HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ZOE!!!!!!!!!!!
We can't believe it's been a year. It has been the fastest and yet slowest year of our lives. I feel like I have aged 10 years but I wouldn't change a thing and neither would Jason. She is the most amazing baby. Every day there is something new and exciting she learns. Right now it is how to make fish faces and goofy snorting laughs. I remember when 9 minutes old was a big deal, and then 9 days, 9 weeks, 9 months and here we are at a year old. Zoe is a little confused by all the birthday hoopla right now. I think she is wondering what the weird song is everyone keeps singing to her, but she's loving the paper that presents come it- tastes good!!
Jason and I have been getting caught off guard with our emotions latlely. I have hardly cried this whole past year, mainly because there wasn't time to break down and Zoe needed us to be strong. We have been living in the moment for so long, not looking back too much and not looking too far into the future. Suddenly here we are, Zoe's a year old and doing so well. I am having a hard time talking about her latlely without getting totally choked up. I think the whole experience and what the three of us have been through is finally starting to sink in. I know that probably seems strange to just be dealing with emotions now, but I think it was how we needed to cope with the past year. Things could have gone so different and with all your prayers and happy thoughts here we are celebrating a big first year birthday with Zoe. Everyone that meets her is astounded by the depth of knowledge and wisdom in her eyes, I think she also knows how blessed she is to be here and she LOVES life. Nothing makes her smile more than seeing Nana and Bapa or Papa coming home from work.
Tonight we celebrated her birthday with our good friends John and Steph Viele. They are busy on the day of Zoe's big party so we went over to their house tonight and Zoe got her first birthday candle. (Actually she had half a cake with candles when she was 6 months old at my parents.) Zoe loved the paper of course and all the attention, and evern managed to get some chocolate pie in her mouth with some whipped cream. Yummy!
We are so excited for her big celebration on Saturday, there could be no better reason to celebrate-- Zoe's here!! We are looking forward to seeing everyone who has kept us going the last year and has said endless prayers for Zoe. We even have some of her nurses from Portland coming up for the big day-- they certainly helped me through some tough times.
Just some basic updates, As of August 4th, she weighed 19 pounds 6 ounces, so I am assuming she weighs close to 19 lbs. 11 oz now. She had her neurodevelopmental test last week and tested great on her fine motor skills and her cognitive ability. She is a bit behind on her gross motor skills which I could have told them, so she will be starting some physical therapy for that. Feeds are hit or miss. Sometime she does great and will eat several spoon fulls, other times she wants nothign to do with food, so we are definitley no farther ahead than we were a few weeks ago, but I'm sure we'll get there. Zoe does get her own ladybug cake for her birthday so we'll see what she does with it, whether she digs in and tastes it or just plays with it.
Thank you so much for all the support the past year, we couldn't do it without you all!!
On a side note, Zoe has a little friend who also had a CDH. His mom and I have spent a good amount of time chatting about everything we/ he babies have gone through. He just got released yesterday from Childrens Hospital and is now home at about 2.5 months old. Please send lots of prayers and love his direction- He's doing amazing but has a long road ahead of him and speaking from experience his Mama will be kept busy so send some love her way also.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to all of you for all the love!!!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZOE!!!!!!!!!!
