1 year ago

12 months gone by

One year ago today I was sitting in a hospital bed waiting for Carly to make her appearance. It seemed like she would never come! I was in and out of consciousness because of heavy pain medication I had been given and the next thing I knew I was on the operating table wondering how I missed the birth of my 5lb, 3 oz baby girl. 3 hours later I finally got to see her sweet face!{Daddy took this picture just before she was taken from the operating room so I could see a picture of her when I woke up.}

Carly was in the NICU for only a week despite being given the worst prognosis we could be given. She has surpassed every expectation that her Dr's had for her on that first day of life. Although the brain swelling had gone down at first, by week 2 it started swelling again which meant it was time for her shunt surgery. When she was 3 weeks old she had surgery to place the shunt in her brain. As you can see from the picture, she was kind of scary looking for a while.

Since surgery her shunt has worked just like it is supposed to. We go in next friday for an MRI to check it and make sure it is still working properly and check her brain function. Carly started physical therapy back in January to work on her motor skills and has been doing great! She was behind by 3-4 months when we first began and has caught up to being only 1-2 months behind now. She doesn't crawl on hands and knees yet but she can sure cruise around in her army crawl. Our goal is to have her walking by August...lets cross our fingers!

Carly is the best little girl I could ever ask for. Although there are time that she makes me want to SCREAM I still love her to pieces. She has the best laugh and is happy 95% of the time. I love hearing her say "Mama, mama, mama, mama" and "Dada, dada, dada, dada" over and over again. I love her little temper when she yells at me for not feeding her fast enough. I love her little bare bottom when she tries to get away from me while changing her diaper. I love it when she cuddles with me at night time and lays her head on my chest. I love that she thinks its funny to stick her fingers in my mouth. I love that she can play with Cayson and be with him so easily. I love her fuzzy hair that sticks up everywhere. I love that she tries to mimic the things that I say. The 5% of the time that she isn't happy I try, try, try to remember all the things that I love about her. I can't believe that 1 year has already come and gone. I am now looking foreward to year 2 and all the joys and struggles that it brings with having a 5 year old, a 1 year old and a newborn.