Happy 3 Year Heart Anniversary, My Little Diva!

It was this very day that Miss Ava's heart was partially mended, her very first Open Heart Surgery, at 7days young. The day she was given a chance to live thanks to technology and an amazing team of Surgeons, Doctors and Nurses at UCSF Children's. Almost like the first day of her *new* life. A new start I couldn't ever properly express my gratitude for. I just cannot believe three years have already passed. Over 2.5 of those years spent at home, we are blessed. So later this morning, when Ava wakes up and it's time for the bath, I will look at that long jagged line down her chest and remember her incredible journey. I will say a lil prayer, and thank my lucky stars that I was entrusted to be her mommy. Ava's such a strong little fighter. Thank you for being Mommy's inspiration, Ava. We love you so very much!

More photos from her birthday/anniversary shoot, you can click on any of the images to see them larger...




























She's come a long way, baby! :)

Thanks to everyone who has been there to support us, offer love and kind words and prayers, we all appreciate and love every single one of you!

One last note, please keep Ava in your thoughts and prayers this coming Monday, she will be first case for another catheterizing at the UCD Cath Lab, where Dr. Van Gundy will be ballooning/stenting her left pulmonary artery. With any luck we will be home same day, but as always I am prepared for an overnight stay. If family and close friends would like to visit, please feel free, we will be on the 7th floor after the procedure. You can try to call or text me for further details, or just find us! :P I will try to keep everyone updated on how that goes via texting, phonecalls and twitter. But reception at UCD is super spotty and there is absolutely NO signal in the Cath Lab waiting room, so bear with me on the slow updates, no news will be good news. :)

Always,

Cath, cath-cath-cath...(said to the tune of DUN, dun-dun-dun...)

These photos have nothing really to do with this update, I just thought they were cute and my mom likes seeing new photos. :P


So this thorn in my side Catheterization/stenting is going to (hopefully)happen this coming Monday, June 1st. The timing of it is terrible, for a list of reasons I don't really feel like going into. We have spent the entire first half of this year preparing for this single Cath. I am not really sure how much more MY heart can take. I just want it to happen, for her left pulmonary artery to be stented and to with any hope and prayer be done with the hospital worry game for a while. Please? I know my daughter LOOOOOVES to keep everyone on their toes and make the simplest of chore difficult, but enough is enough, Mama is begging of her baby girl.

As far as other updates, I am not very happy with how preschool enrollment is going. I don't feel very confident sending my daughter to the school she is scheduled to attend this fall or the plan they have for her, but I am still working on everything and trying to keep optimistic. They don't even want me sitting in, ever. :( Perhaps I should light some of that good forture insense my brother has for myself, eh?

That's pretty much all I have for updates right now. Just keep little Miss Diva Ava in your thoughts and prayers for a super successful Cath. Birthday Party, June 6th, hope to see you there family and friends!! :)

Three Years Old !!

Does this mean I can inform her that "terrible two" antics are a thing of the past?! Sure, good luck on that pipe dream being honored, mom. A mom can dream though... ;)

I can't believe three years have gone by. To think there was a time where all we could do was PRAY and HOPE and WISH that we would be able to see even one of Ava's Birthdays, it seems like such a foreign thought now days. But it very much was the reality of things. Not being promised another year, much less three incredibly healthy ones. "Healthy, how can you say healthy when your daughter still has an irregular heart that will always require repairs and monitoring?!" To know my daughter now, to see her, all you will see is a happy, thriving, engaging, precocious, loving and HEALTHY three year old girl. Sometimes shy, sometimes apprehensive, but hey who isn't now and then.

We were told to not expect much as far as development in Ava goes. That she would be severely delayed in almost everything, because "Almost all heart children are, especially those who spend as long as she did in the hospital." We were told she wouldn't ever be one of those smiling, happy babies. That she might fear everyone and everything. She wouldn't ever gain enough weight, eat by mouth, etc. You get the gist. Frankly, I get a kick out of boasting every chance I get to the people involved in saying such things that none of it could be further from the truth!! She has always been a very happy baby, loves everyone she meets, fears almost nothing(unfortunately for me, at times), and as far as cognitively, she isn't delayed in the slightest, sometimes topping charts in that area. Sure, she was in the lower range of "normal" for walking. But she still did it. The biggest hurdle for us has been speech, but even that has everything to do with muscle tone and nothing to do with a typical delay. So THERE, mean, cold, bitter men and women in white coats!

Ava is a blessing, one I am still not quite sure I deserved. She has brought so much to our family, that none of us could imagine life before her or without her. From day one Ava has been a force to be reckoned with. Showing her feistyness before she could even control movement in her fingers! Nothing there has changed, that's for sure! But her strong will and all around feisty side have been a big help for her overcoming these daunting hurdles thrown her way. So rather than curse whomever gave me a daughter more willful than myself and my husband combined, I THANK GOD for it.

Today that little girl that came home after three long and agonizing months in the hospital weighing under 8lbs and smiling for nobody is a happy, energetic, 31 pound THREE year old little diva. Happy Birthday Ava, we love you and are so very proud of you!!!




















Above are a few photo previews of some gorgeous pictures my super talented cousin Tracie took last weekend of the Birthday Diva. I adore them and can't thank her enough for doing a perfectly beautiful job capturing my daughter on film. I will treasure these forever. Enjoy. :)

A New Update, Hooray!

Sorry I have been sort of lagging in the updates department.
Ava is doing great! The cath, as many of you already know by now, did not happen last Monday, as UCD was a little hectic in the PICU(her cardiologist likes to have a bed open for her, as a JUST in case). He really basically refused to do it without a bed guarantee, I don't blame him. And since this cath is not an "emergency" situation, he was comfortable in putting it off. So the new date is set for June 1st. Why do all of her surgeries and procedures happen at almost the exact same time of the year?? I will take it as a good sign though, I suppose. :) Little Miss Ava just needs to behave herself and allow this to end with just a stent.

So in other news. Speech therapy is going well. Very well. Ava has made tremendous progress and continues to amaze her therapists. Her PT and OT stopped coming out, which I guess means she graduated? That's how I am going to take it, at least. :)

This Tuesday we have a meeting with the School District in regards to getting everything in order for Ava's entry into PRESCHOOL!!! Yes, I am beyond excited. No not because I am going to get a few hours of peace, because let's face it, I will undoubtedly be spending most of those hours in class with her just as I tried to as much as I could while Gregory was in the younger grades. But rather because this is a BIG step for my little girl. And something she should be very proud of herself for. We have been working on numbers and alphabet, she basically recognizes the entire alphabet and numbers up to 10. Have I mentioned how proud I am of my little silent heart diva genius?! So that is exciting and I will update all on how that meeting goes sometime next week.

Birthday planning is in full blown crazy mode right now. I have the invites ready to go, just have to address them all and get them out. So expect those soon!! My cousin Tracie is a photographer and will be taking some shots of Miss Diva on the 16th to capture her third birthday, as well as her mended <3 anniversary. Hooray for cute pictures and brave, inspiring little three year old MONSTERS! ;)

Still not fully pottytrained, but making (slow, super slow) progress. We're getting there!!

That's about it I do believe. So now I will leave you with a few recent pics of Little Miss Ava Pants.

-Popping bubbles

-Ava being a monkey on the monkey bar at the park!

-Ava with her new friend, Tyler at Brother's ball game.


Have a Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mommies I know, especially my OWN mom! I love you mama!!

We have met some amazing people on this Journey...

Among them, is a wonderful lady named Christine, from Puerto Rico. She spends what seems like every possible minute she has helping us raise Awareness for our little Heart Babies. Simply out of the kindness and compassion of her own heart.

Christine recently made a video montage of Little Miss Ava, to help raise awareness. It's one of many beautiful and touching videos she has put together, so check it out.

Thank-you Christine!


My Montage 4/17/09

Click the picture to view the video. :)

Hoppy Easter! -a few days late. ;)

Hi all! Hope everyone had a most enjoyable Easter with their loved ones, we sure did! Super big THANK YOU'S to my Mom and Dad for hosting the annual Egg Hunt/Food Feast Easter Eggstravaganza! The kiddos had a great time and it's always nice seeing family and watching the lil kiddos(cousins) play together. :) Tons of food, tons of kids, tons of eggs, tons of fun! We are so super blessed to have such a great family!

This Easter was the first one where Ava has really showed any interest whatsoever in the whole egg hunt process. And she LOVED it! It's always fun to live holidays though your child's eyes, recapture that magic and remember what makes these holidays so special, family. The day even ended with my super talented cousin Tracie giving each kiddo a mini photoshoot! As soon as I receive those pictures they will be posted. :)

Here are a few pictures from the day, enjoy.













-Just a little sidenote: We will probably be having Ava's party the 6th of June, now. Because of everything else going on, and seeing how May 30th is during Memorial Day Weekend... ;) Keep it open!! Love you all.

UPDATE, May 4th cath date set!

Hi all! This is a photo of Miss Ava playing in boxes, and so the age old mystery of why children love boxes over the usually expensive toys that come in said boxes, continues. ;)

So as many know we heard back from the Cardiologist's office last week, but nothing was totally clear yet on what exactly was decided and why. After an extended vacation from phone calls and all consuming thoughts, we decided we needed to call back finally and hear some concise plans. So after being able to speak with the Dr. personally(we <3 Ava's Cardi!), we have learned that all involved believe it is best to first address the left pulmonary artery issue. And although Dr. Van Gundy saw narrowing in both right pulmonary arteries in the cath lab, her last lung perfusion scan taken just a couple of months ago showed that there is great flow on that side. So the focus will remain on the left side. It is also possible that by having that left pulmonary artery open, it will help with the conduit/valve leakage, though not guaranteed. So right now we are taking it one step at a time, starting with the most important.

Ava is showing no signs of fatigue or distress, at ALL. Quite the opposite, really. This girl has never been more active or crazy than now! We joke about how scary the thought is that this IS a fatigued Ava and what is she going to be like after the ballooning and how in the heck are we going to be able to keep up if we are struggling now as it is?!! ;)

Another thing I want to update loved on is the fact that Ava's THIRD(wow) Birthday is almost here and I am a busy bee starting the planning and organizing. The rain better keep itself in check this year, too! No ruining her day this year!! Invites and more info will go out later. Until then, please keep May 30th open to not only celebrate Ava's Third Birthday, but also her two open heart surgeries that both happened one week after her birth and first birthday, surgeries we will forever be grateful for, they gave us the happy, healthy little girl we know and love. :)


Ava's Birthday Invite I have Been Working On:


Her custom birthday tutu and hat(it's a tradition!) courtesy of the fabulous Kel over at Posh Party Couture:



Once I have a date set for the cath I will again update everyone. Until then, please keep the thoughts, prayers, chants and vibes a'comin her way!

Love, Ava's Mommy :)

Yet another curve ball.

So as everyone should know, yesterday was Miss Ava's heart catheter. Things, of course, did not go as expected, though...

The day started out in our casa at 4am, after mom and dad showers, we woke the diva up(brother spent the night at grammy and papa's so he could get to school), she was in a super good mood and woke up all smiles. Lucky her, after an obscene amount of caffeine I still couldn't pull that off until at least noon on a regular day. ;) We make it to UCD admissions by 5:30 and get all signed in, sent off to the 7th floor, where the front desk lady tells us we are going to have to wait in the examining room because they weren't expecting us until 7:30 and do not have a bed available yet, thanks Dr!! :P Then it's just the waiting game. They got a bed free for Ava, but once we get in here she is a screaming banshee loud(playing) mama and is disturbing her neighbor. So we moved her to the family waiting room which is the size of a matchbox but at least has a VCR and lifetime supply of toddler movies. There we waited until the anesthesiologist found us and went over what will be going on downstairs. Then we waited somemore, went back to Ava's room because the transport team would be arriving soon to take my baby down to the Cath Lab. Once they got there and we all went downstairs(Ava in Daddy's arms, he was more than happy to oblige) and into the Cath Lab halls, the main anesthesiologist came by and talked to us somemore, he was a REALLY really nice guy and he even sat and played with Ava to make her comfortable. Then came Dr. VanGundy, more playing with Ava, she was hamming it up as usual, all questions we asked and answered. We were told to expect a minimum of three hours from the time we leave for the waiting room. Then they let me go into the Cath OR with Ava while they prepare and get her ready to go, which shows my state of mind because I failed to realize that meant I would be watching them give her the sleepy gas... I will honestly probably never ever do that again.

So we get back to the waiting room, I try to read, pointless. Greg leaves to go back to the house to get my phone I forgot, and about 45minutes later, at 10:20, Dr Van Gundy comes in through the door to the lab. You instantly know something is up because he is out here MUCH too early, and a million things are running through your head. The thing I try to always focus on is how the Dr. looks, and while he didn't look thrilled(when do they ;), he also didn't look like he did the first time I met him, thank goodness. Anyways, he told me that he started the cath, got his camera up there, and saw a few more problems. First being that not only was Ava's left pulmonary artery narrow, both on the right side were, as well. Secondly, her conduit is leaking back, we already knew there was SOME leakage, but her last echo showed no sign of more, but now it's looking pretty bad. So he had to stop what he was doing, and phone up Dr. Raff(ped. card. surgeon at UCD), Raff pretty much told him to not continue with the ballooning because you can't balloon one side and not the other's and you need two technicians to balloon each side when both are bad, should there be stents instead of ballooning, and the conduit issue now needed to be addressed also. He told me he can't give me a plan for her yet, that he needs to teleconference with all UCD and UCSF drs and they would decide then the best plan for her. He apologized and talked about how he knew we were super nervous about the cath, and now...this. He told me Ava otherwise did really well, there were no *complications* and they are letting her wake up, that is should be another half hour before I could go back and see her.

Ava woke fine, after about an hour in the recovery area, we went back upstairs to her room. There we pretty much spent the next 5hours trying to hold Ava down and not let her standup, kick, situp, be a darn maniac, ETC. Elmo movies came in handy fosho. But so did visitors, Auntie Tiff and Mr. Christopher came by with STARBUCKS(my third of the day, who needs food), and visited for a bit. My Mom, Dad and LilG came by soon after with sammiches(okay, we all need food), and stayed for a bit. Ava loved her visitors!!!

Finally, we packed up and headed OUTTA there around 6pm. Not bad. Ava went straight to her room and into bed when we arrived home. It was cute. So I got her in her pj's and brushed her teefs, read a story, gave LOTS of lovins, and she was out for almost the whole night.

Today, Ava has been running around like a darn maniac! I am not sure there is anything in this world that could slow my girlie down. And I really don't want to find out. ;)


So now we wait until we hear from Dr. Van Gundy. Which should be Thursday. I will update then. Pray for the best, whatever that may be, please. :)

Pictures from the day:






















...andddd she's OUTTA here!!