Arianna's Surgery

Well, it has been awhile since I posted last. This has been a very busy time for us. But I wanted to write about one of the things that happened in January. Arianna was born with a skin tag and the doctor was concerned so they did an MRI back in November and found that her spinal cord was attached to a fatty tumor (non-cancerous). So, we scheduled her to go in and have her skin tag removed, untether her spinal cord and take out the fatty tumor. Of course, as the time approached for her to go to the hospital, I got a bit nervous and anxious for my baby girl. She was only 5 months old and was going to have major surgery. What parent wouldn't be nervous? Monday, January 11, Arianna and I arrived at the East Tennessee Children's Hospital at 7:00 am in the morning. First we got registered then they called us back where I had to change her into her little hospital gown and then they lab tech came in to put the IV in and draw some blood. At about 9am we went back to the surgery where I had to say good-bye to my baby and wait for it all to be over with. Steve showed up around 10 and we waited. It seemed like a very long time but it was only 3 1/2 hours when we got the call that the doctor was done and that we would be able to come back and see her soon. The surgery was a success and our neurologist, Dr. Harris, came down to tell us that everything went as planned. It took about another hour before we could go back to see her. She looked so small and pitiful in the big crib they had her in. The first night was very bad for us. We had to keep her laying down and could not pick her up. She was in a lot of pain so they gave her some morphine at the beginning but I could tell that it was not working very well. It would last about 30 minutes and then she would be upset again. Her heart rate kept going up and her O2 Sat dropped so they had to give her oxygen. She couldn't hold her formula down. All I could do for her was to hold her little hand and cry along with her. Finally around midnight she was able to drink a little bit of formula so the nurse gave her some Lortab, a very strong pain medicine. Lortab worked wonders. It was still a pretty rough night but finally her levels were going back to normal and she was able to get a little sleep. By the next morning we were able to pick her up and hold her and she looked 100% better. Steve and I were so afraid of hurting her unintentionally that the first couple days that we held her we had a egg crate mattress under her to keep her as comfortable as possible. We ended up staying in the hospital until Saturday because she wasn't taking her feedings very well and they wanted to make sure her bladder was functioning properly. It was a very long week and by Saturday, I was glad to take her home. After a couple of weeks at home, she seemed to be back to her old self again. It was amazing to see how fast she healed. She was such a good, brave baby girl and I am so glad that it is all over with and everything turned out great!

Christmas 2009

This was the best holiday ever! I had sooo much to be grateful for. First off, Steve had finally gotten a good job. It was like a huge burden was lifted off my shoulder. He started his new job November 2. He was also able to come home for Christmas. It was so nice to have some money coming in and to be able to buy presents for my family. That is my favorite part of christmas.

Second, I am grateful for my new baby girl, Arianna. This was her first Christmas. What a joy it has been to finally have the daughter that I have wished for for sooo long. She is such a wonderful joy in our lives already.

We were also happy to be able to go back home to Memphis and spend the holidays with our family. It is always nice to spend time with family. We always have a good time joking around, laughing, playing games, etc.

Our traditional cheese, crackers, and candy cane platter.

Arianna enjoying her gift from Santa! She loves the animals and the music that it made.
Christian got a motorized dirt bike from Santa. He couldn't wait to go out and ride it. Even though it was freezing outside, he decided to take it for a spin. We decided to start a new tradition of making marshmellow treats. Steve and Christian decided to get creative and make one batch green and minty (ewww!) and the other patch red.

Christmas in Memphis with the family:

Mom with her new granddaughter.Opening presents!Justin (whom I refer to now as Hagrid) with his new presents, samarai swords!Ashley with her new orange UT purse. She would fit in well in Knoxville, TN.Camden with his new DS game, Super Mario Bros. He loves Mario and Luigi.

Teething Already

Arianna has been drooling like crazy since she was 3 months old. She has been wanting to chew on everything! Well, last Sunday I had my finger in her mouth letting her suck on it (yes, it was clean) and I felt something sharp. I took a good look in her mouth (which was very hard to do because everytime I opened her mouth she would stick her tongue out and cover up her gums) and saw not one but two teeth on the bottom. What the heck! She is only 4 months old and already has two teeth. And, she is not done! She is still drooling and Steve and I think she has two on the top coming in soon. !
Look at her beautiful smile

Thanksgiving 2009

For thanksgiving this year, we decided to meet up in Harrisburg, PA and spend the holidays with the Vancena's. Steve was going to join us from Syracuse, NY and I was driving up with the children from Knoxville. It was great to be with Steve again for a few days and we even got Jeanie back with us for a few hours on Thanksgiving day. Thanks to Denise's great cooking, Thanksgiving dinner was AWESOME! There were tons of food and I believe everyone got their fill plus some. It has been a long time since I haven't had to cook Thanksgiving dinner. I loved just spending the day with friends and relaxing with my family.

While the family was back together again I decided that we needed to get a family picture. But when I called Portrait Innovations to schedule an appointment they were all booked up for the week. I was so upset that we would not get a family picture made. But, Juli Newill, who is an excellent school photographer, came by to visit and graciously offered to take our picture for us. They turned out really good! Thanks Juli!

Although we enjoyed ourselves a lot (thanks to Denise!), I decided to never, ever travel with the baby alone in the car again. She hates the car seat! I thought that maybe she would get used to it and not cry so much. When we first started out on the road she cried for almost 2 hours. I got so desperate that I called her doctor to see if there was something I could give her to help her sleep through the trip. The nurse told me that she was too young and that I would have to just let her cry. Well, as you can imagine, my trip to Harrisburg, that is only supposed to take 8 hours, took me 12 hours. By the time we got to Denise's house, all of us was pretty miserable. I had to stop for an hour every 2 hours to give the baby a break, and she still cried! Never Again!

Halloween 2009

Halloween was a little miserable this with the cold and the rain. It was good weather for the trunk-or-treat at our church but Halloween night was very wet and cold for the kids. Christian picked a really evil costume, Demon of War. It kind of looked like last year's costume except for the horns. I found a cute little bumblebee costume at BabiesRUs for Arianna. She was sooo cute. Her big cheeks matched her poofy bumblebee costume. She was adorable. We didn't do much this year for halloween. I just didn't have time with Steve getting ready to leave and me going back to work to do much. I think Christian was able to carve a pumpkin with his friend Hayden. He is the sleek stack from the movie "Lost". I can't believe it is all over and now it is time to get ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Blessing Day

Well, I think it is about time that I post a blog about Arianna's blessing day. We decided to have her blessing on the first sunday of September, which was September 6th. A lot of my family came down for the special occasion. My mom and my Aunt Judy (AJ to her great nieces and nephews) had gone shopping and found the most beautiful blessing gown outfit along with a hat and bloomers that had her initial on it. They all showed up on Saturday and was able to stay until monday. Steve worked really hard on his blessing and did an awesome job. Arianna looked so beautiful in her blessing outfit and was the star of the day. We, of course, took lots of pictures. I still can't believe I finally have my little girl to dress up and show off to people.

Science Project

Christian had a science project to do for school and we really got into it. He was supposed to make an animal or plant cell. He decided that he wanted to make it edible so we chose to make it out of sugar cookie, jello, candy and frosting. He really got into and wanted to do a lot of it on his own. We made the sugar cookie together, cut out the different pieces we needed and then got to work decorating the thing. He was so very proud of the finished product and although we haven't gotten the grade back yet, he thinks he got an "A". Here are some pictures of our finished plant cell project.