Aliya is 6 months old

Well our sweet baby girl is 6 months old today. We are so blessed to have her in our lives! She has been such a blessing! Yes somedays are harder than others...but overall we are doing good and not to mention we have learned so much in these short 6 months. Life is so precious and we wouldn't change ours for anything!
We have had some hurdles we have had to cross. Last week Aliya had a grand mal seizure. She already has seizures but they are just a matter of seconds and she comes out of them. The one last week is like the kind of seizure you imagine what a seizure should be. Hers lasted about 3 minutes and she had never had one before. Her limbs were twitching, she was sweating, her chin was quivering, and she was crying...which she really doesn't do a lot of so we knew something was wrong. She has only had a few of her shorter ones so we are hoping and praying she doesn't have any more. She still has her reflux but even with all the spitting/throwing up she is still growing. As of Friday she is up to 9 pounds 12 ounces.  Also we have been hoping and praying my older girls don't get whooping cough. Before we came home from Primarys the doctors told me that all of Aliyas caregivers need to have the shot because if Aliya gets whooping cough it could be fatal. So hopefully we are careful and lucky enough to not get it! 

The Verdict is in...

Well it looks like Aliya does have sleep apnea. She stopped breathing 14 times an hour, which is on the low end of severe. To solve the problem she will be having jaw surgery. Her chin is pushed back, which makes her have a small airway and what happens is that her tongue falls back into that small airway the obstructs her breathing. The ENT will have to put metal plates into her mouth and then little screws behind her ears to we can slowly move her jaw forward. We will turn the screws for 10 days and new bone will grow in the space she then will have to have the plates in her mouth for 6 weeks. Its amazing the technology, and the findings we have now a days! Hopefully this helps with her breathing and helps with her eating by mouth. We are slowly trying to introduce things to her by mouth. From all the suctioning, she has a negative reaction to anything coming close to her mouth. Also her reflux is so bad that her poor little throat is swollen and so red. Yep, we are going to try another med...and hopefully it will help and get it under control. We are slowly trying to make it a positive experience for her so hopefully she will be able to have the satisfaction of eating by mouth!
We also found out that she is too little for allergies, so it may be the reflux getting into her nasal cavities causing the excess secretions. The things we have learned in these short months from having our sweet angel with us! She is truly amazing! She tolerates so many things, and still she hardly cries!

A week of Success!

Here is a list of all our successes we have recently had:

1. THE BRAVEHEART RACE: Thank you to all who put together and to everyone who participated in the Braveheart Race! We have such a great community and we are grateful for all your support!

2. ALIYA'S SURGERY: Aliya had her G-tube placed this last week and had her eye procedure done again. She did well and she woke up after really well. She has only been in a little pain, and as long as we keep up on Tylenol she does great.

3. SLEEP STUDY: While we were at Primary's Aliya was able to have a sleep study done to see if she has sleep apnea. Apparently if we would have waited and done it outpatient we would have had to wait 6 months and wouldn't get the results for a month. So we are so glad they were able to get us in! We are waiting to hear from our doctor for her results.

4. We were able to see our sweet friend named Earl. He was our nurse who took care of Aliya in the NICU. We love him because he just loves our little girl like she is his. He even carries a picture of her.

5. We were able to have the same nurse all three days while we were at Primary's. Her name is Gail, and we were so lucky to have her!

6. While we were at Primary's our other two girls were able to spend some time with their Nanny, Poppy, Aunt Bri, and Cooper on a little vacation in St George. It was nice to not worry about them because we knew they were in good hands!

7. We were able to spend Easter with our families!