U of M & Amelya

Ok, so Saturday Amelya had an appt with her new doctor and things went like I had hopped they would have a year ago. See, when she was about a year I noticed her toes were slightly webbed between the second and third toes. I know it’s sad it took me that long but it’s actually really cute and not horrible and more so on one side then the other. Well, I mentioned it to the doctor and the doctor said “well do you see any problems when she walks?” No we didn’t so the doctor said “oh she’s fine.” Ok, that’s great right, and they also said they heard a heart murmur which I’ve been told is not a huge thing.

Amelya has Syndactyly. Webbing of the fingers and toes is called syndactyly. It refers to the connection of two or more fingers or toes. Webbing usually only involves a skin connection between the two areas, but in rare cases may involve the connection (fusion) of bones.

Relatively common causes:
• Down syndrome
• Hereditary syndactyly
Extremely rare causes:
• Apert syndrome
• Carpenter syndrome
• Cornelia de Lange syndrome
• Pfeiffer syndrome
• Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome
• Using the medication hydantoin during pregnancy (Fetal hydantoin effect)

Everything I’ve ready says it should have been noticed during the hospital stay but HA! They didn’t notice I didn’t even notice, I mean she was a miracle to me from the start we had horrible treatment from the hospital. I was told from the very beginning over the phone that Amelya was not a viable pregnancy. That was the most horrible thing I’ve ever heard. We (Brian and I) had to wait a whole week, believing that we lost the baby already. She was there; we had a beautiful tiny baby 4lbs 9oz!

Also, back to the heart murmur our new doctor thinks it’s of concern enough that she is going to be seen by a specialist for that and as well as a pediatrician at University of Michigan. He’s concerned by her lack of growth and how little she still is, and when I read about a few of the syndromes it’s hard to not fit Amelya in the category but I’m not a specialist and I’m trying really hard not to even look at them.

The worst part of it all is syndactyly is hereditary which means we’ve had 3 wonderful perfect beautiful baby girls and I think that is where it stops. I’ve read that the symptoms of this are worse in boys and who knows if we had more kids how insignificant it could be or how severe and I’m so scared to take that chance. I mean as of a few weeks ago I thought I was pregnant and I would have been so happy, although Brian does not want another child. Could I now knowing that getting pregnant means the possibility of our child not being normal, having all these crazy syndromes or even one, could I have another child. I can’t. I can’t even imagine it; I would be a mess while pregnant. Brian has always asked me why I can’t be satisfied with the children I have but it was never that I didn’t feel satisfied with them it was I wasn’t stratified with the idea or the feeling I had in my heart that we weren’t done yet.

It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done trying to ignore what I feel in my heart and my whole being to shut out the feelings of wanting another child. Yeah we’ve toiled around with the idea of adoption which for some reason Brian is all for. And you know when I think about all of this Brian’s not wanting to have another child he’s so admit and his willingness to adopt maybe that’s one of the biggest signs I could ever have telling me “duh Kassy your done” But it hurts so bad thinking that we obviously need to have Brian get a vasectomy or me a tubal ligation and the thought of that for either of us kills me. I’m almost in tears just writing and reading this.

Anyway, please pray for Amelya that all of her issues with syndactyly are just what she has now and her heart murmur is nothing and she will be fine. She’s such an amazing child and is so smart that I can’t imagine anything being wrong with her.

Amelya

 

Ideas...

So I'm full of ideas and well they never really come out like I think they will. I wanted to start a little at home business with a friend of mine whom I no longer talk to so that didn't work out but I now want to try again on my own but there are a few hitches. 1) I gave away my sewing machine 2) I couldn't sew a strait line to save my life 3) is my idea original and will people be willing to buy something that I think is great.

Brian said he would support me and that's great but he can't sew and I don't think he'd be any help getting things started. I'd share more of what I want to do but this is a pretty public blog and well I don't want my ideas being taken, not like they are super original but still...

One of my biggest hitches is I gave my sewing machine away. I only used it less than 10 times and I would ruin everything I tried to create and I got really frustrated. The thing that stinks is I begged Brian to get it for me. It wasn't cheap either so talking him into getting me another I think might be hard. At least he knows i had good intentions as do i now so we'll see!...

Happy Birthday!

Today my baby turns 2!

Here is a funny story that I haven't told many...well it's embarrassing but I figure after two years it's ok to tell!

Once upon a time.... No, ok it all started one night at what used to be Foote Hospital. I had given birth to an amazing baby girl but I was so out of it and tired that when I actually gave birth I didn't get to see her and they took her out of the room. Well, I feel asleep and I was just so tired I slept for like 5 hours in between the RN's coming in to push on my stomach which sucks bad. Anyway, as soon as I was able by now 6 hrs after giving birth I wanted to see my baby. They told me she was in the NIC unit so I went there. There were about 7 babies and all in incubators and for their protection they keep the name tags facing away from people as they come into the room. Ok, now you know how they say a mother knows her baby well, I have to say in the mix of it all I wasn't sure. I looked around the room and all the incubators had blue blankets on them so there was one with a pink blanket on it and I was sure that had to be Amelya. I walked over to it with Brian and I was like "is that her?" I turned around and looked at the other babies and I didn't see another with pink and I was like "this has to be her!" Brian was like "I don't think it is." and then I said, "it has to be a mom knows these things."

The funny part was a nurse walked up to us and said "can I help you?" Now this was after I was sure it was our baby and I said "I'm Kassy Dunn" and before I was done with my sentence she said "oh, the Dunn baby she's over here" OMG it wasn't even my baby I was bonding with. Amelya wasn't in a incubator she was all wrapped up under a heat lamp on the other side of the room that I didn't even know was there. What an ass I am. In my defense I was pretty tired.

One look though at Amelya and I knew without a doubt that she was my baby. She was so little weighting 4.9lbs and born at 36wks. It was a pretty easy labor the best part was on push and she was out.

Now, Amelya is about 23lbs, talking, potty trained (training), and starting in with the terrible two's already! I love her so much and am excited to be sharing in this day with her! Happy Birthday Amelya I Love YOU!

New Car!

So, with recent troubles with a crappy little Honda I suggest Brian buy because we needed a car, we found that we needed a new car so we went car shopping. In the end we chose a 2004 Chrysler Pacifica! I couldn't be happier. It's a lot of money in the end so we hope to pay it off early. I'll have to take some pictures of it to post, but I've been rather under the weather lately and right now I feel like my face is going to explode in a massive explosion of snot. It's gross I know but I had to share it with someone. :) Well a short post for now, I'll write more when I don't feel so under~the~weather!

books to read

so I've gotten sucked into a series of books by the author Iris Johanson. It's completely unlike me to get this wrapped up in a book, I'm not much for reading for pleasure. However, I just can't seem to get enough of this author. I read 4 of her books in a week and now I'm working on two more. I can seem to finish up a book in about 6 hrs that includes distractions. I'm thinking now that this fire is lit I should keep reading but I hope I find something else that captures my imagination like these books. I've been told to read the Twilight series but I can't bring myself to do it. I've been told it will suck me in but I saw the movie poster and now the characters have faces and all I would see is them and not my own image. Kinda weird I know but it spoils it for me.

Ok here is some crazy news we have found a new home for our pigs well rather Pet Supply Plus is finding them a new home. Did you know they will buy your animals from you? 4 guinea pigs for 40 bucks not bad. Just so you know they were horribly stinky and very unfriendly. you could hold them but after you chased them down in their cage where they would fling all of their bedding out in the struggle.
Here is the good news about all of this. We got a Ferret! His name is Rufus and he's wonderful. We are so ferret people I wish we would have known this sooner. He's just like a kitten only funner and he also acts like a human baby he sleeps 18hrs a day, he eats, sleeps and poops what in that sentence doesn't remind you of a baby? He's fixed, descended, up to date on all shots so we just have to take him in for his next round. We've been battling fleas with him and the kittens who he loves, they play like they've been together forever.

I'm going to put the girls to bed and hit the sheets myself I'm fighting off a pretty nasty sinus infection and after being on my feet all day it just takes it's toll on me. I hate seeing patients when I'm like this I just have to keep my distance... :-(