Just wanted to quickly share....

A momma who is expecting a baby with CDH is due to deliver in a few days and she made this to help her family understand the cause and effect of CDH. Though it's been almost 2 years since Scarlette was born, I felt like this would be something very helpful in understanding what our baby girl went through once she was born. Scarlette has or previously had 10 of the conditions listed under symptoms if baby is not stable.....just crazy!

PLEASE VOTE FOR CHERUBS IN THE VIVINT GIVES BACK CONTEST!

It so important for everyone to vote daily! This charity supports babies who are born with the same condition Scarlette was born with: congenital diaphragmatic hernia. If we win this contest, 1.25 MILLION dollars will be awarded to CHERUBS who will then split it up between helping financially struggling families pay for medical bills for their cherubs, research, CDH awareness and so much more! CHERUBS currently operates on just $35,000 annually, barely enough to help a few families. Please help this charity get the funding and publicity it deserves. It would mean so much to Scarlette and my family!

It's a GIRL! Introducing Savannah Faythe!

Yep! Scarlette's getting a little sister. We found out on Wednesday. Boy, was Mitch shocked. He swore up and down that this baby was a boy! We also found out that are prayers have been answered and Savvy is PERFECTLY healthy and still measuring about a week ahead! I am so excited to have two princesses to spoil, Mitch was a little leery at first b/c all he was seeing is dollar signs, but I think he's warming up to the idea! The most important thing to both of us is that our baby girl is healthy!!!!! Praise God!

June 8 and August 18

These are the only two dates this summer that really really matter. One is happy, the other scary. Actually, terrifying. But still, not only a necessity, but a blessing.

On June 8, just two days from now we get to find out what little peanut is: boy or girl! But more importantly than that, this ultrasound will be able to rule out MOST medical problems/birth defects, and tell us whether or not this baby is healthy. When I was going in for Scarlette's big ultrasound, I had NO idea there was going to be an issue. I couldn't sleep the night before, I was just SO excited to find out what she was. I just knew, just KNEW that she was a boy, and couldn't wait to celebrate with Mitch and my mom who was in town visiting. I not only was SHOCKED to hear that she was a girl, but also that there was a "potential" problem. We got very little information at that appointment, but we did find out that it "looked like" her stomach was on the wrong side of her body, and could we come back for a level II ultrasound the next day? At that point, I didn't know what to think. I had never even considered there could be a medical issue. I thought this u/s was something to celebrate. I tried to be happy, but of course I was extremely nervous for my sweet little girl. As we now broach that milestone again, I am super excited to find out who this little baby is, and what his/her name is going to be, but now I have fear mixed in with those feelings of excitement. I pray that this baby is 100% completely healthy, and I will feel so much better getting these fears put to rest on Wednesday. I just pray that God's plan for us is to have a healthy happy baby boy or girl that can be a playmate to Scarlette and help encourage her to push forward as she continues to learn to sit, crawl, and walk and anything else she might take on during her lifetime.

August 18 is Scarlette's heart surgery. I'm terrified. No other surgery have I felt so nervous and out of control for. I feel that it may have to do with the fact that I'm pregnant and my hormones are completely out of sync, but this surgery is something I'm just not looking forward to. Any time your baby is put under anaesthesia it's scary. And ANY time they have something done to their body that's going to take some healing it's hard. It isn't like her surgeries have been minor: CDH repair at 10 weeks is totally invasive, cleft palate repair involves grafting/burning cheek skin into the roof of the mouth, and her g-tube placement required them cutting through her abdominal wall into her stomach and placing a FOREIGN object in her belly, as well as taking a piece of her stomach and wrapping it around her esophagus to tighten the sphincter for the fundoplication. That is not having your appendix/gallbladder/kidney stone/wisdom teeth removed. These are MAJOR surgeries. But none of them involved cracking open her rib cage, putting her on a heart-lung bypass machine, and stopping her heart so they can repair the hole that's in it. (Can you see why it's scary?) I am praying for peace, I am praying for strength, I am praying that it works out perfectly, and that she comes out of it healed and stronger than ever. But right now, I just want it to be over and done with. I know God has an amazing plan for Scarlette, I know it's even bigger than I can see. But sometimes, I just wish He didn't give her quite so many obstacles to overcome, and I wish I could take her place so she doesn't have to go through that pain.

Heart Surgery...

Today was our Children's appointment for both dental and cardio. We got interesting news at both. At dental, we were told that Scarlette has something called Enamel Hypoplasia on one of her teeth. This is NOT a cavity. This basically means that during tooth formation one of her teeth did not form the enamel that makes a tooth appear nice, white and smooth so it looks pitted with grooves in it and looks like tooth decay. Instead of extraction, the dentist wants to monitor her tooth for the next three months and then fill it in, much like a cavity, when the tooth comes in fully. We are relieved that she does not need to have it pulled and glad that so far it appears that it is just this one tooth.

After this, we went up to cardio. We had seen cardio at our military hospital in February and they had mentioned that surgery was imminent but not for a year or so. Scarlette's pediatric surgeon felt that this call should be made by the cardiac surgeon, rather than a doctor that has nothing to do with the surgery being performed. After we finally got the approval to go to Children's to see the cardiologist there, we finally got an appointment today! Yes, it took four months to get through all the red tape LOL! After speaking with the cardiologist there, who had a copy of her most recent ultrasounds and EKG's, she said there was absolutely no reason for us to wait any longer, and that Scarlette should be getting the surgery sooner rather than later. She did say that her growth has been great and that we can go on our vacation in July as planned. So for now Scarlette's heart surgery has been scheduled for early August. We will be in the hospital for a minimum of a week. They do have to do it open instead of laparoscopic which is scary but I know she is in the Lord's hands! We will need lots of prayer warriors during that time!!!! <3

Love,

the Skrove's

Surgery....this is a vent!

Why does everything with Scarlette always result in surgery. There is never an "easy" fix with her. And usually the solutions are only found after lots and lots of appointments that get us nowhere. A couple weeks ago we saw the ENT docs b/c Scarlette's ear tube fell out. They mentioned that Scarlette's tonsils are abnormally large, and usually that is accompanied by large adenoids. They think that this is the cause of Scarlette's severe congestion/mouth breathing etc and that if it persisted we should consider a tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy. We hoped it wouldn't come to that and mentioned it to the allergist but she also felt it was anatomical rather than allergies. Today, Scarlette's feeding therapist said that it's become so much work for her to breathe that it's inhibiting her eating, making it impossible for her to eat by mouth comfortably. She also recommended the procedure to be done to aid in feeding and speech development. SO now we are adding ANOTHER surgery onto our plate. Ideally they would like to group as many surgeries together as possible so Scarlette won't have to be sedated as often.

They are hoping the first surgery will consist of: her tooth being pulled, her inguinal hernias being repaired and her tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy. Her second surgery will just be cardiac, they don't really want to piggyback on to heart surgery (understandably so!)

I am just tired of ALL her issues having to be surgically fixed, I wish we could just give her medicine and her congestion could go away. I get that her anatomy is slightly different but still, where is my magic wand to wave all of this away!!!

Here's a pic of my stuffy, snorty little bugger!

Heartbeats and Allergies!

This week we only had two appointments (I know, hard to believe!) in addition to SJ's therapies. The first was a trip to the OB to check on Baby S and see whether we need to stick with a doctor or can continue with an RN. For now they would like us to stick with seeing a doctor which is totally fine, whatver is best for baby! So far I am measuring right on target and haven't gained any weight. The baby's heartbeat was in the high 140's which according to some myths could mean it's a boy (hey 50/50 chance isn't bad!)!! We go back in 3 weeks for another heartbeat check and measure, and then on June 8 we get to find out the sex of the baby and then we will tell everyone the name we have picked out!

Our second appointment was to see Scarlette's allergist, and unfortunately was much more disappointing. We were hoping that some of Scarlette's allergies had gone away but instead we gained more! We now know for certain she is allergic to all dairy, soy, eggs, peanuts, and a 75% chance she's still allergic to wheat. She is also allergic to dogs. We forgot to test for shellfish and grass, but the only thing we did test that was negative was dust mites which is great! I am very allergic to dust mites, pollen, grass, all things natural pretty much, and also dogs and cats (but tolerable) but no foods and Mitch is only allergic to cats. We are still holding out hope that she will eventually outgrow some of these allergies. It's not unheard of to outgrow them at 2, 3 or 4 years of age even, so now we just wait and see! Unfortunately this means she needs to remain on the formula she is currently eating, and we can't switch to a shelf stable drink like ensure or vital jr. Just means more mixing bottles for Mommy!

Tomorrow is my cousin's baby shower and we are very excited to go see everyone and celebrate her new baby due in July!