The month of April just flew right by, but not without a wonderful celebration. Annaleah had another birthday.
I just can’t believe she is eleven years old!
Let’s go back in time…
To April 23, 2001
I was scheduled to have a c-section the following morning, due to my pelvic bone being too narrow. We decided to eat at the Ground Round the night before. The food just wasn’t sitting well with me at all. After dinner, we headed to Walmart where I just started feeling even worse. That night the feeling would not go away. It took awhile to realize that the sensation seemed to be coming back every so often.. Oh my, I think I was having contractions!
You may think this is funny but I had never felt contractions before. Yes, at this time I had a twelve year old son. He was born by c-section due to being breech. I never had a chance to have contractions.. water breaks, off to hospital, surgery, it’s a boy!
Poor Angel! He did not get much sleep. Every time the contraction came back I would wake him up to time it. Off we went to the hospital. The doc made a joke about how we couldn’t just wait a few more hours for the scheduled c-section. I guess Anna did not want to wait any longer!
She was perfect! After a few complications with the nurse forcing formula because she wasn’t interested in nursing, we discovered she had a hole in her soft palate. We had no clue what that meant. The formula ended up getting in her lungs (thank you, nurse) which landed her in the NICU.
What followed was a week of misery until they decided to send her to the Children’s Medical Hospital in Hartford because they had no clue what to do with her. They were not familiar with Cleft Palate in babies. Thankfully the Children’s Hospital was wonderful, and after teaching Anna how to eat (she got lazy with those tube feedings!) we could finally bring her home at almost 3 weeks old.
Time really flew by! She just kept growing!
She looked so much like Daddy!
She absolutely loved her thumb! She couldn’t suck it because of the cleft but she loved gumming it.
At 10 months old, she went in for her palate surgery. The night before she at a huge pancake! This was a good thing since she was going to be on a liquid diet for a long time after surgery. It actually took her even longer to like the texture of foods again. I think it was a few years before she would eat any bread products.
She was miserable after surgery. She did not like the tubes all over her. She refused to drink anything. Thankfully we managed to finally get a sip in her so they could send us home. She was back to herself once they got the iv’s out.
We thought she would be miserable with the arm restraints, especially since she could no longer ‘gum’ her thumb. The restraints didn’t hold her back at all. She focused her energy on what she could do and learned how to walk during this time..
Her first birthday, she hid under the table. There were too many people at her party!
Anna’s 2nd Birthday
Anna at 3
Anna at 4 – She loved the chickens and could put them to sleep in her lap.
Anna at 5 (I just love this pic with Runaway!)
Had to post a better pic of Anna at 5.
Already 6 years old
Anna at 7
Anna at 8
Anna at 9
10 years old!
This was such a tough birthday for her. We celebrated at the hospital. This is the day we found out that Angel was getting another liver. His second one that week. Anna proved to be such a strong girl this year. We are all so proud of her.
Now 11!
Happy Birthday Anna.
You are blossoming into a beautiful young lady.
Could you please slow down???
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