So tonight as I was sitting here holding Miss Karter Bear I was overwhelmed with emotions. Over the last few weeks my faith has certainly been tested and as I sat here tonight I just kept asking myself and the Lord why did this happen? Why has my sweet girl started out her precious life with so many obstacles to overcome? Did I do something to cause all of this? And that is when she woke up looked directly at me and squeezed my finger with her tiny hand....at that moment I felt nothing but peace. Her little eyes seem to tell a story of her own, instead of feeling sorry for her I should be thankful that she is here and that the Lord has given her to us to share with the world. There are so many other things that could have been wrong and there are a lot of other families out there that are dealing with more pain than I could ever imagine. Karter is going to be alright, she is going to live a life that is going to be amazing. I can not believe that at such a young age that she is already teaching me. As a parent you feel as if you should be teaching your children, that you are the teacher and that they are a learner. Both of my girls have shown me that this concept is definitely not true. Addison & Karter teach me new things everyday. In fact I think that they have taught Jeremy and I more than we have even taught them. Addison is a true example of unconditional, unselfish love. She has taken Karter into our home as if she has always been apart of our family. She has not once been jealous of her sister and in some way I know that she already knows that Karter is a very special baby. She is just remarkable. So with all of this all I can say is that the Lord works in mysterious ways and tonight he touched my heart through our special angel. There will be no more tears of sorrow for me but instead tears of joy!
God Bless!
Tara McHam
Monday, May 17, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Everyday is a new day!
Wow! I can not believe that Karter is already a month old! To start off I would like to say that she is doing WONDERFUL!!! Addison is still obsessed with her baby sister and continues to kiss her about a trillion times a day! It is truly remarkable to see how much she already loves her little sister.
So since our last update Karter has had a few doctors appointments. Her ENT appointment to test her ears did not go as we would have hoped. They did both tests on her little ears and sadly came back with poor results. On a baby that has good hearing they can hear from 75 to 25 decimals with 75 being the highest. Karter could barley hear on a 75 decimal in both ears. In Tyler they can only test for high frequency hearing so they have decided to send us back to Children's to retest her high frequency hearing and the low frequency hearing. We will go in July to test both of her ears again and from there we will be able to determine our next step and properly fit her for any hearing devices she may need. Since we are catching her hearing loss so soon we will be able to work with a speech therapist and hopefully prevent any speech impairments.
On another note at our last weight check Karter weighed 6lbs 1oz!!! Due to this she does not have to go back for another one for two weeks!!! Her oxygen and heart rate were also great. So our next major appointment will be in Dallas with her pediatric cardiac surgeon on May 25th for a check up. We will then get her first set of shots on the 28th, she will only be 6 weeks old at this time but they are doing them early in order to get in as many sets of shots as they can before her surgery.
Over these last few weeks I can not even descibe how much our hearts have been touched by the generosity of people. We have meet so many new people that have heard about Karter's journey and have just called or written to say hi, and even received a few blankets and trinkets from others. We have even learned how much people around us truly care. It is amazing to me how many lives have been touched by our little angel. So as I leave out tonight I would just like to say that the power of prayer is amzaing and we hope that everyone will continue lifting our precious baby girl up to the Lord.
God is great!
The McHams
So since our last update Karter has had a few doctors appointments. Her ENT appointment to test her ears did not go as we would have hoped. They did both tests on her little ears and sadly came back with poor results. On a baby that has good hearing they can hear from 75 to 25 decimals with 75 being the highest. Karter could barley hear on a 75 decimal in both ears. In Tyler they can only test for high frequency hearing so they have decided to send us back to Children's to retest her high frequency hearing and the low frequency hearing. We will go in July to test both of her ears again and from there we will be able to determine our next step and properly fit her for any hearing devices she may need. Since we are catching her hearing loss so soon we will be able to work with a speech therapist and hopefully prevent any speech impairments.
On another note at our last weight check Karter weighed 6lbs 1oz!!! Due to this she does not have to go back for another one for two weeks!!! Her oxygen and heart rate were also great. So our next major appointment will be in Dallas with her pediatric cardiac surgeon on May 25th for a check up. We will then get her first set of shots on the 28th, she will only be 6 weeks old at this time but they are doing them early in order to get in as many sets of shots as they can before her surgery.
Over these last few weeks I can not even descibe how much our hearts have been touched by the generosity of people. We have meet so many new people that have heard about Karter's journey and have just called or written to say hi, and even received a few blankets and trinkets from others. We have even learned how much people around us truly care. It is amazing to me how many lives have been touched by our little angel. So as I leave out tonight I would just like to say that the power of prayer is amzaing and we hope that everyone will continue lifting our precious baby girl up to the Lord.
God is great!
The McHams
Saturday, May 1, 2010
The roller coaster ride continues....
Mine and Addison's first attempt at taking Karter's picture! :)
So our first real week home has been incredible. Karter is such an awesome baby! She is though just that a baby....so yes we are exhausted. We have to keep a rigorous schedule of feeding her every three hours due to her weight, which means that we have our alarm clocks set up to remind us every three hours that we need to feed her. She already would probably sleep a good five hours at night if she did not have to be woken up to eat. This week has been full of doctors appointments! On Monday we went and did a weight check and she weighed 5lbs 11oz which was up from her last weight check. So hopefully we will keep that trend of gaining weight! We also meet with the special needs nurse on Monday and she was so much help to Jeremy and I! She was full of information for the both of us that will hopefully help us along this journey with Karter.
On Wednesday we went to the audiologist/ Ear Nose and Throat doctor to have her hearing tested since they did not test it at either hospital. Her test came back negative/inconclusive. The doctor was not able to get a response out of either ear. This could mean several different things. First of children with Trisomy 21 (downs) are known to have small ear canals and due to that they can hold fluid in their ears several weeks after birth. This fluid could have caused the unresponsiveness in her ears. We go back this coming week to be retested and if she can not get a responsive through her general test then we will be tested a second way which is a little more complicated but can yield better results for us to get a more accurate picture of what she can and can not hear. We are still praying that the unresponsiveness was due to the fluid and that she does have full hearing capacity.
On Friday we went to the endocrinologist which is a genetic doctor to asses everything about Karter. When we got there they took all sorts of measurements and asked me about a hundred questions on my pregnancy and our family history's. She then went over everything that I needed to know about Downs and how a child can obtain the extra 21st chromosome that causes down syndrome. During this time I did learn that about 95% of children with downs have a type of downs that is very random meaning that neither parent contains any other factor that may attribute to Down Syndrome. The other 5% of children that get Trisomy 21 have a type that is still random but one of their parents may contain a small glitch in their chromosomes that can attribute to their children having down syndrome. She was still waiting on the chromosome report from Children's to analyze so that she could tell us what kind of down syndrome Karter has. Once these tests are in and analyzed we will be sure to post a more detailed report.
We also found out on Friday that Karter's new born state report came back with some more abnormalities. The state requires that all children are tested for certain things right after birth. One of these things is Cystic Fibrosis. Karter had an elevated Trypsinogen level which is relevant in children with Cystic Fibrosis. Therefore we had to be retested for this elevation on Friday at the hospital. Although it was elevated there is still hope that it could be nothing, for a lot of infants have an elevated level on their first screening which is why we were required to do a second screening to check to see if the elevation was still relevant. PLEASE pray that her next test comes back with good news and shows no elevation. The results for this test can take almost ten days to come back so as soon as we know we will re-post more information!
To say the least this week has been an up and down week. I am generally happy that we are home but all of these doctors appointments have took a toll on my emotions. I just dread it when the doctor comes in and says the word "well" because most of the time that means that they are about to lay some bad news on you. I am so tired of bad news!!! I am trying to concentrate on all of the positives...such as her being home and maintaining an excellent oxygen level, gaining weight, sleeping well, and other great strides that she has made to postponing her heart surgery! The longer we can wait the better chance that they will be able to repair everything at once with no complications. We go back to the doctor Monday for another check-up on her weight and oxygen level so I just pray for good news then!
We ask that you continue to pray now for not only her heart but also for her hearing and Cystic Fibrosis test. I know that the good Lord will see us through all of this and with your prayers I just know we can create miracles. Karter is going to touch and teach everyone she meets! She was given to us to change this world one person at a time; she already has touched so many hearts and led many people back to the Lord through prayer. She generally is our little angel!
Love,
The McHams
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