water baby

If someone told me this past winter, when Dahlia was attached to a Berlin Heart, that come summer Dahlia would be playing in the pool, I don't think I would have believed them!

dahlia loves her paci!

8 months

Our little miracle is now 8 months old. She has her first tooth coming in. She also caught a cold from one of her sisters, although she has a runny nose she is still just as happy as ever.

last day of school

The boys had their last day of the school year on Friday.  Unfortunately, I was gone for almost all of the year.  I am so proud of the boys, that despite all of the upheaval in the lives, they still managed to get A's!

my wide eyed baby

happy baby

Dahlia had her transplant clinic last Thursday.  Everything looks good and she doesn't have to go back for one month, instead of every two weeks!  Dahlia has started babbling a lot lately.  If she is not being held, she will happily babble to herself and play with her toys.  I love that she is such a happy baby.  I've never had a baby this happy and joyful, maybe she knows how lucky she is to be alive!  For the past month or so we have been trying to get her to eat solid baby food.  In the past she would make a confused face and spit it out.  Recently she has started eating really good; her favorite is applesauce. Dahlia is making such good progress, looking at her now you'd never guess she spent months in an I.C.U., fighting for her life.

mother's day

Today I am extremely grateful to be celebrating my first mother's day with Dahlia. I am also extremely grateful for Dahlia's donor's mother, who had the compassion and love to say "yes," while experiencing every parents worst nightmare. Today my heart goes out to this special mother and I hope she has been able to find comfort and peace on what was surely a bitter-sweet day. I am thankful for my other children, who have had to go through a lot this past year. I am also thankful for my mother, who put her own life on hold in order to spend countless hours in the hospital with me and Dahlia!

and we're back

As of yesterday, Dahlia is back in the hospital.  I knew because her immune system is being suppressed, that this would happen sooner or later, but was hoping for a long break from this place! She had been running a fever for a couple of days and was extremely irritable, which is not like her at all.  We called the transplant team and they wanted her to come in. We were told to take her to the emergency room.  Several of my kids have been to the emergency room in the past and it was always a several hour wait before they were seen by anyone.  When we told the receptionist that Dahlia has a heart transplant, we were rushed back to a room.  Dahlia had some blood drawn and an I.V. started. Between Dahlia screaming, the child in the next bed screaming, someone done the hall screaming and seeing a boy come in the E.R. with head trauma, that trip to the E.R. was just a little overwhelming! We were all happy to get out of there, into a more comfortable room on the cardiac floor.  The good new is that the doctors think it is nothing to serious, maybe a urinary tract infection.  Dahlia is getting antibiotics; she hasn't had a fever all day and is back to her normal happy self.  Hopefully we will be out of here by tomorrow.

7 months old & we're home!

It's been an exciting past couple of days.  Dahlia turned 7 months old and after 7 long, intense, life changing months we are finally home!!  After only being able to see Brian and the rest of the kids on the weekends it has been heaven being together again.  I'm not going to lie there have been times I've wanted to pull my hair out trying to organize all of Dahlia things in our extremely small house, and tyring to get her back on her schedule again, but we have made it work.  One of the hardest things for me about having a child that has had a heart transplant has been trying not to worry constantly and feel sad about her future, the worry is always there and can really wear you down.  Well recently I have stopped worrying so much.  Our family was able to meet with a young man in his twenty's who had a heart transplant as a baby.  He is actually serving as a missionary for our church and is new to our area.  Let me tell you the odds of just running into someone that old, who had a heart transplant as a baby are so extremely low, that I know meeting him was not a coincidence.  His story was so uplifting, and he has led a normal life, even playing sports while he was in school. I know our journey with Dahlia may not always be easy, but it will be one filled with HOPE, joy, and love.

update on Dahlia

My little tiny baby finally fits in size two diapers! She has been doing really well since her heart transplant and her new heart is functioning great.  She now has her doctor appointments every other week instead of every week.  There are many things that can go wrong in the months following a heart transplant.  Luckily, Dahlia's recovery has gone really well, and we haven't really had any major issues come up. Thank goodness for this!  I am by myself taking care of Dahlia during the week, and this mama does not need anymore scares for a long time!  I am also blessed that she is a very good natured, happy baby, which makes my job a whole lot easier.

Easter Weekend

I love weekends because Brian and the other four kids come to Houston to join me and Dahlia. Easter weekend was especially nice because they were able to come on Thursday night. We had a nice relaxing weekend. I got to spend time with the kids and Brian, and got to get out of the house for a bit with my sisters. Brian is such a great dad, when he comes for the weekend he takes over ALL of Dahlia's care to give me a much needed break.  On Saturday we had an Easter egg hunt with my sister Lauren's family.  On Sunday Lauren and I made Easter dinner for everyone.  It was my first time cooking a ham!  We sure missed mom and dad!


family pictures

My sister Lauren, took family pictures of us, to celebrate Dahlia turning six months old.  We just love having her with us, out of the hospital.

big sigh of relief!

Today the other kids had appointments at Texas Children's to check their hearts. The type of heart defect Dahlia had can sometimes be genetic. On top of everything I already have to worry about, I have been worrying that our other kids might also have Left Ventricular Non-Compaction like Dahlia. Well, a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, after a thorough examination the kids hearts are healthy! Brian had his hands full, especially with Laila. She freaked out. Brian said she tried running down the hall to get away from the nurse. During her echocardiogram she was yelling, "I'm not doing this anymore!" and tried hitting Brian. Then, when she got home she told me the doctor put peanut butter on her chest when they looked at her heart (they had to put gel on her chest when she had her echo).

Ava stayed with us the past two weeks and was a big help! Dahlia loves her big sister.  I ordered this hat for Dahlia when she was a newborn and it finally arrived this past week!

goodbye hospital!

Dahlia was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday.  It would have been sooner but there was a debate about if Dahlia would need to leave with a feeding tube or not.  Luckily Dahlia gained some weight and showed the doctors she could handle a bottle just fine. Since we live more than 1 hour outside of the Houston area we have to stay in the area until 3 months post transplant; one down, two more to go.  Luckily, I grew up in this area and my parents still live here.  So, I will be staying at their house and do not have to rent an apartment or stay at the Ronald McDonald House like many families have to.  Leaving the hospital is both exciting and terrifying at the same time.  No more doctors or nurses to come running if anything goes wrong.  It's all on me now.  If I simply forget to shake her medicine she could end up back in the ICU.  Luckily so far there have been no calls to 911 or trips to the emergency room.  Aside from giving medicine around the clock it has been just your normal baby stuff; eating, playing, lots of smiles, sleeping, dirty diapers.  After almost losing her, normal feels so good!