Wordless Wednesday

Toot your own horn Tuesday!

Toot your own horn Tuesday is the day when you can give yourself a high five, pat on the back,etc for something you have done that you are proud of.


My first toot my own horn Tuesday is:


I am so happy that I was able to only give my daughter breast milk. I didn't let anything stop me. I had latch issues,and used a nipple shield until Faith was about 5 1/2 months old. That is when she started to not want to nurse at all. So I pumped. And pumped, and pumped and pumped. Haha.
I am so proud to say that Faith has never had one drop of formula. Yipee! Less than 17% of women actually give their child ONLY breast milk for the first year. That is crazy to me. It is free. Why not? It is so much better for your baby.
The cons are that it is time consuming and you have to be 100% dedicated, and have a good support system that is also their supporting you the whole way. Thank you Damian and Dawn. xoxo

I am so happy that I was able to give my girl what she needed.


Toot Toot!

It's been a rough three weeks

Ever since Faith got out of the hospital this last time she hasn't been the same. Real moody, not sleeping or eating well. I thought it was going to take time for her to adjust back to being at home.
A couple weeks went by and she was still in her funk. I started noticing that when she was waking up in the middle of the night she wasn't actually waking all the way. She was tossing and turning. Crying like she hurt. I started thinking that maybe she didn't feel good. But what could it be? I finally narrowed it down to either milk, or her new meds.

I made an appointment for her to see Dr. Collins. I was going to leave work an hour early to take her. Well about 11:45, I got a call saying that Faith's eye was swollen. I freaked out for just a minute, but had to laugh because seriously?! This poor kid can't catch a break.

By the time I pick her up, which by the way is only about 45 minutes later, her eye looked better. I took her into see Dr. Collins and after discussing everything with her, she seemed to think it was milk that was making her " not feel well" She actually thought that Faith was just acting out, but since I felt it wasn't the case, we went with the milk theory.

Well, I cut of milk, and her rash started going away, but she still seemed restless at night and acting out at daycare.

I had a minor meltdown at work, and after talking with some of the doctors I work with, we decided that I needed to call Dr. Shapiro.
Long story short, he put her on Pepcid to reduce the acid in her tummy.

OMG! She is back to herself! She is sleeping through the night, being friendly, eating. Thank GOD!

I swear if it wasn't for bad luck we would have no luck.

I have noticed that I haven't posted any pictures of my sweet little doll face, so I thought I would close with a couple of pics. I hope you enjoy.


Here is Faithie at the hospital.



12 months old! Birthday Princess.

Happy Birthday Baby!

Faith,
I can not believe that a year ago today that I laid eyes on you for the first time. I never knew what " love at first sight" meant, until I met you.
I remember holding your sweet little body in my arms, and thinking to myself " I did it, she is PERFECT"
Your first year has flown by. We had a couple of obstacles to overcome, but we did it together. I won't say that this past year was easy, because emotionally it wasn't. But I will say that I would do it all over again for you.
You amaze me everyday. You are so smart, and I love watching you learn new things.
It melts my heart the way you love dogs. Especially your dogs! :)
I have big dreams for you little girl, and I know that you will achieve them, and so much more.
I thank God for allowing me to be your mommy. You are an angel here on earth.
My whole world, begins and ends with you..
Love you so much, Mommy xoxoxo

Wish List Wednesday

This week I am wishing for someone to come in to my house and clean and organize it. I feel like I am up to my ears in clutter. I need help.

Ten on Tuesday

I love reading other people's blogs, and a lot of them do a thing called ten on Tuesday. It is where you list 10 things that have happened in the past week.
So here I go..


1. Last Saturday we went to the K9 Xpress Agility show. This is my favorite show. I love the venue, the weather, the people, the dogs. This year was so much fun because last year I was pregnant running Gracie. A year later here she is. I was so happy to be able to take her with me and share it with her.Here is my video from a year ago





2. Faith is signing DOG all the time. the sign for dog is a pat on your leg. Faith signs it on her chest. Which is actually help, but we know she is signing dog. I am so happy that she is signing more.

3. The weather in Texas today is BEAUTIFUL!!! I love the spring time here.

4.Faith is starting to stand without holding onto anything. She is really unsure of herself. I think she could totally walk if she really wanted to.

5. I have finished pumping. YAY!! I have a freezer full of breast milk, and I feel like I get an "A+" for pumping/breastfeeding. I am so proud of myself for never giving Faith any formula. I know that sometimes you have no choice but to give your baby formula, but I am so thankful and feel so accomplished that I didn't have to!

6.Faith's birthday party is this weekend, and it has turned out to be bigger than I have ever planned. We have had over 140 people RSVP. I know you are probably thinking " how do you even know that many people?!" We have a lot of family and friends who are excited about celebrating this special day with us.

7. Faith's heart is doing great. She is on one medication now called Flecainide, and it seems to be doing it's job. She goes back to the cardiologist on her birthday and we will see what he has to say

8. My house is a train wreck. It really needs a makeover and a good spring cleaning. I am putting that out there so I can be held accountable for it. I need to get my butt in gear and get things together.

9. I am really blessed that I work for such a great place. My work has been so amazing with me taking off so much work for Faith. Love ya CTVSH

10. It really doesn't seem possible that in 2 days my baby girl is going to be 1. It really feels like yesterday that she was born.

Again?! Really?

Today I picked up Faith early from daycare because her heart rate was elevated to 140. Aimee said she didn't want to nap, or eat breakfast, and was really crabby. That is really unusual for Faith. She was also messing with her ear again, so I thought it might be her ear infection that possibly didn't clear up. So I took her in to see Dr. Lincoln ( her pediatrician ) She took a peak in her ears and everything looked good. She told me that I needed to call Dr. Shapiro ( Faith's cardiologist )
When I was leaving the pediatrician's office, I ran into Dr. Wong. Dr. Wong was the on call cardiologist when Faith was in the hospital last week. He was there with his brand new baby boy. Baby Benjamin was so cute! Dr. Wong was so nice, and told me not to be too alarmed but to call Dr. Shapiro because Faith's heart might be trying to jump up again. Long story short, I spoke with Dr. Shapiro, and we decided that I would take her heart rate every hour and call him in the morning with the results.
Next Thursday, Faith goes in to see him and he said he would hook her up to a halter. I really hope that she doesn't have to wear the halter for 24 hours. Next Thursday is her 1st birthday and I would hate for her to have to wear that thing all day. It would really bug her.

There are so many days that I am fed up with work, but days like today make me realize how lucky I am to have a job and people I work with be so understanding about the current situation with Faith. I am able to take off when I need so I can be with her. I am truly blessed.


Oh and just for the record, Faith's heart rate has been nice and normal since we have been home. Maybe this little girl just wants her mommy to stay with her?!

If he leads you to it, he will lead you through it.

I am sitting here on the couch looking up information online about Faith's PJRT. (permanent reciprocating junctional tachycardia )
There is just no information out there on it. And what is out there is scary to read. I was reading one website where it said " PJRT is a potentially lethal arrhythmia in children with tachycardia induced cardiomyopathy. Spontaneous resolution of tachycardia is not uncommon. Antiarrhythmic treatment is often effective. Radiofrequency ablation should be performed in older children or when rate is not controlled, especially in patients with persistent left ventricular dysfunction."

I always knew that it could be lethal, but reading it sends chills up my spine.
I try so hard to stay positive about the fact my child has a heart condition. Why and how did this happen to us? I did everything I was supposed to the whole time I was pregnant. I know of girls out there who have smoked cigarettes,and marijuana the whole time they were pregnant. They ate terrible, and didn't take care of themselves, or the child inside of them. Why is it that my baby is the one with the heart problem? I keep reminding myself of what my friend Liz said. " If he leads you to it, he will lead you through it"
I try and tell myself that God gave me this beautiful little girl because he knew I could take care of her. He knew that those girls who were so selfish, wouldn't be able to do what I can. At least that is what I am telling myself. :)

On a bittersweet note, it is 10 days until my baby girl's 1st birthday. WOW.. Time has gone by so fast.

I am hoping that I get motivated enough to post some pics of Faith in the hospital later this week.

Going to try this again

I have decided to try and give blogging another go. This time I am going to try and do it with updates on Faith's heart condition. Too bad I didn't start it last week when we were in the hospital. But I will start from the beginning.
Be back later to blog my heart away.