Thankful

I woke up one morning finding Nadia standing in her Crib just smiling away at me..... this is huge because that shows me how strong she is and that means her Heart must be Happy!

She is sitting up without any support and can Balance her self pretty well too... that literally happened over night!

My Lord she has the best personality and it's days like these that i am so thankful God send me this special Angel!!

Have a Great Weekend

Haha

She Loves Music

Sitting up all by her self ...

Standing up by her self!!!

Can you see her Tiny Teeth ???? I love them!!!

Ein Herz und eine Seele

My little Doll

Tommy rather took the Picture that being in it

My Handsome Boy

Justin leaving food for the reindeer's

I love my Babies !

Happy New Year/ Nadia said her first word

I can't believe it is already a new year!! All though we have been threw allot last year it was still a good year for us and i am looking forward to a even better year this year!!

Our Christmas was wonderful and we actually went to a new year's eve party in Louisiana that fallowed a Baptism that was also Great.. we had low key new years eve party's in the past... so i was really excited about a Big Party!

I was a little nervous about taking Nadia out of town and her being around people but i managed to stay calm and ask people as nice as possible to wash or sanitize their hands before holding her ... most of our Family know about her condition so i didn't even had to ask allot!

Nadia spilled out her first word just a few days ago.... can u guess what it was???

It wasn't Mama that's for sure... LOL it was Dada ... the cutest Dada i have ever heard in my life !!! Tommy was rubbing it in my face all day long... I remember Justin's first word was Teta which stands for Grandma in Arabic...so none of them did say mama and Tommy just thinks it's the funniest thing ever!!

Nadia is really smart... i have thought her a couple of things... how to twist her hand from side to side while i sing a popular Baby Song in Arabic and when she does something she is not suppose to do like pulling my hair which she loooovvvvveeeeeeeeessss doing i tell her "dide dide" which stands for That's a No No while pointing my fingers at her then she does point her finger back at me and screams out loud.. as if she is telling me " I can do what ever i want to" ...DIVA!!! LOL

Her sitting up had improved allot but i can't leave her yet knowing she will be fine!

I am in a Happy Place right now i have to say that i missed feeling that way... Praying it will stay this way! :)

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Nadia's first two Teeth

First of all i can Officially say that Nadia is Off the Feeding Tube..since my last Post were i decided to stop feeding her threw the tube she had done really well and gained 10 ounces !

She looks so pretty without the tube sticking out of her nose.. i know she can't tell me in words how she feels but i can tell she is much happier without it !!

A Couple of weeks ago i discovered that Nadia developed her first bottom tooth.... i got sooo excited because for some reason i thought she will get them really late! Shortly after... her second tooth came out!

She is learning to sit up as well without any support... she is doing great but didn't fully figure out how to sit up longer then 10 seconds without falling over... i posted some pictures of her sitting up and i tried to take some pictures of her tiny teeth but they are just way to little!!

Besides that... everything is going great she sleeps threw the night which is great for me and is just a happy strong Baby!

Justin still loves Preschool and is soon starting a Hip Hop class...he is quite a dancer :) Can't wait to see how he will do!

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She defiantly has an opinion

... and a attitude

Ready for the Winter

Posing

enjoying the Christmas Tree

Sitting up for the first time

She thinks her talking Dog is hilarious

I can't help but Laugh with her when she laughs!

How about you? Can you keep a straight Face??

My little Model

Reaf's open Heart Surgery

Reaf's Surgery went really well!! I sat with Ashley and Scott for a couple of hours to get there mind of things!

I sat with them until they got a update from the OR Team.. they said that they are closing up Reaf.. in that moment i just thought ok i am not even worried he will be out in a week... sure enough he was out 5 days later!! What a Fighter!!!

Isn't he a Cutie ???

I never mentioned in any of my Posts what happened and how it was sitting as a parent of a patient in that waiting room... waiting anxiously for a update!!

Have u ever been worked up over a test u are about to take????

Then you know how nauseated, lightheaded and anxious you can get.. how fast you Heart suddenly beats.. imagine feeling that way and then multiplied times 100.... yes that bad!!!

Well while i was feeling that way i remember the Update call when they had told us that everything is going well and that they should be done in a couple of hours.. i was preparing my self sitting in the waiting room for 6-8 hours because that is what they have told us... that it could take that long!

Hour and a half after that update Dr.Bichell came out and when i saw him coming to talk to us..i could swear that my Heart stopped beating for a good minute! All i thought was..WHY is he not in the OR Fixing my Baby's Heart.. he can not be done! No way!!

But he was... and when it only took Reaf 2 hours i knew he will do just as good!!

His Mommy told me yesterday that poor Reaf developed a Hernia and that they will be back in Nashville January to fix it! But Hey Reaf mastered Open Heart surgery..pretty sure this will be a breeze!!

Still every prayer is appreciated

We don't need to go back to see the cardiologist until Feb of next Year......

So how exciting is that?? We had an appointment this past week and we did a chest x ray and vitals of course.

Dr. Kavanaugh was really happy with her.. her Heart still doesn't pump or squeeze as well as she wanted it to be but she wants to give her Heart some time to recover from all the work it was doing before with pumping blood threw the small shunt.... with the Glenn Operation a Hugh amount of work was taking of her Heart ...so hopefully we will see some improvement within the next 6 month!! Also for now... Nadia is of the tube..we had some big issues with her gaging all the time and spitting up... then on night i said NO MORE!! I took the tube out and said to Nadia " You can do it without the tube"...

It was really hard for the first few nights because i had to wake up every 1 -2 to feed her because she was just taking 30 - 50 ml at a time...

during the day i feed her with the spoon and at night she doesn't have a problem sucking the whole bottle she just won't do it very often when she is awake.. on the 30th i have another appointment at her pediatrician and if she had gained some weight i can finally breath and not worry about the Tube anymore... so all fingers crossed please!!!!

Nadia is enjoying her Christmas tree very much she could stare at it for hours... i am so excited to celebrate Nadia's first Thanksgiving and X-mas... this Thanksgiving is really special to me because i am truly thankful for how everything turned out ... i did wonder allot of times why this is happening to us...but seeing Nadia smile makes sense to everything we have been threw!

I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving

Home Sweet Home

So sorry i didn't update my blog .. my laptop crashed on me the last day at the Hospital...

We came Home yesterday and my little Angel is doing really good... She is such a Fighter so strong!

We were supposed to come Home Monday but Nadia developed a slight fever and we had to do all the blood work and culture tests to rule out an infection!

Everything came back clear and the only thing that was in our way was to place an IV to pull out the RA Line that was placed in her belly... as far as i understood the RA line went around her Heart...so we defiantly needed a working IV just in case Nadia would require a blood transfusion which isn't very common but better safe then sorry...Placing an IV is and always was very hard to do on Nadia....we had 8 different people try there best to place one and each tried at least twice.....it was horrible but we finally had one working IV in her forehead that Nadia pulled out the last day we were there..Ouch i know..but it wasn't the first time she had done that!!!

Besides that our stay at the Hospital was very Positive... sitting here on our couch with Nadia sleeping so peacefully beside me makes the last week look so surreal ...like it never happened!!

Our new Goal is to wean her of that stupid Tube!! I let you know how that goes! ;)

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Right after surgery

Later that Night

Uncle Chris visiting the next day

she wasn't very swollen!

3rd day looking better already

3rd day still very sleepy

4th day back to playing with her favorite toy (yes her tube)

Halloween... most of the nurses were dressed up.. Nadia wasn't sure if she liked it or not :)

Justin wanted her to be Tinker bell for Halloween

Ready to go back Home

Update on Nadia

My little Fighter is doing really good.... her swelling is completely gone and pain has lessened too...no more morphine... well not until they have to take the chest tubes which are coming out tomorrow! By the way ...we are going to the 6th Floor!!! YAY

She played today a little and is eating as well ...more then what she was eating at home!!

We got some special visitors today!!!

The group Rascal Flatts visited all the Vandy Children and handed out gifts for them for Halloween... they personally introduced them selfs to us... they seem really nice..i have to admit i never heard of them until today!!! I know I know shame on me!! Everybody else seemed to know them... they also held a little concert for all the Cancer patient ...so sweet.... i didn't even think about getting a picture with them but we did get a Autograph!

The Vanderbilt Children's Hospital is a great Hospital they truly care about their little Patients! They always make sure there is lots to do for their little ones especially in Holidays like these.. There are bunch of activities going on today until Sunday... Sunday they do a reverse Trick or Treat were they hand out Goodie bags and let the staff go from room to room handing out Toys ( Not Candy )...That is so thoughtful.. i am sure all the kids who understand what Halloween is about will be thrilled!!

Everyone knows how much I hate Hospital food and i really don't understand why most of the food you can grab in a Hospital is a bunch of unhealthy junk like Taco Bell, Pizza Hut & Mac D's .. i think they only should have Healthy Fresh food in a Hospital.. most of people end up in the Hospital because of all their unhealthy food habits!!!

Well anyway......i got a special Treat from my Friend/Cousin in law/ Sister today... she lives all the way in Louisiana but made sure i won't have to eat the same food over and over again!! Which is Subway the only place i actually feel good about eating!!

So she send me a delicious Salad, a Cali croissant, Tortilla soup and a cheesecake(it's ok sometimes) :) from Jason's Cafe enough to feed 10 People... but that's just Rosa!! The more the better right??

Love you & Thank you so much!!

Thanks for all your Prayers i will keep you updated