Blog Update!

I am terrible at keeping my blog up to date. I apologize! I have decided to make this a family blog instead of just focusing on Caelyn's health issues. That way baby Bowen doesn't feel left out. ;P
Bowen was born August 20, 2012! He is the perfect addition to our little family. He is big and chunky, and absolutely healthy! What a blessing!

Caelyn is absolutely loving her little brother. She has never shown any signs of jealousy, which is something I was worried about! She loves to kiss Bowen and pat his back to help me burp him. :)
Right before Bowen was born, Caelyn had another heart check-up in Dallas. We made the 4 hour drive (while I was 36 weeks pregnant!) to her cardiologist for an ECHO and EKG. We didn't get great news. The pulmonary valve has severe regurgitation, causing the right side of her heart to enlarge. Also, her left pulmonary artery is either kinked or not growing (the one that had been smaller at her last few checkups) so Dr. Kao wanted us to have a heart catheter done to see what is wrong with it, and possibly balloon or stent it open. We scheduled it for November 12, but Caelyn was very sick with a cold and an ear infection that she had for over two months, so we had to cancel it. We finally tried a different antibiotic that healed her ear and her cold, so we rescheduled the heart catheter for November 26. I will update when we find out what's going on. Caelyn will definitely need another open heart surgery in the future to replace the valve. We are definitely not looking forward to that.
At the end of October, we flew to Columbus, Ohio to have Caelyn evaluated at the 22q Clinic at Nationwide Children's Hospital. We had a full day of appointments on the 26th. We saw a genetics doctor, an ENT, a plastic surgeon (for her submucus cleft palate), and a speech scientist. The plastic surgeon said that Caelyn is a good candidate for not needing her cleft surgically repaired, which is an awesome thing to hear! Her speech has absolutely no nasal-y sound right now, and hopefully it stays that way. The speech doctor told us Caelyn is only mildly delayed. We are very happy with that news! While we were in Ohio, we met many other 22q families and they were all so sweet! We also drove to Cleveland to visit some of Darren's extended family. They had never met Caelyn, Bowen, and I before! We had a great trip, but we were very glad to be back home! A long trip away from home is not fun for two little babies.

                     Caelyn was an LSU cheerleader for Halloween!

                    Being silly with Mommy after her bath. :)
A few weeks ago we bought a new car. Well, it's a used one but new to us! It's a 2011 Chevrolet Traverse and we love it! Our Impala was a little small for two kids, so we wanted something bigger. We are definitely glad we went a little bigger. It's so much easier to haul two kids and a stroller, plus groceries or whatever else around. It will also make our trips to Dallas much easier.
We are very excited about the holidays coming up! We have no plans for Thanksgiving (as of right now), but hopefully we will get to enjoy some turkey somewhere! Christmas with two little ones is going to be a blast this year. I can't wait to start Christmas shopping for my little boogers! We have no idea what we are going to get them, but we've started thinking about it. We even went to Toys R Us recently to get a few ideas. Maybe this weekend we will start. :)
Well, I'm pretty sure my next update will be after Caelyn's heart catheter, so I will post again soon. Thanks for reading! Love, Ashlee, Darren, Caelyn and baby Bowen.