Now...on to Christmas

We took Lia back to Children's yesterday for her post op appointment. The staff (we know them all quite well now) just oohed and awed over Lia. Her big smile and pink cheeks just reel them all in. She checked out fantastically. Her o2 sats are now running in the 80's instead of the 70's. She's gained weight since they saw her last and were impressed with that. They ran some labwork and did a chest xray and everything looked great. Basically, she's perfect. Now we can concentrate on the task at hand...Christmas.

Cards are ordered, but not in. Presents are bought, but not wrapped. It's time to buckle down and get some things done. I'm sure it will all get done. Honestly, I'm fine if it's not perfect this year. We've never had more to be happy about or thankful for. This is going to be the best Christmas ever. We hope you all have a wonderful one, too.

Santa Baby

We're counting down the days til Christmas here at the Stone house. Lia is finally acting more like her mommy than ever. She's decided she's more interested in eating than sleeping. Before her last surgery, she definitely favored sleeping over eating (which sounds more like her daddy). Our girl has gained almost 1 lb in one week! She's up to 12 lbs and 6 1/2 ounces. She's just about doubled her volume of eating. Like I told someone this morning...it's amazing what an improved cardiac output does for a person's appetite. Anyway, we're just hanging out here recovering and getting ready to get to spend Christmas with the rest of our family. We'll let you all know how her post-op appointment goes this Thursday...

There's No Place Like Home

Lia got to come home this afternoon! She is swinging in her swing as we speak...she really missed her swing. She got home just in time for us to build the first fire of the winter. The boys were thrilled to see her and we were excited to get her home again. She's off her oxygen and eating well. We'll go to some follow up appointments in the next few weeks and then we will begin living the rest of our lives. We can't begin to express to you all how blessed we feel. She's done so well. Thank You again for all of the prayers...he has been listening all this time.

Look How Busy I Am!

Lia continues to do well at Children's. We are 4 days into our stay and she is getting close to being able to go home. They are adjusting some of her medications and she can't quite decide to stay off her oxygen all the time so it may be a day or two longer. She is still smiling her awesome smile to everyone she meets. We thought we were going to get to meet some of the Dallas Cowboys this morning, but ended up down in the echo dept while they were here. Miss Lia was definitely disappointed to miss that chance (but not as sad as her mommy). She was decked out in pink Cowboys gear just in case. She did, however, get a chance to visit with Santa yesterday. I'm amazed at all the cool stuff Children's does for these kiddos. Imagine how cool it was for all those little boys who got to hang out with Jason Whitten and Marion Barber this morning. Have I mentioned that I'm really sad to have missed it??? We did manage to snap some cute pics of Lia with all her pink Cowboys stuff.

Guess what? Lia's decided she does like to eat! We have seen the biggest change in her eating. I guess she just feels that much better. This surgery took some of the workload off her heart and she must be feeling it. She had to be sedated for her echo this morning and was fussy because they made her go without food for several hours. I'm so used to having to force-feed her every few hours...it's been a nice change.

That's all I've got for ya...we're just hanging out and trying to get her home. It shouldn't be much longer now. Thanks again for all the messages, calls, and texts...we love hearing from you guys. Keep praying...no need to stop now.

More miracles...

What a great day!!! Lia is so amazing. She's done so well, impressing everyone she comes in contact with. I'm watching her sleep soundly and comfortably in her bed here at Children's as we speak. We were moved out of the CVICU this afternoon and onto the stepdown cardiac floor where we've been before. She is flashing her beautiful smile to anyone who will give her any attention up here. That's plenty of smiles...she gets attention from lots of people. She already looks so much stronger than she did before. It's amazing, because she looked so good to me before this surgery. I mean, she's just done so well from the beginning. We realize as we look around this hospital how blessed we've been.

A hospital that only takes care of children is a hard place to be as a parent. Especially when your own child is staying there. Everywhere you look, you are reminded of what some other parent is having to endure, of what you could possibly have to endure yourself. I know that people who know what Corey and I and our family are going through think to themselves..."How are they getting through this? How can they possibly get through their day?" I know that because I've been there. I've thought the same of families after hearing stories or listening to the prayer requests at church. I work in the neonatal intensive care unit so of course I've seen parents suffer beyond what I ever thought I'd have to. I've learned a few things in the past ten months. I've learned what it's like to have no control over a situation. I've learned what real terror is. I've learned what it feels like to truly fear for the life of your child. I've also learned what it's like to lean on a support system you never even knew existed. We've always known we have a great family, lots of incredible friends, and jobs filled with wonderful people. Even though we have always been somewhat aware of that, we could never have been prepared for what you all have done for us.

Most importantly, we've learned how to completely lean on our God. When faced with something of this magnitude, you realize quickly that you have no choice. You have no choice but to get on your knees and beg for a miracle. That's exactly what he's done for us... for all of us. He's given us what we've asked for. We are so blessed.

Whew...Two down, one to go!

Hey everyone!!! Well, Lia did great yesterday! We let her go with the OR staff through those scary doors around 9:15 or so. They called us with the first update that they were starting surgery around 10:15. Throughout the surgery they updated us periodically when they were doing different things. That is so helpful. Anyway, she was finished about 2:00 and we spoke to Dr. Forbess. He is so amazing! He was very pleased with how things went. They brought Lia through the hall outside the ICU so we could see her before they got her settled in. She looked so wonderful and pink! They were able to get her off the breathing machine soon after that. Our favorite nurses in the CVICU took care of her after surgery. It was so nice to see all our friends up there. I think the nurses might be fighting over the chance to take care of "Princess Lia". Corey and I were able to leave for the night while my mom stayed with her. We were able to see the boys and get some rest. I braced myself for a phone call at some point during the night. After this particular surgery, they say the babies suffer from a huge "headache" because of the change in the circulation from the big vein that drains the blood from the head and neck. It made me sick to think she might be hurting like that and that we wouldn't be able to hold her because of all her lines. So I was ready to hear about how hard her night was...

This morning I called mom and she said Lia had a fantastic night! She said she woke up and ate well (what? she's never been much of an eater...) and that she wasn't fussy at all. They had given her some pain medicine every three hours or so and I'm sure that helped. Then I checked my email and Josclyn (our nurse) had sent me an email to tell me how great her night had been. She knew she'd be gone by the time we got there this morning and wanted to be able to tell me first hand how well it went. Thank You, God!!! I pray she continues to do this well with no setbacks and that we are able to bring her home soon. We are ready to move on with our lives and enjoy taking her places.

As always, thank you for your prayers and calls...We appreciate everyone and their invested interest in our sweet, sweet baby girl. We feel so blessed and can feel our God's presence at every moment. He is so good and has been so good to us. I'll keep the blog updated as I can....Love, Lisa

Oh yeah..pictures. I posted a picture of Lia in her Christmas tutu from the night before surgery and one of Lia right after surgery. More pics later...

Gettin ready for round two...

Okay...we enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving here at the house with both sides of our family. We are now looking ahead to this coming week. Lia's next heart surgery is scheduled for this coming Thursday, Dec. the 4th. We will spend the day at Children's on Wednesday to do alot of preop testing and then back on Thursday for the surgery. We are expected to spend one or two nights in the CVICU and then hopefully only around a week in all at CMC. Obviously, this is what we have known would be in our future now for months, but it is with definite mixed feelings that we move forward with this. It's really something to send your baby through those surgery doors and into the hands of others. We know the staff at Children's will do a fantastic job of taking care of her, and we know God will guide the hands of Dr. Forbess. Hopefully the anticipation of the day of surgery will be worse than the actual day. Please continue all the powerful prayers for Lia. Please continue to pray for our entire family...it is stressful to all of us. We have so much to be thankful for this Holiday season. Thank you all for remembering us. We will keep you posted as we can this Thursday. Love to you all....

One of the pictures I've posted this time are of Lia and our pediatrician, Dr Smart at her 4 month check up. She checked out perfectly. The other is just a precious pic of a precious girl...

Feelin Better!

Well, here's a picture of a kid who finally feels better! We've had a long week of getting over a sore throat and stuffy nose, but we finally have our appetite back and have started eating well again. She's back to all grins...she has a smile that steals your heart. We can't wait for everyone to be able to see it in person. Please keep praying...surgery is in about 3 weeks and we want it to go as perfectly as the first one did. Love to you all...

Back to Children's

We had Lia's cath on Tuesday morning as planned. I was a little concerned about doing it because she had some minor congestion going into it, but they gave us the green light anyway. I thought that I was in the back of my head trying to come up with a reason to put it off because I dreaded it so much. It turns out she did end up having some complications probably related to the cold that was brewing before the cath.

The cardiac cath procedure in itself was fine. They did find a minor narrowing in her aortic arch (one of the things repaired in the first surgery). They went in with a balloon and widened the arch. They said it was an extremely slight narrowing, but because of having to intervene they decided to keep Lia overnight for observation. While in recovery after the procedure we had a hard time getting her off her oxygen. She ended up being on oxygen for the majority of her hospital stay...probably because of the viral respiratory infection she had prior to the procedure. Anyway, long story short, we were able to finally come home late last night. She's doing okay, just trying to get over this cold. With most babies, a common cold is nothing. To Lia though, it's a huge deal. If she gets too congested to eat, she gets dehydrated and her tiny shunt can clot off. If she can't breathe well, it lowers her already compromised oxygenation. To say the least, the last few days have been stressful for us.

She went in early this morning to see her pediatrition, mostly so she could get her eyes on her before the weekend. She said she looked fine. Her lungs sounded clear and her oxygen sats are mid 70's which is normal for her. We'll just keep up the humidifier and saline drops until she works this out. Please pray that she gets over this quickly without getting any worse. Also, please pray that she keeps eating well. That's been such a struggle for the first 3 months of her life, she needs to keep it up now even if she feels lousy. The doctors keep telling us that after her next surgery, things like this are alot easier. I hope and trust that they are right.

As usual, I've posted some recent pics of Lia. The first one is of her "playing" with a cute little toy from the recovery room. She looks like a big girl in that one. The next one is of her right after her heart cath as she was waking up. She honestly looked like a little angel.

Thanks for the calls, texts, and emails checking on us. Lia's a little toughie...we'll get through this. My college roommate wanted to change up our blog layout for us...it looks adorable. Thanks, Nikki. Most of all, once again, we are grateful for your prayers. Prayer has become the centerpoint of our lives now. We depend on it. Shouldn't we have always been living our life this way? Thank you Lia. We love you so much.

Our little pumpkin

Even though Lia didn't get to get out and trick or treat, she still dressed up. I think she looks pretty cute if I must say so myself.

We have a surgery date. Lia's second surgery is scheduled for December 4th. We dread it, but it's coming anyway. It will be here and over with before we know it. Lia has her heart cath on Tuesday. Hopefully things will look as great as they seem and we can move forward with this. Our little pumpkin is doing great. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.

Mission Accomplished!!!

Well, Lia is exactly 3 months old today and she weighed in at exactly 11lbs yesterday! Yea! That's where we need to be in order to get the next surgery over with. We have mixed feelings about this. It's hard to imagine going back through all this again so soon, but we're ready to get it behind us. To look at her, you'd never guess anything was wrong with her little heart. She looks so healthy. We've been so blessed that she's done great and grown stronger every day.

She's scheduled for a cardiac cath on Nov 4th. They will more than likely look at scheduling her next surgery (called the Glenn procedure) at that time. We're thinking mid to late November. This next surgery is obviously another biggie...I think all "open heart surgeries" are a big deal. They are saying, though, that it is not as involved as her first one. They essentially did three individual procedures with the first surgery. (fused her aorta and pulmonary artery to fix the transposition, repaired her narrowing of her aorta, and put in the BT shunt). The next surgery will involve removing the BT shunt that has been supplying her pulmonary bloodflow and replace it by using her superior vena cava. Basically, as they get bigger, they outgrow the BT shunt and that's why it has to be replaced with something else.

Please continue praying for our baby girl. We've all fallen in love with her sweet smile. She has her family completely wrapped around her tiny little finger. Thank you all for keeping up with us.

Everyone, meet Lia's friend...

We went to see our little friend, Lauren, after her second heart surgery...she looks great, huh? We wanted to get some pics of the girls together. Lauren did awesome after surgery #2. It was fun to get Lia out a little. We felt like Lia looked so tiny compared to Lauren, but I guess when you're that size, 2 1/2 lbs makes a big difference! Thanks for the prayers for Lia's first little friend...and thanks for continuing to keep Lia in your prayers, too. More later...

We're really chunkin up!

Hey everyone - Lia just keeps on getting bigger and stronger every day! She weighed 10lbs 7oz today when we weighed her here at home. We are getting close to our goal of 11lbs and 3 months old where we will start looking at her second surgery. Keep praying that she stays illness-free and continues to have such great progress.

Lia's little friend Lauren is scheduled for her second surgery next Monday (the 13th). Lauren was born in June with the same heart defect as Lia. I've gotten to be friends with her mommy and we've kept up with our girls' progress throughout this. I'm sure the girls will end up being college roomates in their later years... Dr. Forbess is Lauren's surgeon too and we are planning on everything going perfectly for our sweet little friend. Please keep Lauren and her family in your prayers this week and next as they proceed on with the process of fixing her heart for good.

Big Girl!

We're happy to say that Miss Lia is now weighing in at 9lbs 8oz!!! We went to her regular 2 month visit today and she looked awesome! She is graphing out at about the 25th percentile in weight and length. We couldn't be more pleased with her progress. She got all her two month immunizations so she's a little cranky...but we'll give her that. She's been such a little trooper. She's scheduled to see her cardiologist on Thursday where they will do another echocardiogram to prepare for her heart cath. She has to have that before her next surgery. Thank you for your emails and calls...we love hearing from you all. Most of all, (I can't say this enough) thank you for your continued prayers. I can't even begin to think about where we would be without those. Her progress is no coincidence. This little girl is one answered prayer after another.

What a bowhead!!!

I wanted to post some pics of Lia from the other day when we went to the cardiologist. She looked adorable and had the biggest bow on!! The nurse said the bow was "bigger than her"... not quite accurate, but close enough. Dressing her up is so fun. It's amazing because I always thought I could only do boys...They are just a different kind of fun. We can't wait until we can get her out of the house and all of you can see her in person. She'll probably never be without her bow. Stacey, I know you'll be so proud...

ACU's benefit 5K Run for Lia

The Abilene Christian University Athletic Dept and ACU Men's Basketball Team hosted a benefit 5K Run for Lia this past weekend. We had a great time in Abilene seeing the school and visiting with friends. They presented us with the money raised at half-time of the football game on Saturday. We had to leave Lia in Rockwall since we're trying to keep her germ-free, but took some pics for her to see one day.

Corey and I absolutely loved going to school at ACU. We appreciate all the hard work that went into this event. Once again, we realize how blessed we have been and how many people Miss Lia has touched in her life. Thanks to ACU, Jason Copeland, Jared Mosely, and Mike Breckenridge for everything that was done to plan for the run. Corey and I will never be able to express our gratitude to ACU...for this event, and for introducing us to each other and to all the great people we went to school with all those years ago.

Lovin Life

Lia is lovin life without her feeding tube! She's done well without it. She's still not eating like her mama, but taking her minimum volumes all the same. We promised the doctors we wouldn't weigh her every day (and we've actually stuck with that), but her last weight on Tuesday was 8 lbs 4.5 oz. The doctors were happy with that and said we could keep doing what we've been doing. She's definitely happier without that long, annoying thing hanging from her.

Our 3 on 3 tourney is being postponed until Spring, so it will not be happening this weekend. The Garland Fire Dept designed a tshirt to sell for Lia, and we think it's just perfect. The back of the shirts have a dalmation with the words under it "Firefighters Fighting for Lia". I've posted a picture of the boys wearing the shirt in support of their sis. Let us know if anyone wants us to get them one. They are for anyone who's interested.

We're figuring out things here at home, working on a schedule. Colby started Kindergarten last week and Jace started back to preschool this week, so things are crazy. Busy and crazy...but awesome. We've come so far and feel so great about things. We are blessed beyond what we could've ever imagined. Thanks again to all of you who have had anything to do with making all this easier on us. There are so many of you. We love you all.

Little Miss Thing...

Hey everyone...sorry it's been so long since we've updated, but we've just been feeding and growing here at the house. Yesterday morning little Miss decided to pull her own feeding tube out right before we went to see our cardiologist. It really worked out well for me because I was planning on discussing with Dr. Lemler if we could just pull her tube and see how she did without it anyway. So we left it out and went to the doctor. Lia checked out great. She's gaining weight - a big 7lbs 14oz. All her vital signs looked good, and they did another echocardiogram to visualize her heart. The echo looked really good...she has great heart function and her BT shunt (providing bloodflow to her lungs) is wide open and also looks good. We talked mostly about her feedings and decided to leave out her feeding tube for the weekend and see how she eats without it. I felt like it was really bothering her and making her uncomfortable. She wasn't too far off from taking her entire volume anyway so we felt like she deserved a shot to keep the tube out. So far so good...We have a scale here at the house and she gained a couple of ounces since we weighed her yesterday. We'll work hard to see if we can't round the corner here on her feedings.

I've added a few pics here to see how cute she is without her tube (she's cute with it, too). There are also some pictures here of her with her cousins Kade, Shelby, and Molly along with Colby and Jace.

I'll let you know how we do without the tube...keep praying.

Our Sweet Little Model...

Miss Lia had her first modeling session yesterday. Our sweet friend Geri came to our house and took some precious pics of this baby girl. Check them out...

Lia's postoperative doctor visit

We went back to Children's Medical Center today for Lia's postop visit with the surgeons. Lia looked awesome. We had to have another chest Xray, more labwork, weight, BP, and O2 sat reading. They said it all checked out great. She's gaining weight (back up to her birth weight of 7lbs). They were impressed with the volume she's now able to nipple feed. We still have in the feeding tube, but she's improving every day with her nippling. She threw a nice fit when they tried to get her blood pressure and O2 sat. We think it could be her attitude that's helped her do so well through this.

Yesterday Lia went on her first road trip to Mimi and Granddaddy's house in Sulphur Springs. We needed to get out of here while we had two wonderful ladies come and clean our house. We all did pretty well on the trip. It's always fun at Mimi and Granddaddy's...

Lia just continues to do so well. She's such a joy to all of us. We are starting to get down a routine here at the house. It's been a good transition from the hospital to home. We are so glad have our family together again.

Home Sweet Home

We've had the greatest day! We got to bring our sweet baby girl home. She already looks better being home without all her tubes and monitors. She only has her feeding tube in her nose left. This way we can give her the part of her bottles she doesn't eat. She is still getting a little tired about halfway through her bottles. The doctors say that the majority of the cardiac babies have this problem. Believe me, this is the problem to have...considering all she's been through in the last two weeks, we can deal with a feeding tube for a while.

We suprised Colby and Jace with the arrival of their baby sister at home. It was so sweet to see how excited they were to see her at our house. They both love her so much. Talk about protective...between the boys and her daddy, I'm not sure she'll ever be able to date.

Our little Lia has done so well. She had amazed and blown away all the experts. How wonderful to know that we have received exactly what we've been praying so hard for all these months. Our Lord never left our side throughout this...please continue to pray. He is listening...

Just Hangin Out...

Lia's done well in her room on the 8th floor. Mommy stayed with her last night and we worked on eating every three hours. She's making progress every day and is slowly turning the corner on the eating thing. They changed her to eating every four hours today so that she would be more hungry when it was time to eat. It seems to be working for now.

Miss Lia loves to grin in her sleep. It's sooo cute. I remember when my sister Laci was a newborn, watching her sleep one day on the couch at my grandmom's house. Grandmom told me that when a baby smiles in their sleep it meant that angels were talking to her. I believe that now more than ever. She's had angels around her from the moment she was born.

Graduation Day!!!

Today was a big day for Lia. She graduated out of the CVICU and up to the 8th floor. We were sad to leave the staff in the ICU. I can't say enough about the nurses, doctors, nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, and techs on that floor. They have been incredible to us as a family. We will miss them.

Our new room is much bigger with a real bed for us to sleep in. They will be watching her vitals, heart rhythm, and eating patterns to make sure they all look good before they let us go home. Lia did a little better today with her bottles. I think "slowly but surely" is her motto. Corey and I left the hospital for the evening to spend some time with the boys. Aunt Jen and Mim have it covered there with Lia.

Thank you again for the constant prayers and support you all have given on our behalf. We continue to feel so blessed. Please pray for the other kids and parents up there in the CVICU as well. There are so many families who don't have the resources and support that we have been so blessed with. We love you all....

Update - Friday

Our sweet baby girl had another great day. They were able to pull her cardiac and umbilical arterial lines today without any complications. That didn't happen until later in the day, so we are still in the CVICU...the doctors weren't comfortable sending her to the floor as late as this evening. We've started giving her bottles and she is a little slow about remembering how to eat. They told us from the beginning that might be an issue for her. We're hoping she'll remember she's from a family that likes to eat and she'll catch on again soon. Overall, she is doing fantastic and continues to amaze the doctors and nurses at Children's who see this every day. Keep praying...

Update- Wednesday

Miss Lia had another eventful day. They came in early & removed both of her chest tubes & a few other drains. She is off her blood pressure and continuous pain medicine. They plan to pull her breathing tube this afternoon and start feeding her through a tube to her stomach this evening. Tomorrow they plan to remove her cardiac lines and once they do that Corey & Lisa will be able to hold her.

Please don't stop the prayers for Lia because they are working!

Lia Surgery Update- Tuesday

We have more miracles to report on our sweet Lia. The doctors have stopped her paralytic medicine & one of her sedatives, so she is beginning to wake up a little. The doctors will be closing her sternum this afternoon. She is stable on her meds and will begin taking some breast milk through a tube. Her pulses are already stronger than they were before surgery. Overall the doctors are pleased with her progress.

We are praising God for this modern day miracle. Please keep praying for continued blessings.

Stacey

Lia Surgery Update- Monday

Lia is out of surgery it lasted six hours. She tolerated surgery great, no complications to report so far.

All the goals were achieved, the next 24 hours are very critical.

Please send up prayers of thanksgiving and continue to pray that things go as good as they have. Corey and Lisa appreciate all the calls and texts they have received today.


Stacey

Lia continues to do well in the CVICU. She is now eating as much as they will allow her to have every three hours and is tolerating it great. She's more and more beautiful everyday. Her nurses have all been awesome and have taken wonderful care of her. She is constantly decked out in PINK and people who walk by her room comment on that often. I must say it's really fun putting her in something new and cute every day.
The surgeon decided today that she will be scheduled for surgery at 7:30 on Monday morning. We have been anticipating that for so many months now, and yet aren't sure we're quite ready for it. I don't know if we ever really would be... I was telling Corey today that it's amazing how in the same exact moment you can feel such incredible joy and such overwhelming panic when you look at her and think about what's ahead of us. We love her so much. We are really having to reach deep down and call on a faith that we've never known we've needed before. We trust that God will continue to lead us through this. He always has. Please continue to pray. Pray and pray and pray. We need prayers of strength and peace like never before. We will continue to keep you all updated. Thank You for all you've done for us before, and thank you ahead of time for the prayers you will all be offering up this weekend for Lia. We love you all...

We wanted to post a few pictures, just to give you an idea of how blessed our family truly is.

Two very proud older brothers. I have a feeling that they won't let anything happen to their new little sister.

The hospital set up this really cool Webcam so that I can keep an eye on Lia and Corey from Baylor while they were at Childrens.

Lia Kate Stone was born yesterday morning at 11:02 am. She weighed 7lbs 1 oz and was 19 inches long. Her delivery could not have gone more smoothly. She is more beautiful than we could ever have imagined. Corey and I got to hold her and love on her for several minutes after she was born. She was pink and screaming...we've never heard a sweeter sound.
She was greeted by several of my good friends at work who took great care of her during her delivery and then afterwards in the NICU. I was able to sit in the NICU and hold her until the Children's Transport Team came to get her. They were awesome...so sweet to our baby. Corey got to ride over to Children's with the team. I stayed the night at Baylor and got some good rest before going to Children's this morning.
We had an uneventful day today in the CVICU. Lia looked good all day just resting and looking cute. We plan to visit with and enjoy our new baby girl for the next few days until they do her first surgery. She continues to be stable on her medication and we got to feed her a bottle this evening. Corey and I came home tonight to see the boys and get some rest while my mom stayed with Lia.
If things stay the same, we're planning on the surgery being Saturday or Monday. It's obviously up to the surgeon and Lia as far as when it will be for sure. As long as she continues to look good, we're fine with either day. To look at her, it's hard to imagine anything at all is wrong with her little heart.
Thank You all for the messages in the guestbook, calls, emails, and visits. We continue to ask for prayers for our baby girl. So far, things have gone great. We feel so blessed by all the positive things that have happened up to this point. We love you all....
Corey, Lisa, Colby, Jace, and Lia

Today felt like a day full of doctors appointments. We saw Dr Magee this morning and again, Lia looks great. He took a good look at her and was very pleased with how well she looked. She was very active and had no sign of any extra heart beats. He didn't measure her size today, but last week measured her at about 6.5 lbs. He did get a really good shot of her face and she is adorable... spoken like a true mommy. (Corey agreed with my take on things, too). Later this afternoon we went to see Dr. Littrell and she thought everything looked good as well. Our plan is for me to go back in next Tuesday, she'll check me and make sure I don't look like I'm going to go into labor within the next few days. If by some chance I do look that way, we'll plan on inducing the next day...July 16th. Otherwise, I'll plan on pretty much taking it easy until my scheduled induction day of July 22nd. We have all our doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists lined out for that day. Hopefully, for once, she'll cooperate and just go with our plan.We'll see.
After Lia's born, she'll go upstairs to the NICU where they will get her set up to be transferred to Children's Medical Center. The Children's transport team will be at Baylor to pick her up within a few hours. I'll plan on staying at Baylor for the night and Corey will go with Lia to Children's. Hopefully, I'll be able to leave Baylor the next morning and go to Children's with Corey and Lia. Once she's at Children's we aren't sure what to expect when. As long as she's stable, they'll run some tests on her and let her recover from being born before they do the first surgery. We're not sure how long that will be. I assume it'll all depend on how she does.
I guess from here on out she makes all the shot calls. They'll base her timeline on how she's doing from day to day. That's about all I can tell you at this point. I'm taking some time off work to rest and get prepared (if that's possible) for our baby's arrival. This is also giving me a chance to spend some time with the boys. Please continue praying for Lia. Pray that Corey and I can remain peaceful these last two weeks. Pray that things go perfectly during her delivery and that she makes a smooth transition to Children's. Pray that she does well once she's there. Pray that Colby and Jace will be okay throughout all this, and that Corey and I will be wise in our time we spend with them. Thank You all so much for your thoughts, prayers, emails, phone calls, and cards. We love you all....
Corey and Lisa

Things are going really well from a pregnancy standpoint. We have roughly 5 weeks to go before this sweet girl gets here. I visit the high risk perinatologist every week for a sonogram and she looks great so far. She's growing and really active. Except for her little heart, she looks perfect. We've been really pleased with her progress and how well she's done in utero. I'm trying to bump up my protein intake to put some serious weight on her. I'd love for her to be as big as Colby was (9 lbs 8 oz). I really never thought I'd say that...
The boys are looking forward to her arrival. Well, at least Colby is. I'm not sure Jace knows what he's in store for. They are interested and ask questions all the time. It should be interesting. We continue to get countless emails, cards, and phone calls from all of our sweet friends who are eager to help us in any way.
We have been overwhelmed with the outpouring of love we have received. It's amazing how things like this that seem so hard open our eyes to our unbelievable amount of blessings. It changes who you are. It makes you grateful for small things and the things that you thought could make or break your day, just don't seem that important anymore.

To all our sweet friends, Let's get you all caught up on our day. Overall, we feel like today went well. We went on our tour of Children's and it was nice to see where we will be during all of this. Our fetal echo went well, they were not all that concerned about the arrythmia that she has every now and then. They didn't seem all that suprised that she was having the beats...we will just need to watch her more closely now. The cardiologist kept saying that her heart "looked good" and he was pleased with her growth and activity. They don't want to see us again unless Dr. Mcgee finds something new or thinks she isn't tolerating her heart rhythm. If all continues to look good, then I won't need to return to Children's until she is born. We met with our surgeon, Dr. Forbess, and he is awesome. We really like him. He drew out some pictures and showed us exactly what he will do in the first surgery if her diagnosis stays the same between now and then. He answered all of our questions and seemed to have good reasoning for all of them. He was extremely upbeat and positive, yet was able to prepare us for some potential complications and risk percentages. He was able to back up all the percentages with reasoning and explanation. Thank you again for all of your prayers, emails, and thoughts. It really does bring us comfort with each and every one of you who responds and tells us how you are praying. We know our sweet baby girl is covered in prayer from so many of you. It's amazing to hear from those of you I see every week and then also to hear from you all that I haven't seen in years. We are humbled by your encouragement and outpouring of love. Please continue praying...we have a long way to go. Thank you again...words cannot express our gratitude for your all going before our God on behalf of our child. We Love You all - Corey and Lisa

Hey everyone, I wanted to give you all an update on our baby girl's progress. We had a disappointing setback today. I went in for my regular OB checkup and our Dr was able to pick up an irregular heartbeat when she listened. She then did a sonogram which showed an irregular beat every now and then. She immediately sent me to see the high risk perinatologist (the doctor who picked up on her heart defect originally) and he did another specialized sonogram. He was able to tell that she was throwing a PAC (premature atrial contraction or extra heart beat) about every 20th beat or so. He looked at the rest of her and she still looks good. She's growing and not showing any signs of compromise from the heart arrythmia. He then went back to her heart and she started throwing these beats much more frequently - about every third to fifth beat. He grew much more concerned as we watched her do this for a few minutes. He called the cardiologist at Children's and they were mildly concerned about this. They say that if she didn't already have a compromised cardiac condition this would not be concerning. As long as she's able to sustain the irregular beats without it effecting her growth or circulation we're okay. So....instead of going to Children's for our work up at 30 weeks, we're going tomorrow. We will tour the ICU and everything, have another fetal echo, and then meet Dr Forbess, our surgeon. The cardiologist wanted to get a baseline look at what exactly it is her heart is doing, plus look at her anatomy and cardiac structure now that she's bigger. We're begging again for your constant, urgent, and bold prayers on our baby's behalf. We continue to believe that God is in complete control here and he will not leave us. We know he continues to love us and our sweet baby girl. Thank you again for the encouragement and love you all have shown our family in the last few months.

Hey guys - I wanted to let everyone know the latest with us and the baby. First of all, our final amniocentesis results came in finally and it's all normal. Yea!! We went to see Dr Littrell, my regular OB yesterday, and everything pregnancy related looks good. We sat down and made a tenative game plan for the remaining pregnancy. I'll go back in three weeks for a sonogram to check the baby's growth. At around 32 weeks, she wants to admit me for the night at Baylor and give me Celestone injections which are steroids to help the baby's lungs mature quickly. This just covers us if for some reason she decides to come a little early. She wants me to do another amniocentesis at around 36-37 weeks to determine for sure how mature her lungs are before we go through with the induction at 38 or 39 weeks. We're still planning on having another fetal echocardiogram at Children's on May 19th. That will be a long day for us. This will enable the cardiologist and cardiovascular surgeon to take another look at her heart to see if anything has changed with her diagnosis. (This is where I'm praying they'll say - "This baby doesn't have a cardiac defect at all. You all prayed this whole thing away" Wouldn't that be something?) Anyway, after the echo (which will take about 2 hours), we'll go eat lunch and then tour the ICU that she'll be in. We're then scheduled to meet our surgeon at 3:00 that afternoon. So I'm sure we'll be drained at that point. That's all I have for you all at this point. The rest is waiting to see how she does and trying to prepare for her arrival like we would any other baby. We've been put in contact with two sets of parents whose children have undergone all or part of the surgeries we are supposed to encounter. These kids look and are doing great. One is a 22 month old who has had the first two surgeries. He's adorable and appears to be healthy and happy. The other is a 4 year old who I believe had the same two defects as our baby. He has undergone 4 open heart surgeries and is apparently doing well as well. It's nice to see pictures of these kids and talk with their moms. We may try and meet the 4 year old in person. He lives in Frisco. Once again, thank you all for your constant prayers concerning this sweet baby girl. I still can't believe she's a girl. We feel blessed that she is. I'm definitely going to lose my title of "Princess of the Family." She's already assumed that position. Please continue praying and I'll let you all know if anything changes.

As many of you know, Corey and I have been anxiously waiting on our amniocentesis results from Tues. They called today and told us that the preliminary results were inconclusive, and that they would have to run the test again. That's discouraging to us, because we are sitting on pins and needles wondering if our baby has Down's syndrome, or another chromosomal abnormality that may change our life in addition to the heart defect we already know about. We now have to wait until Monday to get any results. I wanted to let you all know what was going on because I knew you were wondering. Please continue with your prayers. Corey and I have been truly blown away with the notes of encouragement, emails, visits, and most of all prayers. We feel like for whatever reason, we are meant to go down this scary, uncertain road. Although this is not what we would've chosen for ourselves, we already feel our faith has deepened, our prayerlife has improved by about 200%, and our overall walk with our Lord is so much more than it was eight days ago. That in itself is worth this pain, and makes it so much easier to deal with. Thank You all for everything you've done and everything you will do. Please pray that we will find a little peace to endure these next few days of uncertainty while we wait on the latest test results. I Love You all