Rebekah Factor

We are in Charleston! After a very uneventful trip down, we arrived around 7:00 this evening. After getting supper and filling the truck, we checked into our hotel. When we got Rebekah out of her car seat, I realized that she was running a fever. Of course, we didn't have a thermometer with us, so we gave her some generic tylenol and Drew went to the nearest drugstore to get a thermometer. About an hour after we gave her the tylenol her fever was down to 99.5. I have no idea what this will do to the cath plan, but we will find out tomorrow.

We will be checking in to MUSC at 6:15 in the morning. If the cath goes ahead as scheduled, Rebekah will be first case at 7:30. I'm not sure what the plan will be if her fever goes up during the night. Right now she is very fussy and tired.

We will keep you all updated on the blog and facebook. Please pray for Rebekah; she really needs this cath to figure out a plan for lowering the pressures in her heart.

Nancy

Officially 20 months!

Rebekah has been her adorably cute self this week! It seems like every time I turn around, she is saying a new word, or trying something new. :) Since February didn't have 29 days this year, Rebekah gets to be 19 months old for another month, right? I guess not. So, it's fair to say that sometime in the last couple of days Rebekah hit the 20 month milestone.

Today was a great day in physical therapy. For various reasons, we have not been to PT in three weeks. In fact, the last time we were at PT, Rebekah was just starting to take 3-4 steps in between DeeAnn and me. What a difference three weeks can make! DeeAnn was thrilled to see Rebekah walking all over the gym! Not only was Rebekah walking, but she was climbing in and out of the ball pit, climbing onto the small trampoline, walking up the ramp to the large trampoline, and generally trying out anything she put her mind to. It is just amazing to watch her growing stronger and developing more each day!

Tomorrow Rebekah is supposed to be catching up on her 18 month shots. I called today and asked to see the doctor instead (normally we would just see the nurse for shots). Rebekah has been pulling, poking and generally messing with her ears more the last two or three days, and I want to make sure the ear infection from last week is cleared up. Especially since we are heading for Charleston this weekend.

Thankfully, I think we have all gotten rid of the cold that we seemed to be sharing for the last few weeks. Except for the occasional cough, there are no signs of that cold bug anywhere in the house! I guess Lysol and fresh air did the trick! :)

I have some (hopefully) super-cute pictures and some more videos to download from my camera. I've been procrastinating because there is so much video that I know it's going to take quite a while to download. Maybe actually writing it will be a motivation for me to download it so I can post some new picture and video on the blog. :)

Hope you are all having a great week! I can't believe it's half over. Yikes! I have too much to do in the next three days!!

Nancy

Happy Saturday!

I'm happy to say that I think we are all on the mend at our house! What a crazy couple of weeks of being sick! Rebekah ended up having an ear infection before all was said and done, but she is feeling much better now after a few days of antibiotics. Please pray that Rebekah (and the rest of us!) stay well between now and next week!

We received "official" papers in the mail this week regarding Rebekah's heart catheterization. I know it's been scheduled for months, but it always makes it seem more real when we get the official paperwork. I still don't know what time Rebekah's cath is scheduled, but I'm hoping that it's first case. Last March Rebekah was scheduled for 2nd case (11:00) and the first case went long. It was between 1:00 and 2:00 when she finally got back for her case. We also don't know what to expect from the case itself. The last cath Rebekah had was strictly exploratory. This time, there will be procedures done, if there is anything that can be done to help relieve Rebekah's high pressures. As of the last discussion our cardiologist here had with the surgeon, Dr. Bradley did not really think there would be anything that could be done in the cath lab to relieve the pressure, but they will be checking. Dr. Baker will be the doctor doing the cath. He has done all of Rebekah's caths so far.

In other (great!!) news, Rebekah has tested out of occupational therapy!! We love Rebekah's OT, but are thrilled that Rebekah has made such great progress in just 18 months. When we looked back at Rebekah's goals from last April, there were things such as "clap hands" and "roll over" listed for her goals. Now, Rebekah is almost age-appropriate in every area. We are so thankful for our great therapists and their hard work with Rebekah. We're pretty proud of our little superstar, too! Rebekah has so much determination and desire to do more. She rarely lets anything slow her down!

Rebekah's speech is exploding by the minute! I'm going to attempt to list words and phrases that Rebekah says. I'm sure there are words that I'm forgetting, but even so, it's getting to be a long list!

Words Rebekah Says

mommy

daddy

zac (sounds like gac)

justin (ju-in)

aaron (sounds like "hen" without the "h")

caleb (sounds a lot like bubba)

baby

up (means up or down)

please (peese)

thank you (ga-ooo)

eye

bye

night-night (ni-night)

apple

buckle

bubble

outside (side)

drop it

got it

all done

love you

grampy (sounds like bampy)

grammy

dog (woof-woof, yep she barks for dog)

nana

papa

uncle david (day-ya)

no

look

potty (this one compliments of potty-training Caleb!)

Words Rebekah Signs

play

eat

milk

yes

no

jump

ball

cookie

please

Rebekah's receptive language is astounding. Even though she can't say a lot of the words, she can recognize most common animals (pets and farm animals), almost all her colors, and most of her toys. We're working on her choosing between two or three things. For example, if she has a doll, a ball and a book in front of her, we ask her to pick up the ball correctly the first time.

Rebekah is really walking all over the place now! She is walking at least half of the time without prompting. We are so excited that she is getting stronger and more stable. What a miracle this little girl is!

The other night at dinner, Aaron was playing with Rebekah. He was holding his nose and snorting, so this is Rebekah's attempt at holding her nose and snorting. I thought it was so funny! Then Rebekah shows off her knowledge of body parts. See? Even though she doesn't say the words for all of those things, she knows what they are and can point to them.

Better get some Saturday chores done now. Hope you all enjoy this beautiful weekend!!

Nancy

Surprise!!

Our little super star is walking!!!!

Thought that might be a nice surprise for a Monday morning! :)

Nancy

Quick Update

Just to quickly let all of you know that the colds continue. :( All of us have in one way or another been sick with this round of colds. The current status is: Zachary and Justin appear to be over, or mostly over, the colds; Aaron and Caleb are somewhere in the middle with runny noses and occasional coughs; Rebekah still has some runny nose, and has developed more of a cough. I also detected some wheezing in both lungs tonight when I listened to her breathing. So far she is managing well with only a slight drop in her oxygen saturations. Normally she sats in the mid-90's on room air, and at 100% on oxygen. Tonight she was 91-92% on room air and about 97% on oxygen. We will continue to watch her, but unless she takes a drastic turn for the worse, we are much better off at home than at a doctor's office or hospital!!

Mom and Dad are feeling pretty rough tonight. I have been fighting cold/allergies/sinus symptoms for a few weeks now, and I think this last round was enough to knock me out. I'm planning on getting to the doctor tomorrow if I can get an appointment. Drew is also not feeling well, and we would both appreciate your prayers.

Thankfully, even though many of our friends and church family have been battling the flu, our sickness appears to just be a bad head cold. No one has had fevers, headaches, or body aches that are associated with the flu.

Also, please be praying that Rebekah recovers sufficiently from this cold before we head to Charleston in two weeks (2 weeks!!) for her heart catheterization. Given the seriousness of her pulmonary hypertension, this heart cath is not something that we want to delay if at all possible. I'm not sure what the threshold of "sick" versus "too sick" for a heart cath is, but we don't want to be anywhere near that!

And to throw out a little teaser, I have an exciting video to post of Rebekah...tomorrow! I haven't gotten it downloaded from the camera yet, but I will get it done tomorrow. :)

Thanks for praying!

Nancy