A Year Ago Today

One year ago today I was 17w3d pregnant. It was a big day for us. We were going to find out if we were going to have a little girl or boy! I knew it was gonna be a girl :-). We also found out the news that the little baby i was carrying was not "normal".
I remember getting up that day going into work being so super excited. I even dressed nicer for that day:-) I went to work for a few hours barely getting anything done because I was watching the clock waiting for my appointment. My mom and sisters were going to meet Michael and I at El Fenix after the appointment so we could tell them what we having.
Michael picked me up at work and we drove on over to the doctors office. The doctor started the sonogram and immediately told us he sees some things that he does not like. He proceeded to tell us that our baby had spina bifida, a lemon shape head, and enlarged ventricles. "It does not look good" is what he said. I looked at Michael and he just had a blank expression on his face, then i started crying. I did not know anything about any of the things he just said. He said it could be genetic, etc. So he said he could do an amnio that day. After he explained a little about what the baby had i remembered to ask what we were having. lol. I completely forgot about my reason for being there:-). He said he was going to call my OB doctor and have us go talk to her.
We went over to talk to my OB and she had absolutely nothing good to say. She just kept telling us how bad it was going to be, that the baby was in really bad shape, had alot of issues, we should consider terminating, etc. But we immediately knew that we were going to keep the baby and give her the shot at life she deserves. I asked my doctor to send me to another sono doctor for a second opinion and she said there was no need, that he was the best. She then sent us over to the NICU to talk to one of the doctors so he could explain more to us. He was alot more assuring about everything.
The next morning I woke up and just cried. I was so upset. I had already done a ton of research on spina bifida, etc. We called and made our own appointment with a specialist and were set to be in the following week. Within a few days I was feeling much better about it all. We finally went and met with the sono doctor and he said she did not have spina bifida but did have a lemon shape head, enlarged ventricles, and an encephalocele. I was so excited about her not having the spina bifida that I did not ask much about the rest. When I got home i researched some more. I scared my self to death looking up encephaloceles. They literally only put the worst case scenarios on the Internet. From there we just went about the pregnancy knowing my little girl was going to have some struggles in life, but we were willing to do whatever we could for our sweet little baby.
Today Bryleigh is 7mo3w old. She is absolutely perfect to us. She is doing so much better than i had prepared myself for. God gave me this little girl and gave me the strength to care for her and give her what she needs. I would not change our experience for the world. I thank God everyday that I did not listen to my fisrt OB doctor (I switched). I could not imagine our lives right now without Bryleigh. In a way I feel privileged that God chose me to care for a child with "special needs". Its hard to explain what I mean by that but I am sure some of the other mommies may know what I mean. Bryleigh is so special to our family! Every little things she does absolutely amazes me. Her being able to do things that others said she would never do makes it that much more special. God has been so great to us!

Yep, Im just paranoid :-)

So yes I was more than likely just being paranoid. We are just going to take the "conservative" approach for now and try to monitor the spells more closely. So again, we will not have to go back to him unless a need arises in the future. He is such a great doctor though. But there is no need to have so many if we don't need to. The first week in September we go see the developmental doctor. Hopefully that are as pleased with her as we are :-) She is such an easy going baby. Everywhere i take her people comment on how good and happy she is. She can sit up on her own unassisted on the bed for a few seconds at a time. When she starts trying to look around a lot she falls over.
Bryleighs hair is curly I think. She doesn't have a bunch yet, but the stuff she has on top curls. It so cute. It also swoops up over her shunt. Its not quite long or heavy enough to lay down over it. I put bows on her occasionally and she pulls them off and puts them in her mouth.
It's night night time!

Play Time!

I got some really cute pictures of Bryleigh playing in her exersaucer (spelling). She loves being in that thing. It really helps her with head control, etc. There is this lizard that light up and sings when you hit it. She has got that figured out which i thought was pretty impressive :-). She sometimes gets so intrigued with it and stares at it like her gaze is gonna make it do something. lol i dunno. The first picture is a picture of her staring at it.

Tomorrow we go see the neurologist. Hopefully he thinks that it is nothing and I am just being a paranoid mommy!

Rolly Polly

Bryleigh Loves to roll around! She rolls from one end of the living room to the other!! She is also sitting up for a few seconds on her own! Her therapist called me yesterday to let me know how well she is doing. They are all very impressed with her progresses. Im so proud of her. She is such a happy little girl. She sometimes laughs so hard. Her brother made a tooting noise and she cracked up. So sometimes to get her to laugh we do that. Lol its a little weird but she likes it. :-)

On another note. She has been having weird like staring spells. After it she gets very upset and screams. It is so sad. Im not sure if it is even anything or maybe just gas? I made her an appointment with the neurologist. We actually were told we did not have to have routine check-ups with him anymore. Last time we went he said she did not have any issues that he needed to see her for. But the staring spells is something her neuro-surgeon wants her to see the neurologist for. So we go see him Tuesday.

I got a video tonight of her rolling around some! I got her towards the end so she is a little tired :-)
(not sure if it will upload though)

Hello Everyone!!!

Yes we are still here. I have not posted anything on here in so long. I bet its been 2 or 3 months. I am not able to get on the site at work and by the time i get home i never get on the computer. I still get on my phone sometimes and read every ones blogs. Well, nothing has happened with Bryleigh since I last posted. She has been doing so good. I am so proud of her. She is such a happy baby, always laughing and smiling. She wants to sit up so bad, she really tries, but just does not have the control yet. She will sometimes roll over. She can push herself up while on her tummy. But she does get exhausted quickly. But hey, she is still accomplishing things. She has pretty good head control. Her therapist have said that in the past couple weeks that she has really started doing awesome. We saw her neurologist about two weeks ago. He has her adjusted a month behind her actual age. That is good because the developmental doctor had her 1.5 months behind just a few months ago, so she is steadily catching up. We no longer have any reason to go see the neurologist. He is a great doctor, but i am glad we have one less doctor to o see :-). He was very pleased with her eye sight. Last time we were in he said she had major vision problems, this time he said she is doing great at tracking and recognizing people and things. She weights 1 7lbs now. She is a little chunky monkey. I cant believe she is almost 7 months, Time goes by so quickly.

I recently got married on the beach. It was so pretty. Bryleigh spit up on her sister during the ceremony. :-)

Here are some recent pictures!

I've been tagged!!

I've been tagged!

I have been tagged by my blogging friend, Carla, Miles' mom. This is my first one!!!

24 things about myself
1. What is your current obsession? Probably working out. Haha. I am training for a 5k and the class I am in is a no walking all running class. So I run alot because I do not want my class to have to wait on me during practices. lol

2. If you could do any job in the world & be 100% successful, what would it be? I would like to be a lawyer. I have my degree in paralegal studies, but do not even do that as my career. But I think being a lawyer would be cool.

3. What are you wearing today? Texas Longhorns t-shirt that says "Tyler's Mommy" on the back (its his t-ball team name) and brown velour pants. I didn't work today.:-)

4. Why is today special? Greys anatomy 2 hr event tonight!!

5. What would you like to learn to do? cook. I cannot cook anything at all. But it may help if i tried. Michael does all our cooking,

6. What’s for dinner tonight? Who knows. haha

7. What’s the last thing you bought? #7 at Grandys!!

8. What are you listening to right now? Tyler pretending to play baseball. He makes all the noises from the sound of hitting the ball, the crowd, the batter, and the announcer!!

9. What’s your most challenging goal? To run in a marathon in the next year or so.

10. What do you think about the person who tagged you? Carla sounds like she a such a great mommy. She really likes animals (as do I). She has adorable children! We actually don't live to far from each other.

11. If you could have your house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere, where would it be? Hmm that's a good one. I would say like Rockwall Tx. Still close to family.

12. What is your favorite vacation spot? Panama City Beach Florida. Have not been in years.

13. What would you like to have in your hands right now? What i have right now. My little Princess.


14. What would you like to get rid of? The rest of my baby weight, haha

15. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go? To see my best friend Stephanie who lives in SC

16. What super power would you like to possess? Physical healing, for obvious reasons. I'll third that!

17. What’s your favorite piece of clothing? This pair of jeans I have. I cant remember where I got them though.

18. What is your dream job? #2

19. If you had $150—what would you spend it on? I would go to babies r us. I love that store. I would buy Bryleigh some light up toys. She loves lights!

20. What do you find annoying? Ignorance

21. Describe your personal style. I am a bit boring. My little sister goes shopping with me on occasion to help me pick out clothes. She is the trendy one!!

22. What is one of your secret skills? I can tell by looking at someones hair if they have hair spray in it, gel, bio silk type stuff, etc. Lol i know its really weird, but I am a hair person. haha

23. What are you most proud of? My kids. They mean the world to me. They have made me the person I am! I am also proud of my soon to be hubby! He is such a great person! Great dad and step dad. I couldn't ask for better!!

24. What is your typical morning routine? Alarm goes off at 5:45 a.m. I hit snooze until about 6:20. Feed Bryleigh, wake Tyler up, get ready, pick Tyler's breakfast, head out the door. Drop Tyler off at daycare then drop Bryleigh off at her sitters, then head to work. Work until 4:30, go get Tyler then Bryleigh, go home and clean or do whatever it is that needs to be done. Play with the kiddos, get ready for bed, sleep, repeat the day. haha

I will tag the readers whose blogs I follow who have not already done one:
1: Lisa (Elisabeth's Mommy)
3: Zoe (Lillian's Mommy)
4: Hamza (Huda and Hamza's Mommy)
4: Josephine (Avery's Mommy)
5: Shannon (Dylan & Duncan's Mommy)
6: Sara (Kadyn's Mommy)
7: Stefani (Audrey's Mommy)

Not the shunt!

Good news! It is not her shunt! They did a CT and everything looked good. We don't really know why her head size is bigger. We will continue to keep a close eye on it. Thank you for the prayers!