New Header Pic!!!

Check out our new header. We had family out for the weekend and took alot of pictures. I will post a slideshow later. Here is a little taste of what's to come.



M

Lil' Chris and Ayla 2/2/09

Here is a video of Lil' Chris and Ayla only 2 days home from the hospital. In the beginning of the video, we were trying to get him to say "One". He says it so cute, but never wants to say it when we want him to:) But you can hear him say "What's that?" about Ayla! And then I finally got him pointing and saying "Baby" to her. He used to say it all the time to my belly when I was pregnant, but never for the camera. Watch how he pushes her away after just a little bit, it's so funny:) LOL

I love his laugh! Sometimes he even has a fake laugh. You can see it in the video when I stop tickling him and he keeps laughing:) LOL

In the darker video(sorry about that), I finally got him on video saying "One!" He says it to make my husband pretend to drop him. He loves that game:) He only wanted to stop b/c he heard Ayla start to cry and had to go check to see if she was ok:)

And finally, I got him giving kisses to Ayla!! He is such a loving lil' boy when it comes to his lil' sis:) He gives her kisses every morning, nap times, and every night. Too cute!!

Enjoy,
M

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Ayla is One Week Old

I can't believe my baby girl is one week old already!! Where does the time go??? Well, she is doing GREAT!! She is still being breastfed AND is drinking 3-4 oz of formula!!! What a piggy!!! That's ok:) If only her brother will take some lessons from her;)

Well, our first visitors are on their way here right now. Ayla will get to meet her grandparents(MIL and FIL) for the first time.

Have a great weekend everybody!
M
PS. Don't worry, I have pics and a video scheduled to be posted this weekend;)

Ayla's First Sponge Bath at Home

Thank you all so much for all your wonderful comments on the news that AYLA DOES NOT HAVE CF!! My sister D was right when she said that you all have become like family to me. It touched me to know that this great news brought tears and goose bumps to so many:) Words cannot express my gratitude for all of your prayers. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU=)
M

PS. Special thanks to my sister D and my husband for posting and keeping everyone updated while I was in the hospital:) You guys did a GREAT JOB!! Feel free to chime in any time guys:)

PSS. Thank you all for all the great advice over the past couple of weeks. I'm still trying to catch up on everything, so sorry if I didn't respond. It was much appreciated though. I never knew that about the saline and about the abnormal chromosome. Even if Ayla might be a carrier, I'll take it!

Click here to read about the interesting comments about the saline for the nebs.

Here is what Susanna said in her comment about the abnormal chromosome(Susanna recently got the same great news that we got about her baby Levi):

Susanna said...
Oh Dear M, That is sooo wonderful! Just like everyone else, I couldn't hold back the tears of thanksgiving that came into my eyes. Thank you God! Just like Charm said, she will be a wonderful special blessing to lil Chris and to all the family. Love and Rejoicing, Susanna

ps...I'm sorry to say that many pediatricians (mine included) don't completely understand the 'normal' test results combined with the 1 abnormal chromosome. They told me the same thing about Levi. You can find out for sure by calling Lil Chris's docs. Each of us have two chromosomes...if both chromosomes carry the CF gene we have the disease CF. If only one chromosome is abnormal with the CF gene we are a carrier. If neither of our chromosomes carry the CF gene we are not even a 'carrier'. A CF blood test will come back 'normal' only if the person does not have the disease CF. 'Normal' test results do not mean Not Carrier. Please, please do not let this info dampen your spirits. Even if Little Ayla really is a carrier, it still means she is completely healthy...just like you and I. She'll never have to take enzymes, or do treatments or suffer from this dreaded disease. It's absolutely incredibly wonderful!! I'm sooo happy for you all!!!

Ayla's CF Test Results

I just got the call that we have been anxiously waiting for...

Ayla's CF newborn screening test came back...

NORMAL!!!!!!!!

YEA!!!! WE ARE SO EXCITED!!!

Our pediatrician called and said that it came back normal and that she is NOT EVEN A CARRIER!! Isn't that GREAT???

You know...it's funny...I almost didn't believe her! I kept repeating, "Are you serious?" and "She's not even a carrier?" Last night, I sat in the rocker with her and just started crying, b/c I had just changed her diaper and I thought that maybe it was a little bit greasy (a sign of CF). And yesterday I even gave her 1/2 a Creon 5 just in case. (I was going to post the pics today, she did such a great job taking them.) I was almost convinced that she had CF. I even made sure I gave her 1/2 a Creon 5 enzyme this morning before I fed her! But, I guess it was just my paranoia.

You have no idea how relieved I am. I feel like I can breathe again. After 9 long months....I can finally breathe again.

Although... the doctor did say that she has one abnormal chromosome. I was too excited to ask too many questions, plus I couldn't hold back the tears:) The tears of joy...the tears I was praying so long for.

So, does anybody know what this abnormal chromosome might mean???? Please let me know.
M
PS. Thank you everyone for all your prayers that Ayla would not have CF. I'm so thankful for each and every one of you. See......the Lord does answer prayers =)

I have to go celebrate now:) YEA!!!!!!

Winner's of the Ayla Contest :)

I know you all have been anxiously awaiting to see who won the Ayla Arrival Contest:).... so here are the results:

Ayla actually arrived on 1/29/2009 at 2:52pm 7 lbs. 14 oz. and 19.5 inches long.

Charmaine won the date with 1/29/2009 exactly

Cindy won the time with 3:01pm being the closest (Julie won with the original guess of 3:42pm and Angela was a close second with 3:47pm;)

Oma, Opa, and Angela all won the weight with 7 lbs. 14 oz. exactly

Opa won the length with 19.5 exactly

Way to go Opa for winning 2 out of 4!!!!!

GREAT JOB YOU GUYS AND CONGRATS!!! Thanks everyone for playing along, it was a lot of fun:)

M

PS. One of the local CF moms that is in my CF mom group has just started a blog about her son Jack!! Yea, I'm so excited she has joined our blogging world:) Please check our her blog and drop her a friendly "Hello" =) Click here to check it out, it's called Jack's Battle.

Ayla's First Dr.'s Visit

Getting ready to go to the doctor's. She is making the cutest lil' funny face=)

Ayla's first time out...

Today Ayla had her first pediatrician visit! It went really well!! She weighs 7 lbs. 8 oz. and is 20 inches long. The nurse was pretty sure it was 20 instead of the 19.5 like they said in the hospital. The lady in the hospital was kinda new or something, and I had a feeling she was longer.

The doctor said that we should hear the CF test results by the end of the week. I will let you know as soon as we find out. Hopefully it's good news and we aren't rushing to the CF Clinic. She didn't seem to suspect any CF at this time, but it is still a little too soon to tell. I told her that I have been keeping track of everything to see if there are any signs of CF. I also told her that if I suspect CF, I would start giving her half a capsule of enzymes with applesauce before some of her bottle feedings. If I really suspect it, then I'll do it before every feeding. She was fine with that. I told her how I had talked to the CF clinic beforehand, and they said that the enzymes won't hurt her if she doesn't end up having CF. I say it's better to be safe than sorry.

I took this pic with my phone and text messaged it to my sister D , my husband, and my friend Christi while we were waiting for the doctor to come in. She is all naked wrapped up in a thick warm blanket. My sister D said that it looks like an Anne Gedes picture:) Maybe I should send it in and she could be on a calendar or something;)

The doctor also said that she didn't see any signs of jaundice at all! So that is GREAT news!! She wasn't the one that checked her out at the hospital, b/c she was away at a conference near San Diego. Actually she said that she was thinking of us when she was away! She was walking on some boardwalk shopping in some of the shops, when she came across a Surf Shop. She was buying something for her daughters and got to talking to the owner of the shop. Somehow they started talking about a book that she is writing to help raise awareness for CF! Instantly she thought of us she said. She took her card and said she would give the info to me and her other CF patients and to the CF clinic here. She made me a copy of the card and gave me her web site. If you want to check it out, it is http://www.surfangelbook.com/.

The book will be out next month. It talks about the owners daughter(I think) who is in her 20's and has CF. It gets awareness out about CF and how the salty air there helps her to breath so much easier. Then I told her about the salt air purifier that I found on line and it is supposed to really help CFers. And I told her about a blog that I read and how Michael is 24 and got one of these salt air purifiers and explained how much it has helped him to breath easier. (Click here to see how it has helped Michael.) The doctor asked if there was a way we could add saline to a nebulizor. She thinks that it could be done. I told her I would ask the CF clinic. Does anybody know if this is possible???

As she was finishing checking Ayla out, she said to Ayla..."We're going to get that book for you and your brother, Lil' Chris." She is the sweetest doctor EVER. She was telling me that she admires me. She admires how well I take in all the CF stuff. At the end of the visit, she even asked if she could give me a hug. She is so sweet and has a great heart :)

She said that Ayla looks GREAT!! She just wants to do another weight check on Monday 2/9 to see how her weight is and to see if there are any signs of CF, if we don't get the results before then. She said if I suspect a huge weight loss, then I can schedule a weight check sooner if I want.

Home again...

Overall, it was a great visit:) I hope all will be like that for Ayla=)

M

PS. I will post the winners later...I haven't forgotten;)

Home Sweet Home

YEA, we're home!!! =)

We actually got home yesterday(Sat.) around 2pm. I'm just now getting to blog though. Boy is our house busy now:) Lil' Chris is starting to adjust a little bit better today. Yesterday he would cry every time my husband stepped out of the room:) It takes him a little bit to get used to new things. Today he has been doing much better! He even helped me feed her a bottle!!

I just realized that this is our first family pic!! All 4 of us, except you can't see Ayla at all;) We'll try to get more pics of us all later. What a good big brother though, huh? Second day home and he is already helping feed her=)

As for the birth, it couldn't have gone any better!! My water broke at 10am and the contractions didn't really get bad until about noon. Then I got the epidural around 2pm and went from being 5-6 cm to 10 cm in about 5 minutes!!! The guy who did the epidural didn't even get out of the room before I felt her slide right down into position. The nurse checked me...and then she called my OB and said "Hurry up...we have a baby coming soon!!" I couldn't believe how quick I went to complete! Next thing I knew, I pushed one set of 3, another set of 3 pushes, my OB said something about using the vacuum and I said no (she used the vacuum on Lil' Chris) and gave it my all on the next push and she was out!!! She had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck once, but no other problems... that is for Ayla anyways.


I on the other hand had some extra bleeding afterwards that never went away. So at about 11pm my dr. came back to do a D and C. I was so scared, b/c I was all alone. I just kept praying and praying that everything would be fine and nothing bad would happen. I had to get a spinal epidural which made me numb from the waist down so that my dr. could go in and scrape anything out that was left in there. Which she did find something, either a blood clot or a membrane. They sent it to the lab to find out. I was just relieved that they were able to find something so the bleeding would stop.


So all throughout the night I still kept bleeding, which worried me more. At one point, I asked the nurse..."What will they do next if the D and C didn't work?" She never answered me, she just said they would call my dr. and see what she wanted to do. So of course that made me worry more. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that first night. I was dreading the news my dr. was going to give me in the morning. Luckily when my dr. came to check on me in the morning, she said that it looked much better and that I could finally get my IV taken out and that I would be fine!! I was so relieved, I felt like I could finally take a breath. I could tell my husband was relieved too when I called him with the good news.

Anyways, back to Ayla being born...
When they handed her to me for the first time...I just starred at her beautiful lil' face! I couldn't believe she was ours! God has blessed us with so much over the past couple of years...first lil' Chris, and now lil' Ayla. Isn't she just beautiful?

We have our first dr's appt on Monday with the pediatrician, b/c she is a little bit jaundice. She also lost 9 oz in the hospital. I'm actually glad for the early dr's appt. A CF mom(and a new mom) is always curious about weight;) Am I right?? I'm praying that her first dr's appt. doesn't go like her brothers first dr's appt. Click here to read about it. (I'll finish his story some day;)

So I asked what we can do to help with the jaundice and they said to just keep her well fed. Since I don't think she is getting enough through breast feeding, we have also been giving her a bottle after breast feeding. She actually drinks the whole 2 oz every time!! It's too early to tell if she is having any signs of CF yet. But I'll keep you updated and let you know if I suspect it. So does anyone have any more advice about her being jaundice, b/c I have no clue??

Also, I was told that we may get the CF test results back by the end of this week!! They said that if there is CF in the family already, then they put a rush on it. So hopefully I will have some GREAT news for you by Friday...please continue to pray for no CF!

I was surprised to see the lil' things my husband did while I was in the hospital. I walked into our room and on my night stand was a picture frame with me and Ayla. It says, "Like mother like daughter, the nicest compliment there is." Isn't is so cute?

And then when I went into Ayla's room, he had a picture frame of her on her dresser...isn't he the cutest husband ever to do all this and surprise us? He's the best husband and daddy ever!! =)
Well, my lil' sweet baby girl is calling me:) I will update more later and get some slide shows going. I just wanted to let you all know that we are all doing great and that I am recovery great from the birth and D and C. Thank you all for the prayers for Ayla and I. It means so much to us all. Please continue to pray that the CF test results come back quick and are negative.

Thanks again for all your prayers,

M