A Day at the Park

So today Alyzea and I went to the park with her grandparents and her aunt Dee. She is still a little to young to be able to play on anything but Dee and I grab a blanket and had her going down the slide. 

The parents dogs arent use to being around babies but they have been doing really good around her and she is loving them. She was a bit cranky so she ended up taking a nap for about an hour. It was just a really nice day being able to relax and enjoy spending time outside. 

On a side note Alyzea seems to be doing great, she has started to move from a sitting position to laying on her stomach so pretty soon my sweet little angel will be getting ready to crawl. She has been eating great and just over all being a happy baby. 

My very first mother's day.

Alyzea and Rob made this day really special. We didnt do much, we had a cookout with the family but it was still just a great day. Rob let me sleep in this whole weekend, got me some beautiful flowers and picked out two cards that made me cry. The card he got me from him was just so sweet, it was straight from the heart. The card he got for me from Alyzea played the song "You'll be in my heart" and once I heard it I just started to cry.

My flowers and my card's

 When I had left Bronson the day Alyzea was being airlifted that song was on a cd I had made for her. Once we got to the part in the song were it says "For one so small you seem so strong. My arms would hold you keep you safe for harm." I lost it and I knew that, that song will forever hold a spot in my heart and it became our song. 

Today was just a great day. I never thought that I would become a mother and I thought that this would have been a day that I never got to celebrate. Having Alyzea and Rob in my life is the greatest thing anyone could ever ask for and I love them both so very much. 

I think we are back on track!!!

So I think that we might be on track again with this eating solids thing. I have been waiting to say anything till we got a couple of days in, Alyzea likes to make me think that we are starting to do something new and then when I think everything is going good she stops. It never fails....

She shows interest in food, always have. These last few months I was just not able to to get her to eat like she should. I was scared to do what others mothers said, like giving her chunkier foods. I tried to give her a really small piece of an apple and she gagged on it. I had it in my mind that I wasnt going to feed her chunkier foods and risk having her choke. I would rather her have to see a specialist then something bad happen to her.

Her eating her food this morning

Well on Thursday last week I took a banana cut off a piece and mashed it up. Gave her a bite and she loved it. She was eating it and was having no problems with choking. So I figured what the heck lets add some fruits to the banana. I added Apples and blueberries and she ate almost all of it. Seeing that she was eating her foods like this I wanted to make sure that having banana's in it wasnt going to be a problem. So I called her doctor to check, and they told me that I was in the clear to have her eat like this. 

So for the last few days Alyzea has been eating like she did when she was 4 months old. Yesterday I also introduce those Gerber's yogurt bites, I break them into smaller pieces and she loves those. I am just happy to see that she has started to eat again.   

A new face she has started to make

She did so good

So today we took Alyzea to a funeral. Robs uncle past away in his sleep earlier this week. When we had gotten there Rob's dad took her to sit with him and all through the services I was listening ready to get up and go get her once she started to cry. It never happened, through the whole thing she was a an angel and didnt make one sound. 
It really sucks that we had to take her, but its the facts of life and you cant run from it. Its really sad to see family passing away.

Alyzea's Cardiologist Appointment today

So Alyzea had her appointment today with her cardiologist. She is now 26 inches long, and 15.5 lbs, and everything looked great! Her pressure gradient went from 55 to about 40!

 After he did the echo he was thinking that her gradient hadnt changed and he was getting ready to call Mott's again but as I was was getting her dressed he looked at her chart and saw that we had a decline in the pressure. So now we go back in 4 months and see how she is doing then. It feels good knowing that we dont have to go and have her heart ballooned again so soon. I am hoping that we wont have to do it till after her 1st birthday. 

Which it just dawn on me that my little girl will be a year old in about 5 more months!! time is flying......

Alyzea's 6 month check up.

As of today Alyzea is 15 lbs 1 oz, 25 inches long, and a head measurement of 16 1/2 inches. Everything went good today and she took her shots like a pro. Cried when they went in but the minute I pick her up she stopped crying. 

When we went into the the appointment we had some concerns with alyzea having allergies and spitting up still. The doctor took a look in her nose and said that if a child has allergies the inside of their nose would kinda pale Alyzea's nose was pink and looking good. So we are to keep an eye on it. As for her spitting up her doctor wasnt that concerned cause she has still been gaining weight like she should be. The only thing that was a concern for the doctor was the fact that she wasnt eating her solids like she should. At the beginning she wasn't having any problems what so ever eating solids but once she started teething she wanted nothing to do with foods, so we stopped for a bit. Now that she has two teeth I started to feed her foods again but she just doesnt want to eat it. So for the next two weeks we are to try and get her to eat and if we have to force her to eat after two weeks we are to get back ahold of the office and let them know so that they can talk to a therapist. 

The one thing that made the doctor extremely happy was the fact that Alyzea was waving at her. She started that last night and I actually got her on film waving back at me. That is a 9 month marker from what her doctor said. So everything went great at this appointment next Tuesday we go to her cardiologist and see how everything is going on that front.

Recap on the last 6 months

The following day after she was born

So I never really thought about writing a blog on my daughters life, I am not a good writer and I dont want to make a fool of myself with my writing techniques. But then it doesnt matter about any of that stuff, what matters is my daughter and everything she is has been through and everything she will be going through. 

Alyzea Louise was born on Oct. 8th at 4 am. She weighed 7lbs 3oz and was 18 inches long. Since she was born on a Sat. we stayed in the hospital till Monday, the whole time we were in the hospital no one caught that there was something wrong with her heart. 

Taken at Bronson before she was airlifted

Fast forward to Nov. 18th, after a week long battle with her doctor, the ER, and a urgant care. My daughter was amitted into Bronson's hospital in Kalamazoo. The following day, when she had just turned 6 weeks old, we found out that our daughter had Aortic Stenosis and was in congested heart failure. She was airlifted from Bronson to Mott's Children Hospital were on Nov. 21st Dr. Aiyagari went in for the first time to balloon her valve. It was shocking to see the difference in our daughter after the ballooning, and after just night she was moved to the main floor. She was discharged from the hospital on Thanksgiving Day. I couldn't have asked for a better Thanksgiving. 

This was taken before her first ballooning

Waiting to be discharged on Thanksgiving

Taken after her second ballooning

On Feb. 10th she had to go back up to Mott's to have the ballooning done on her valve again. Everything went good, they said the ballooning had taken and that she was doing great. Then the following day after they had done a echo on her they found that the ballooning didn't take at all. Since she was not showing any signs of being in distress Dr. Aiyagari said that he wanted to wait till she was atleast a year old before they tried to balloon her valve again. 



On May 1st we go and see her cardiologists, Dr. Loker. As of right now her diagnosis is... Normal cardiac size and function with moderato concentric left ventricular hypertrophy. Her Aortic valve is bicuspid, thickened and doming with moderate to severe aortic stenosis with mean pressure gradient of 55 mmHg. That was taken from a letter he sent out to her pediatrician after our last check up. 

One of her 6 month pictures