Georgia's Heart Part 1

Well, A LOT has gone on since the last time I blogged. I have decided to blog about Georgia's journey with a congenital heart defect so we can all remember the pain, the joy, and the miracles that we have experienced over the past few months. I also want her to be able to go back and read about the events that led up to her diagnosis and surgery. Here goes...
It all started back in the Fall when Georgia began to get ear infections. She had one in October, November and December. We chalked up the constant colds/upper respiratory stuff to being in MDO and didn't really think anything else about it. She had been to a few after hours clinics because she always seemed to get sick over the weekend and I didn't love our pediatrician anyway.  At the beginning of December I took her to an after hours place because of wheezing. Again, they listened to her chest, tried a breathing treatment that didn't work, said it was bronchiolitis and sent us home. During this time I had gone back and forth about switching pediatricians. I really liked her, but she had a lot of staff turnover and I felt like I never saw the same doctor  So, I polled friends on Facebook for recommendations. Almost everyone said to go to Austex Pediatrics. When I called the nurse one afternoon because of Georgia's wheezing, she suggested I make an appointment to get her ears checked in a few weeks.
Fast forward to December 18th. We go for our first meeting with Dr. Cassells to make sure Georgia's latest ear infection has cleared up. She listens to her chest, looks at me and says, "you know she has a little heart murmur." Ummm... No I didn't know that, Georgia has seen many different doctors and not one of them has ever mentioned a murmur before. Dr. Cassells assures me it's probably nothing but we probably should get it checked out by the cardiologist just to be safe. She hands me the cardiologist's card and sends us on our way. I call Brent immediately. I am definitely freaked out but keep thinking that this doctor has to be wrong. How could NO ONE else have ever heard a heart murmur?? Unbelievable! Brent calls the cardiologist and MIRACLE #1, someone has just cancelled and we can see Dr. Goldstein at 1:15 the next afternoon. Normally it takes a month or so to get in as a new patient. God gave me grace, He knows I'm horrible at waiting. That evening and the next morning were TORTURE. We had no idea what to think and everyone just kept assuring us that kids have innocent heart murmurs all the time. We were hoping that was the case.
Well, Dr. Goldstein took a listen to Georgia's heart and said it was somewhere between innocent and concerning, but he wouldn't know for sure until they did an ECHO (ultrasound). So, we went back in a dark room and I laid next to Georgia while the tech took a look at her heart. We knew something was wrong when we made it all the way through the Baby Einstein movie Georgia was watching and they were still taking pictures of her heart. Waiting for the doctor to come back in and give us the results was a VERY nerve wracking ten minutes. When Dr. Goldstein did come in, he informed us that Georgia had an Atrial Septal Defect with Sinus Venosus. In other words, she had a hole in her heart and would need open heart surgery to fix it. We were stunned. We were crying. I remember watching Georgia innocently looking out the window with a blue ring pop in her mouth and a Dora the Explorer shirt on, and thinking, this can't be happening. Dr. Goldstein was very kind and gentle with us, assuring us that it wasn't a super complicated surgery and she would be in the hospital for about 5-7 days. We walked out of there, got in the car and cried. We were so scared. We called our family and decided to leave two days early for Christmas in OKC.

Georgia is 18 Months!

I CAN'T believe you are 18 months. You are growing up too fast. We love you so much!
You weigh 20lbs. which is still on the small side but the doctor decided it was enough of a gain so no special weight adding drinks! Yay!

Favorite foods: CHEESE! Need I say more? Goldfish, Pirate's Booty, Milk

Stuff you sometimes eat: Toast with butter, cereal, yogurt, watermelon, grapes, Fiber One Bar, quesadilla (cheese only) grilled cheese (seeing a trend here?)

Words (well phrases you say): "I too!" (you want to do EVERYTHING your Bubba does, includind drink yogurt out of the little plastic cup with no top. "Stop" you say this to Bubba all the time or if I am doing something you don't like such as wiping your nose or changing your diaper. "Let's go!"
"I want the other kind" (diaper rash cream) "Where are you?" (so stinkin' cute.) and a million other things.

Other stuff you do: You know all of your animal sounds, LOVE books, will only wear clothes with Elmo, dogs and cats on them (for the most part), love to dance, love to watch Barney, Elmo, Little Bill and "Pets" (Wonder Pets). You've started saying no and throwing some fits when you don't get your way. Where could you have gotten that from? Ahem...

School: You started school a few weeks ago and I think you like it. You cry when I drop you off but your teachers say you stop pretty soon afterwards. Your teachers always say, "How could so much attitude come from such a tiny thing?" They tell me you are the only one in your class that knows and calls them by their names and make funny comments like "Traudel go pee pee" when Ms. Truadel went to use the restroom.

You are so funny and such a PLEASURE to be around. We love you so much and we are so proud of you!

Ephrem is 5!

Ephrem turned five on September 6th and we celebrated his birthday the following weekend at Jumpoline. Grandma Lilah came in town and we had so much fun. I thought it was the best birthday we have had yet; the staff was great and organized, the kids had fun and it was very minimal work for the parents. I can't believe he is five....
Ephrem your sweet, joyful spirit is such a blessing! You inspire and encourage me every day. We love you soooo much!


This is the picture we used on the Evite invitation.

 

Brent stayed up late blowing up a ton of balloons to put in Ephrem's room while he was sleeping, so he could wake up with a fun surprise on his actual birthday. Unfortunately, the surprise turned into terror as the balloons began to pop in the middle of the night. Obviously, Ephrem still enjoyed himself.

I took G and E to Build-A-Bear on his birthday day, we met friends at Mighty Fine for lunch and celebrated with hot dogs and cookie cake that night.

 Here is Ephrem's name on the screen at Jumpoline.

 Jumping with friends! A few KKW friends came to the party and it was fun to connect with the parents!

 Ephrem wanted an "emergency vehicle" party, which turned into a fire truch party because HEB could only fit one vehicle on the cake.

 

 

Birthday boy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Time

We have stayed pretty busy this summer. Ephrem did every VBS there was during the month of June and we went to OKC, Arkansas and Dallas in July. Ephrem has also learned to swim and Georgia loves the water as well. Here are a few pictures.

 Here is Ephrem at one of his many VBS performances with his good friend Lila. Surprisingly, he does not enjoy getting up and singing in front of everyone. He strategically hides behind some smaller kids. This night was a TOTAL melt down b/c Georgia fell and busted her lip :(

 Here is Georgia being cute in the front yard.

 As usual Miley has had major allergy problems this summer. Nothing that a few hundred dollars of medication won't fix.

 Here is Eprhem being cute in the back yard.

 Ephrem and my mom at Brent's parents house in OKC.

 Mama and Georgie in Fayetteville, Arkansas!

 The cousins at the old post office in Goshen, Arkansas

 Loving the splash pad in Bentonville, Arkansas.

 We spend many a post-nap afternoon just like this. So cute!

The Ryans in Goshen!

Georgia is One!

Georgia, you are now one years old. I CANNOT believe it! Time has just flown by. You are such a sweet and precious baby. You weigh 18 lbs. and are 29 inches long. You are a tiny girl and have the cutest, itty, bitty feet. A size 2 shoe is still too big. You love to talk.

Words you say: Mama, Dada, Bubba (brother), Dogoo, Uh-Oh, Cheese, Shoes, Elmo, More, Cooku (cookie or cookie monster), Milk (you are still nursing), Eye and Hi.

Favorite Foods: Cheese! You love cheese and if you see the bag out, you demand it! Macaroni and Cheese, Pirates Booty and all baby food. You still don't care for solids too much or cow's milk or juice. This is making weaning you rather difficult. You LOVE chocolate ice cream, just like Mama!

Cute things you do: You can point to all the parts of your face, bellybutton and feet. When you see Elmo or Cookie Monster on TV you are enthralled. You point to the TV and say "Elmo." You love music and love to dance. You love the show, The Fresh Beat Band. You also LOVE baby dolls. You like to rock your babies, feed them and push them in the stroller. You do your little arm motions to "Twinkle Twinkle," "Itsy Bitsy," and "Patty Cake." You even pretend to "mark it with a G by "drawing" with your little pointer finger on your palm. You've started fake laughing whenever I laugh and fake coughing whenever someone else coughs. You love the stairs. You are still not walking but crawl and "cruise" all over. Besides baby dolls you like to play blocks and play with any of brother's toys. You are also way into Daddy these days, which is super sweet. You also talk in your sleep and yell out "bubba!" with your eyes open even if you're not awake. You love your big brother. You also love looking at pictures of yourself and have named yourself "Zha Zha."

Your 12th month has been a little difficult as you have had RSV, an ear infection and stomach bug all in a row. Poor baby! This has made sleeping difficult and you have begun to wake in the middle of the night again. Neither Daddy or I really mind too much as we love cuddling with you until you fall back asleep.

You are such a blessing Georgie Bear, you add so much love and joy to our lives. We love you!

Georgia's First Birthday

We decided to throw Georgia a "Pink Poodle in Paris" first birthday party. She LOVES Miley so we knew we had to do something that involved dogs. Grandma Lilah, Uncle Kyle, Lane, Evy, Uncle Mark, Kay, Drew, Mo and Maddie all came in town to help celebrate. They also helped us get everything ready. We couldn't have done it without them. Georgia was so blessed to have all of her friends and family celebrate her special day.

We had a bubblegum blowing contest!

We played pin the tail on the poodle.

The Pink Sweets Table

Pink Poodle Birthday Girl!

The other food table.

10 and 11 months old

With Christmas and everything I did not get a chance to post Georgia's 10 month update, so I am going to do one combined with 11 months.

Around 10 months G started crawling more and pulling up. Now at 11 months she is all over the place and can pull up on anything. She is even starting to "cruise" and use her push walker. She is SO proud of herself. A few weeks b/f Christmas after having a cold, G started waking up in the middle of the night and crying. The only way to get her to go back to sleep was to nurse her, which I did, just to make it through the holidays. A few weeks ago, she then came down with a horrible case of viral tonsillitis and literally laid on me for about 4 days straight. This did not help the sleeping situation. After she got over that, however, she has stopped waking up in the middle of the night for the most part. G is beginning to eat more solid foods. Her favorites right now are Gerber meat sticks (gross, I know) and Pirates Booty. She also loves yogurt and will eat any baby food mixed with cereal, even peas and green beans (she previously hated these). Georgia has a few words now: more, dogoo (for dog), bye bye and dada. She is becoming much more vocal about her wants and needs. She is also interacting more with Ephrem and they enjoy having screaming matches in the car, laughing and mimicking each other. She is learning about no, and will look at something she's not supposed to touch and shake her head and wag her little finger. So cute!

Georgia is starting to get a little bit of separation anxiety when I take her to the nursery at Bible study, cries the last few minutes off and on. She still takes two naps and is SUCH a flexible baby.

Georgie, you are the MOST precious baby and we love you so much!