December Wrap Up

Natalie opening her Laugh and Learn Kitchen

Carter telling Santa want he wants for Christmas...Dragon Style Lighting McQueen

Carter's Birthday Cake

December has come fast and furious and is now almost over. Our life has continued to stay crazy and I am starting to believe that is the new normal from here on out, so I better get use to it. I thought I would do a little wrap up on the month so far, since my posts have been far and few.

We started the month with my half marathon, Dallas White Rock. I did blog about this and had a few pictures as well. My experience with the half marathon was amazing, not only was I running in honor of my daughter, but I was running for all the patients at Scottish Rite. I am thinking this might be an annual run for me, so if you ever have the desire to run a half marathon, I love for you to run with me in the Dallas White Rock.

The next week we had Carter's birthday party on Friday, December 11. Poor kid gets the shaft since his birthday is really the 22nd. We invited a couple of his friends and he had a blast. Of course we had a Lighting McQueen and Mater cake. Carter is finally into the unwrapping of presents and had a ball that night unwrapping and playing with all the new cars and trucks he got.

Sunday, Larry, Carter and I drove to Lubbock with some good friends of ours to ride the Polar Express Train. That is right, we rode all the way to the North Pole and back in less than an hour, pretty impressive, especially since the train never got above 20mph. Regardless, Carter had a wonderful time. We had hot chocolate and got to meet the big man himself, Santa! To top the night off, each kid got a bell to ring (if you believe). We took two cars and the dad's got to drive home with the boys and their bells all the way from Lubbock (pretty sure, Mindy and I planned that one right).

The next was Carter's birthday and Christmas party at school. Can you say sugar high for the week?

During all this time, Natalie has now mastered climbing our stairs and the child is fast. Larry and I have had to improvise on a baby gate to keep her off of them, because she has not figured out how to climb downstairs yet.

This brings us to last weekend...We all packed in the car and drove to Dallas to celebrate Christmas with Larry's family, followed by Natalie getting her tubes. No trip would be complete unless one kid got sick right before....lucky kid was Natalie, ear infection (go figure).

We spend the weekend at Great Wolf Lodge with Larry's family. We had Christmas Saturday morning, the kids loved it! Carter spent all day in the water park going full force. Natalie never entered the water park. She had Christmas, took a nap and played with Gran and Papa in their room. I wanted to be extra careful with her, because of the surgery on Tuesday. The last thing I needed was for them to tell us to come back, because they could not do her tubes right now.

Sunday morning we packed up from Great Wolf Lodge and went to my brother's house to celebrate my mom's birthday and hang out with them. That evening we put my mom on a plane back to Amarillo and headed on into to Dallas for the next two days.

Monday, Natalie had her pre-opt appointment and Tuesday she got tubes. Natalie's surgery went great! They did put oxygen on her during the surgery to be safe, but she did awesome! Two of our nurses in recovery were nurses in CV-ICU when Natalie there. They were so impressed with how big Natalie had gotten and good she was doing; always nice to hear.

We are now home and my bag is put up in the closet where I hope it stays for a while. If you have not been following, let me help you out; we have been gone every weekend for over a month...I am done.

This brings us to today, Christmas Eve. Carter is pumped that Santa comes tonight and tomorrow we get to have a birthday party for Jesus, where we get presents too! I will post some pictures of our Christmas this next week, but until then, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

Ear Tubes Are In

Natalie's surgery went great! She was literally back there maybe 15 minutes. Larry and I had a chance to get a cup of coffee, which is in the same room and go to the bathroom, that was it.

She ended up having a double ear infection, which might cause more drainage over the next few days. I guess the medication we had been on was not working; thank goodness for tubes.

We were leaving the hospital at 9am and on the road back to Amarillo by 10am. Natalie slept most of the way home, which was nice. She has been a bit cranky today, but who can blame her.

I wanted to thank you all for your prayers and support. This was by far the easiest surgery we have been through yet. I also wanted to give a special thanks to my cousin and her husband, Gentry and Jordan, who showed up at our hotel at 5:30am to watch Carter...thanks.

Tubes Tomorrow

Natalie is getting tubes first thing tomorrow morning. I know getting tubes is an easy procedure, but it is still a surgery to say the least. We are at Children's and will have an anethesiologist who is familiar with heart patients. No one foresees any problems, but always good to be safe with her.

She had her pre-opt appointment this afternoon and everything went good. I was a bit worried she might not get to have the surgery, because guess what...she has an ear infection. She has been on medication since Thursday, so I think that helped.

I will let everyone know how the surgery goes. We will be driving back to Amarillo after the surgery, so I will not be updating until tomorrow night.

I ask for you all to say a little prayer that all goes well. Thanks!

Merry Christmas to All

We wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

2010 Dallas White Rock Half Marathon

The button we wore in honor of Natalie; Thanks Cassie and Crystal

My Running Buddies (We are missing a few girls)

My sweet husband who ran a half block with me and cheered me on

I did not get to show off my iron-on shirt, because it was too cold...guess I will save it for next year

My motivation to keep running

I wanted to thank everyone for you support during my training and for the prayers the morning of the race. The Half Marathon was so much fun! I know 13.1 miles, fun, but seriously it was the most amazing experience.

That morning it was super cold outside. The temperature was 38 degrees, but felt like 31. I was pretty far back in the corrals, so I did not start until almost an hour after the gun went off. As I start running, my toes were completely frozen. I was not sure if I could run all 13.1, but about mile 4 my toes thawed out and I felt great!

I finished in 2 hours and 12.07 minutes! I was really glad with my time, especially since it was my first half marathon.

Thank you to all my family and friends who put on their running shoes and ran with my in honor of Natalie. It meant so much to me and I do not know if I could have done it without you.

Time to Run

Natalie over Thanksgiving

The time to run my half marathon is here. I can't believe it! I am nervous, but excited to be running in honor of not only my miracle baby, Natalie, but for all the patents at Scottish Rite Hospital. I wanted to thank all of you for your support in helping my reach my fundraising goal. I also wanted to give a special thanks to Cassie and Crystal for making the cutest buttons for us to wear during the race in honor of Natalie (will post pictures later) and for all my friends and family that will be cheering and running along with me on Sunday in honor of Natalie. I ask everyone else to say a little prayer Sunday morning as I run along side friends, family and other runners.

Thanksgiving was amazing! We have so much to be thankful for and I am reminded of that daily. Natalie is by far the happiest baby. The only time she fusses is when she is hungry and you to not feed her fast enough or when Big Brother gets in her personal space for too long. Plus look at the picture and tell me you do not fall in love with her...

We went to Austin to see Larry's sisters and the rest of the family for Thanksgiving. The kids did awesome in the car! We even made them listen to the Arkansas vs LSU football game on the radio on the way home for 4hrs...Go Hogs!

Natalie had her 15 month well check up; she was finally feel enough to have one. Her oxygen was 89 and she was 20.02lbs. I have been a little worried about her development. I feel like she is a few months behind, I know she has been through a lot, but mom's have to keep an eye on these things. She is almost perfect were she should be! The only thing we are kind of behind is speech, but I am hoping that once we get the tubes put in her ears, she will catch right up. Most children at 15 months can say 5 words, Natalie is only around 3 and that just happened in the past few weeks.

Natalie also got released from therapy! She met all her goals they had for her. We are going to try and continue to go once a month, so we can stretch her neck. The scoliosis tends to tighten her neck on one side. Continuing therapy all depends on insurance...got to love insurance.

Thank you all for your continuous support! I hope everyone is having a great start to the holiday season.

Sad, but Encouraged

Early this week, Steve Catoe, the oldest person with Natalie's same heart condition passed away at age 43. His half the heart finally gave out. I wrote about him and his blog, Adventures of a Funky Heart, about a month ago. I just got to know who he was and learned so much from him in the short amount of time. He was a great source of knowledge for me and other heart moms.

I am encouraged by Steve's life and inspired by him. To live to be 43 years old, is amazing! When we first got diagnosis, the doctors told us, Natalie would not live a normal life expectency. I think 43 years old, is pretty good if not awesome! Larry and I always had the fear of 20 or 30, but 43 is incredible. I am also encouraged by the medical system, 10 or 15 years ago, babies did not have a very good success rate with tricuspid atreisa. Natalie is only 16 months old, but the time she is 40 years old, look at all the medical improvement they will have made.

Steve~You will be missed, but your story will live on forever...