My baby girl!

I have been consumed with blogging about Conner that I haven't written anything else in months. However my sweet baby girl just turned four so I wanted to post some precious pics of her birthday! Life is basically good for us. I am choosing to just praise God through the storms. We are so blessed that even though things aren't perfect, we still have to praise Him anyway! : )
So without further ado....
Happy Birthday to My Sweet Makenna!!

Conner's blog

We are hoping to have some prayer cards made up in the near future to pass out when someone asks us about Conner's face. Because of this Billy and I decided Conner needed his very own blog. We have family and friends all across the country, well mostly all across the SOUTH...LOL. It is hard to keep everyone updated all the time hence the start of safe-thus-far.blogspot.com! Hope you all will come read it sometime. It will follow all of our dr. appointments and anyway we see or hear about Conner touching someone else's life! Just wanted to let you all know...

Santa Buddies!!! LOL

So, we watched the movie Santa Buddies last night with the girls and Conner. Well actually Conner just did a whole lot of cooing at the Christmas tree. Anyway, I was amazed to find that a Disney movie had a prayer in it. Granted it was a dog praying but it went something like this. This poor little homeless puppy found some food in an alleyway and stopped looked up to the heavens and said "Dear Lord, thank you for this unexpected blessing Amen!" How very very cool is that?

In other news, Conner's face is looking worse everyday. The doctors tells me it is normal but it has started bleeding, and scabbing all over the hemangioma. I am very paranoid when it comes to my babies, and it is horrible to see little man looking so pitiful. And I can tell that it is becoming more painful, Conner hardly ever cries, but his new recent cry is just so sad. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Tonight is the Morganton Christmas parade. We have never been to the one at night, but we are thinking of braving the cold for it tonight. Think of me while you are in your nice warm houses. LOL! Gotta love the holiday season! : )

Pictures

Just wanted to post these pics of our little man. The first one is from when he was two weeks old. He is headed to his very first Sunday morning church service!!! This was the Sunday we dedicated him!

The second was taken today, 7 weeks later. I was amazed at the progression of growth on his face. When you see it every day it doesn't seem to be growing but the change is very apparent in these pics.

We are still very blessed to have such a beautiful sweet baby boy in our lives! He is such a good baby and he gave his mommy lots of beautiful smiles today!!! God knew exactly what I needed to brighten up my week! : )

Winston Doctor Appointment

Tuesday we had our first appointment with Dr. David at Baptist hospital. I am still just overwhelmed at all the information we learned. Some of this was very good news, and some was confusing news...but all in all it was an informative appointment. Let me see if I can condense the whole appt for times sake.

First of all we were told Conner does not have a port wine stain. His birthmark is a hemangioma. It is a benign tumor that will rapidly grow for the next 12 to 15 months and then taper off and begin regressing. Also the "infection" that has been seen by 5 doctors, is not really an infection at all. Don't get me started on how helpless that feels to know that your child has been misdiagnosed by 5 different doctors and that the treatment I have been doing for 17 days now was probably hurting him. Anyway, the sores that are on his face are the result of the skin breaking down due to tumor growth. Basically the tumor is growing so fast that the skin is not able to keep up with it. Or at least that is the closest I can come to explaining it. Right now they are incredibly concerned about keeping the ulcerated area from becoming infected. That means if you happen to see me out don't be surprised if I am hiding Conner. The best course of action is to keep him quarantined from everyone so he doesn't get anything into the open area.

The doctor was also very concerned about his eyes. With the hemangioma being so close to his eye there is a possibility it can cause a "lazy" eye. In an infant if their vision is blurry, the infant will start ignoring that particular eye and in turn lose the use of it. Thankfully when they sent us on to a pediatric opthamologist in Greensboro, Conner was given an eye exam which was almost completely normal. YAY!!! He has a slight astigmatism but nothing to be concerned about at this time. We will return in four months.

Starting December 12, Conner will return to Baptist for his first of many laser treatments/surgery. Normally doctors take a "wait and see" approach, but because Conner's is already breaking down they want to treat it aggressively.

The really great news was that this new type of birthmark is not in any way associated with the syndrome that causes brain damage. So no more CT scans! We feel very blessed to have Conner in our lives, and although right now I cannot see the big picture and I definitely do not understand why God has chosen this path for us, I still can only say that we are blessed. As I have been researching these birthmarks I have seen some truly heartbreaking pictures and read some stories that made me want to just hug these little babies. It could be so much worse. So I am going to keep a positive attitude and remember that it is HIS hand and not mine that is leading our family right now.

Conner

Hello my blogging buddies! I have neglected you all in the past little bit, but I have been keeping up reading about everything you all post. My prayers and heart have been with you even when my comments have not. I only have a minute, but I am hoping that you all will join me in praying for Conner. As you may know Conner was born with a port wine stain covering most of his right cheek. At first we were told it was bruising, then later a birthmark associated with Sturge-Weber Syndrome, and then now we are being told it is simply a cosmetic disadvantage. How blessed we feel to know that although God would have still been gracious had Conner been diagnosed with brain damage, our Lord chose not to lead us down that path at this time. We will continue to monitor him, and repeat CT scans and X-rays as he grows. Now for my prayer request. On Tuesday of this coming week Billy and I will be traveling to Baptist Hospital in Winston Salem in order to consult with a plastic surgeon. We have been informed that there is a laser treatment that will help remove, or at least fade the appearance of the stain. Hopefully that will allow Conner to face childhood, adolescene and his adult life without the hurtful remarks of curious people. I am not positive what this first visit will include, but later visits will involve general anesthesia on such a little fellow. Right now our prayer is that God will heal the small infection that is on his cheek and guide the physicians as they counsel us in this desicion-making process. I know that when Conner was born and in ICU I could feel your prayers surrounding my family. Although I feel selfish to ask for that same fervency for a cosmetic procedure, it would be such a blessing to our family to know there were such Godly ladies praying with us. Thank you for being my friends. Much love to you all.

Makenna's Birth

We were in total shock at the news that we had another sweet baby on the way. Mallory was 4months old when I got the positive pregnancy test. I was ecstatic but scared. Mallory was in physical therapy and was seeing a neurologist. The neurologist insisted that there was a 99% chance that the same injury would happen with the new baby and that I should demand a c-section. I just took her word for it. Never thought to do any research on my own. Silly me, always trusting medical professionals. (I know, I know I'm working on it!) We had another calm pregnancy. Just tiring, because ofcourse I had an infant to take care of. Billy was working two to three jobs depending on the week and he was also exhausted. Both of us were eager to meet the new baby! But not as eager as she was to meet us. LOL
At 33 1/2 weeks I went into spontaneous premature labor. We had been at church that night, and when we got home I just could not sleep. Billy and Mallory went to bed and I stayed up doing dishes and cleaning the house. (anyone who knows me can tell you that was not normal....I hate cleaning during regular hours. LOL ) I finally went to bed around 4 am and woke up to feed and change Mallory, then dozed until 10am. When I woke up at 10am I lost my mucus plug, and contractions were 5-7 minutes apart. I called Billy home from work, and we went to the OB office. They monitored me and then rushed me off to the hospital! The nurses started me on the meds to stop labor but it didn't work and by noon I was already dialated to a 6. The OB on call (at least one I knew this time....) came in to ask me whether I wanted to have the c-section or not. He told me there was no way of knowing if the baby was big or little, and that if it was his child he would go ahead with the section. I was in active labor and not thinking straight, so I agreed to the section. The OB left to get scrubbed in and the nurses rushed around prepping me. Soon someone came in to inform me that the doctor had been called away to emergency surgery and I would have to wait. I laid in bed until 5:30 at which point a nurse checked me and said "Oh she's a 10!" (No pain meds...Yay!) They rushed me to the OR and made Billy wait in the hall while they put in the spinal. Then they cut Makenna out of my body.
(Sidenote: I am TERRIFIED of knives. I don't cut things ever.....I am just so scared of being cut myself. That by itself made this a traumatic experience for me!) Makenna was pulled out of me and rushed to NICU. She was having trouble breathing. I was sent to recovery and didn't see her until the next day. I remember mom wheeling me down to the NICU and I didn't have any recognition of her. She was only 5 lbs 12 oz. There was no reason for the section. Other than myself and apparently the staff being uneducated about shoulder dystocia and ways to resolve it. I am so thankful for Makenna...and even for her birth. Although I NEVER want to go through a c-section again...I feel like it was an important turning point in my life. Never before would I have dreamed of having a homebirth, or going against doctor's orders. But now I am firm in believing that is exactly what we are being led to do with this birth. Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers as we prepare for our HBAC! (homebirth after c-section) Only 9.5 weeks left!!!!