It's been a while....

            Wow it has been so long since I have posted on here... First off Anna is making huge improvements with her arms thanks to the splints!!!! She mover her arms now a lot more than she did before and is a lot happier. She is also more proactive about laying on her back for long periods of time! Anna has also been CRAWLING for about a month now!
            Abigail went on the potty for the first time Saturday! She is a big help with Anna, I was in the kitchen and Abby comes flying in Mommy Mommy help Anna help baby. I run into the living room to find Anna had the T.V remote LOL...
             I have also quit Auntie Anne's for a job at Sears. I am so much happier there. I work in the Land's End Department. Auntie Anne's was a horrible experience, I never got paid on time.
            Also Adam has decided not to re enlist so we will be back in Ohio sometime in 2013!

MRI Day

Anna had her MRI on Thursday. We had to be at the hospital at 9am. around 9:30 they called us back, they took Anna's vitals and explained what was going to happen. Anna started getting cranky since she wasn't allowed to eat past midnight. The nurse was nice enough to bring in some sweet eaze which is basically sugar water to dip her pacifier in. This was enough to keep her happy. After everything was explained, they came in to start her IV. They had a really hard time getting one started and had to stick her 4 different times.The first medicine they gave her was to ease her into the sedation, and the second one was to actually sedate her. After she was sedated, they started the MRI. The actual MRI took about an hour and after she was moved to recovery. Anna slept for about a half hour and then woke up to eat, she was a hungry baby and ate 8 ounces! After she ate, she was able to go home. Her results will be ready on Monday, however thats a holiday so we will have to wait to make an appointment to get them.

Anna's Splints

    As I have facebooked before, tricare has denied Anna's splints for a second time. Adams grandparents were kind enough to pay for the first months rental of these. The price comes to about 218/ month for the pair. Anna's wear time is unknown. The company we are using has made us a deal saying if we pay the purchase price of around 2500.00 by next month they will give it to us for the tricare price if not we have to rent it. They also have agreed to switch out the pair for a bigger size for free in one year. The problem is, we can't afford the 2500.00 so we are planning to go to the relief society to see if they can help, until then does anyone know of any resources out there to help this type of situation? Also I was considering a donation fund any thoughts?

Family Reunion

       We went to my dad's family reunion, which was so exciting especially since my Aunt Pam was there. If you don't know she is battling stage 4 lung cancer. She has been such an amazing role model and I love her so much, I wish i would have had the chance to grow up around her because she is such an amazing and strong woman. I'm really glad that every one got to meet Anna and Abigail too!  I also got to meet my step brother David, his Fiance and their 2 adorable children! I am so blessed to have such a great family!
     I would have to say this was one of the best trips I have had, no fighting with my mom or anything!
I am still in pain from this uterine infection and instead of the pain getting better, its getting much worse to where it is starting to hurt to stand up straight. I have an appointment with my dr to discuss getting a referral to my OB to talk about a hysterectomy. Its such a devastating decision for me, i want more kids but at the same time i can't keep being in pain. I know God will give me the strength to  get through everything, and i have a wonderful supportive family, i guess i am just feeling so overwhelmed with everything. I'll blog more when I know whats going to happen.

The joys of being a Woman

   So since Thursday I have been having a horrid pain in my stomach and I thought it was just muscle soreness from working out, but over the weekend it got worse not better. Last night just switching from one side tot he other was excruciating so I made a drs appt. After 2 and a half hours at the naval clinic I have discovered that i have yeat ANOTHER uterine infection a possible kidney stone and possibly a cyst on my right ovary.... great

Arthrogryposis

Anna Was diagnosed with Arthrogyrposis which is used to describe joint contractures at birth. This is very rare, it occurs once in every 3000 births. We are not sure which type she has, but our insurance will not cover the clinical testing to find this out BUT there is research studies being done on it so we will be looking into that. Children with arthrogyrposis can lead a normal life but can have heart defects (she just has a murmur) or central nervous system problems but otherwise progress nicely. The other good news is that arthrogyrposis is a non progressive disease. The genetic dr said that if anything is going on in her brain that it is probably very small due to how developmentally well off she is!

Anna's GI Appointment

       So we took anna to see the GI dr today. They put her on zantac and having me add a little bit of olive oil in her bottles for the extra calories. Over all it was a huge waste of time and gas because the dr didn't answer any of my questions and shoved me off to a nutritionist but wait not before telling me that it appears anna's height and weight are both down ummmmmm no.... and then i was like well she gained weight i just had her at the dr's yesterday and she was 5 ounces up and shes like well when i see her gain weight on our scales then i will be happy. So they want us to drive an hour ever week to weigh her.

Anna's Weight Check!

So we took Anna to see Dr. Gross for a weight check, she is up to 9lbs 11 oz! We took her off the 22 Calorie formula a week ago since it was making her spit up and the fact that 4 days ago she was 9 lbs 6 ounces and off the 22 cal formula and is still gaining weight at a good rate that is a really good sign!!!!!! The dr we saw today also said that because her cognitive awareness is good (she is looking at you smiling and cooing) and she is hitting her milestones on time she wouldn't worry about anything serious in her brain! (Lets hope she is right!)
Anna Also had her first sweet potato today and she was in love she kept squealing because i wasn't giving it to her fast enough! Well I will let you guys know more tomorrow!

Anna

       Anna was born March 24, 2011 6 days before her due date so she wasn't early and she wasn't late. She weighed 5lb 3 oz yes she was very small. She was born Via C section where the dr. discovered my uterus was extremely small. With my uterus being small and the lack of fluid I had, Anna was born with a few problems.
       We were initally told everything was fine and she was a healthy baby, but the night we took her home, she had a diaper explosion leading to a bath. After her bath, Anna's hands and feet turned blue. The conditions of our house were correct for a newborn, we even kept it a little bit warmer for her so this shouldn't have happened. We took her to the ER where she was admitted into the NICU for 72 hours. There they discovered her problems. Anna had a turbulence murmur which is a hole between the ventricles in her heart (this should eventually close). She was also diagnosed as having contractures of the arms and legs.         
       Contractures causes tightness not allowing her to extend her arms or legs to the fullest extent. Since she has been diagnosed she has been going to Physical therapy once a week, and her legs have been able to fully stretch out but her arms have not. I took her to the dr to get a paper for formula for WIC and they discovered she wasn't gaining weight properly ( another side effect of contracture). They have come to the conclusion that the contractures cause her to use a lot of energy and she needs more calories than the typical baby. So They gave us a referral to a GI specialist at Rhode Island Hospital with Hasbro Children's and we have an appointment on the 19th. They also gave us a referral to Orthopedics at Yale and a Neurologist at Hasbro. We went to the Orthopedic specialist and they said that if her arms don't work out in 3 months they will do xrays because she could have an elbow defect.
       We also went to the Neurologist and this was a big appointment (it took 2 hours) They discovered anna has no muscle in her upper arm and are afraid that if her arms don't loosen she could be at risk for fractures later and think that something in her brain is either not transmitting properly or her muscles just don't want to work the way her brain is telling them to. So they gave us a referral to a Genetic Dr at hasbro and we see them on Wednesday to get genetic testing done.
       We want to find out if there is a genetic disorder causing her size and also if there is a reason for my early delivery of abigail and my 2 miscarriages. On top of all that she also has to have a MRI of her brain done as well. This will be all under sedation so all the genetic testing and if GI wants to go a endoscopy it will all be done at the same time. I'll update on wednesday after our appointment with the genetics specialits.