What's Going On? All about Avery:UPDATE

Last Monday was Avery's MRI at Wolfson Children's Hospital in Jacksonville. We had to be there at 8 o'clock that morning. We woke Avery up at 5:30 am and gave her some apple juice. She was not allowed to drink anything after 6am. I gave her a bath and got her dressed. We were on the road by 6:30. We arrived a few minutes early, which was nice for my already-elevated stress levels. We got checked in and they sent us to the playroom to wait. This playroom was wonderful! There were toys of every kind for her to play with! They even had a Lightning McQueen ride-on toy...Avery's favorite! She played for a few minutes before they called us back for pre-op stuff. They got Avery's hospital bracelet on her and we changed her into her little hospital gown. They had me fill out more paperwork and asked us lots of questions. After pre-op, we went back to the playroom for about 1 1/2 hours. Avery dug through my purse and found her new Cars toys that were supposed to be a surprise for after the MRI, so we let her play with them and all of her other Cars. She was having a ball! At almost 10am, they took us to the MRI suite. We met with the anesthesiologist and he explained what he would do. He said one parent could go back with Avery while they did "the gas". I went in with her. They set her down on the table and put a "bubble gum" mask on her...they smeared bubble gum scented lip balm on the mask. The anesthesiologist told her to smell the mask and see if it changed from bubble gum to strawberry-this got her breathing more deeply. He told her she could lay down if she was feeling sleepy, but she resisted-she was trying so hard to stay awake and smell the strawberry smell! Her eyes finally closed and I helped lay her down. They told me I could give her a kiss, but not to breath too deeply! I kissed her and then it was time for me to go out. I went and joined Brian in the waiting room. We went to the giftshop and bought her a Cars book and then came back to the waiting room. It felt like the waiting took forever. After close to an hour, they called us back. She was not awake yet...and she did NOT want to wake up! She was sleeping good! We woke her up and she was soooo out of it! We got her dressed and they let us go home. We carried her to the van and gave her the new Cars book. She had not eaten anything since dinner the night before, so she was hungry! She said she wanted Cracker Barrel. We went and she had pancakes and lemonade-2 of her favorite things! She also got the biggest lolly-pop I had ever seen! We took her home and put her down for a nice, long nap. I was so relieved to have it over! On Thursday we got the results from the MRI. Avery has something called PVL. It is not a disease, but rather an injury. When I was in labor with Avery, my contractions were extremely intense and long-lasting. When I had a contraction that lasted for over 5 minutes, Avery's heart rate bottomed out and they had to give me a shot to relax the contraction. They think that during that time, Avery was deprived of oxygen and this caused the injury to her brain. She also spent 8 days in the NICU because of under-developed lungs. This also could have caused too-low oxygen levels. We have now been referred to a pediatric neurologist and a physical therapist. The neurologist will evaluate the MRI also and tell us more about the injury and if there are any other things that go along with the injury. The course of treatment for this is physical therapy. I will continue to update on her as we find out more and as she goes through her therapy. Thanks to all who have supported us and prayed...it means more than you will ever know!

Check this out to find out a little more about PVL!


Avery standing on top of Lightning McQueen modeling her hospital gown



getting a little comfort from her "Dora Blue" and her thumb



Playing with her new Cars toys



Look at that beautiful profile





The worlds biggest lolly-pop

What's Going On? All about Avery

Many of you have been faithfully praying for Avery Jane over the past few weeks. We are so thankful for your prayers! For those of you who don't know what is going on with her, I thought I would update you on her situation. At her 3 year old check-up, Dr. Anna noticed Avery was holding her left foot very tight. She told us to monitor her and bring her back in if we noticed it happening a lot. After that appointment, we began to notice her walking funny and really turning her left foot in. We also noticed her holding her left arm in close to her body and not using it. So, a couple of weeks ago, we took her back to the doctor to get that checked out. They did a very thorough examination and had Avery walk, run, hop, jump, skip and just about everything else they could have her do. They checked her reflexes, asked us lots of questions and ultimately decided we would need to have an MRI done of the right side of Avery's head to find out why she is struggling to use the muscles on the left side of her body. The right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, and vice versa. So, after an agonizing week of trying to get an MRI appointment within a reasonable amount of time, we got an appointment for August 3rd at 10am at Wolfson's Childrens Hospital in Jacksonville. We have to be there at 8 am that morning for pre-op procedures. Avery will have to be sedated for the MRI because she has to lay completely still during the entire procedure. We will know much more after the MRI, but at this point we feel that we will definetly end up in physical therepy with her. She is doing fine...she doesn't even know there is anything wrong! She is a trooper and has done great at all of her appointments. I am so proud of her-she is a very special child! Please pray for us during this time. It is so scary to have something not right with your child. We are so thankful for all of the faithful prayers being sent up on our behalf. I will continue to update the blog on this situation as we get new information.

Gratituesday-Healthy Steps Pediatrics

Anyone who has children knows how important it is to have a good relationship with your child's doctor and office staff. As a parent, we only want the very best for our children! I am so thankful for all of the ladies at Healthy Steps Pediatrics! When we moved to this area in 2005, I knew I needed to find a good doctor for little Hadley...and quick! I searched the internet for a practice that was relatively close and that would accept our insurance...we had tricare at the time because of Brian's Coast Guard service. I found Healthy Steps online and gave them a call to see if I could just come in and meet them. I knew after the first encounter with this extraordinary group of women that we had found a treasure. Since then, we have added baby Avery and baby Ben to the mix. All 3 of my children LOVE Dr. Anna. She is sharp and professional, but gentle and kind. The nurse practioners are wonderful, also. They are very thorough! The whole staff is great. These are some of the sweetest ladies you will ever meet. They have a beautiful, clean office with lots of toys and fun distractions for the kids. They always work to get us in quickly. They have truly been a blessing to me and my family. I am especially thankful to Renee who went above and beyond for us this week as we tried to get Avery an MRI scheduled within a reasonable amount of time. Avery got an appointment for August 3rd at Wolfson's Children's Hospital in Jacksonville. I will blog more about her situation in another post...

for more Gratituesday, visit Laura at Heavenly Homemakers and prepare to be blessed!

Healthy and Happy!

This week all 3 kids had their well check-ups. Taking 3 kids to the doctor is a pretty big undertaking. I knew I would need a little assistance so I asked my sister, Bethany to come along. She was a big help! I am happy to report all 3 kids did great and all are very healthy and growing well!

Ben weighed in at 18 pounds and 4 ounces. Although he is much bigger than the girls were at his age, he is still only in the 14th percentile. Dr. Anna said he is perfectly healthy, though. He is a great eater, but he is so active he burns a lot of calories throughout the day! His birthmark is going down in size and will probably be gone by the time he is 2. She is giving him until his 12 month appointment to get his eye cleared up. He has had a clogged tear duct since he was born. If it is not clear by his 12 month appointment, we are going to have to have a procedure done to manually open up the duct. The procedure itself is very minor, but they would have to administer anesthesia. Please be praying that it opens up on it's own in the next 3 months! He had to have a finger prick to check his hemoglobin levels. He was a champ and barely cried. He was officially pronounced a happy and healthy 9 month old!

Avery did so much better than I expected! She watched her brother and sister getting weighed and measured and checked out first and then she was ready for her turn. She weighed 26 pounds. She was in the 10th percentile for her weight. Dr. Anna listened to her heart and looked in her mouth and had her jump around and tell her about shapes and colors. Ave did great. She did make sure to tell everyone that she was NOT getting a shot! She looks great, but Dr. Anna wants us to watch her left foot. She holds her foot very tense and walks funny on it. Dr. Anna said if that keeps up, she may need to do a little physical therapy for it. We would covet your prayers on that!

Hadley had her big 5-year, before-kindergarten check-up. They checked her for just about everything! She weighed 36 pounds and was 42 inches tall. She is in the 19th percentile for height and weight. She had her vision and hearing tested. She had to pee in a cup-she thought this was hilarious! She also had a finger-prick to check hemoglobin levels. She got 3 shots, too. I held her while she got her shots and she did great. I could tell she was pretty nervous, but she sat very still and let them give her the shots in her upper legs. Dr. Anna had her jump around and hop on one foot and balance. She also had her write her name and draw some shapes. Dr. Anna was very impressed with Hadley's hand-writing and told us we need to watch her in kindergarten to make sure she doesn't get bored with the work. She suggested supplementing her regular work to keep her challenged. Hadley checked out as healthy and ready to start school in the fall!

It was a very long appointment and afterward we were all hungry! We got our stickers and lollipops and headed to Chic-fil-a! We all ate lunch AND got ice cream and the girls had a great time on the playground.

I am so thankful for 3 healthy and happy children. What a blessing!