with it wrapped around her neck. :O
She has been eating most of her milk and lots of table food by mouth. She was just getting like 9 ounces of milk from her tube while she slept. We had planned on taking her off completely friday night so this is just 2 days earlier.
Drew is doing great and drinking more milk today than she ever has. WOOHOO!

More appointments

Drew has an appointment on Tuesday to start getting her immunization shots that we have put off for the last year. Hopefully she will do well.
She also has an appointment on wednesday with the cardiologist here. She just wants to see her for herself even though we are seeing Dr. Bob.
I am pretty sure Drew has gained some weight, she feels so much more solid.

Drew is fussing to be held, I will type more later.

I think I have finally decided on doing Drew's birthday party on September 9th so don't make any plans for this day. Still have to make invitations. I still need addresses from some of you so if you don't think I have it email it to me please. Thank you.

Presents!

Birthday Cake!

The middle picture is Dr. Bob.

Drew's appointment yesterday was good. She gained a few ounces. He took her off one of her meds and now all she is on is lasix which is the diuretic once a day. We have another appointment in a month with him in Baton Rouge.

The best thing about today is DREW IS ONE YEAR OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday my sweet Baby Drew!

A few more pics in the hospital

These are from the last 2 days in the hospital.
I need to take some of Rylie and drew together but that is like an act of congress to get one good picture of the both of them together. Also I got Drew's pics taken at Penney's right before her surgery and will get Steve to scan them when he gets a chance.

The pic with the 3 guys are The Zeyphers baseball team in New Orleans. They came to visit each patient there and gave drew a bat, baseball, and glove.