Rebekka, born 2/13/2004

Our Little Angel
Rebekka Maelynn

Rebekka and her Beanie Baby

 
Our miracle baby was born on February 13, 2004(Friday the 13th!!!) at 1:45 P.M. She weighed one pound five ounces and was thirteen inches long.

Rebekka's Story:
I wasn't due until June 3,2004. I was having a normal pregnancy, my first! I went out with some friends to see Daddy's band playing the night before and started to have a little pregnancy back pain, nothing major, just achey. I woke up Friday morning and had alittle abdominal pain, thought it was gas! I had an appointment for a follow up ultrasound (10:15AM) to look for a three vessel cord ( she was moving too much on my first ultrasound, they couldn't see it well enough!)The ultrasound looked fine. I left the office and went shopping and went to Kohl's. I found a bunch of cute maternity tops on sale and bought them. My pain started to get sharper. About five minutes later they were four minutes apart. I got home and called the doctor. Dr. Ferguson called back and told me to get to the ER and we left. I arrived at the hospital and was fully dialated. Her heart rate started to go up and down and they noticed on the ultrasound that my placenta was tore, so out I went and they performed an emergency c-section. I cashed out of Kohl's at 11:59AM, I delivered at 1:45PM. She was premature due to placenta aburption.

On 2-20-04 she had to have a PDA surgery and recovered from that very well. She had laser surgery in both eyes to correct Retinopathy of prematurity while in NICU. She failed her hearing tests in NICU and after discharge we did follow up testing which showed that she has Mondini Syndrome in both ears and that she has a profound hearing loss. She had a cochlear implant on May 9, 2005. She has chronic lung issues and spastic cerebral palsy.
 

 

I'm getting so BIG!

 

Hoppy Easter

 
****UPDATES****
3-24-2008: Hello everyone! I know I need to update more. I'm in college full time at night and Bekka's personal assistant by day! Next week I'm going to start watching a friend's 2 month old on third shift. Bekka is doing well. We have not been hospitalized in a YEAR!!!!! YAY!! She loves preschool, she finally got another girl in her class so she's not the only princess anymore! She has met many of her goals and we've started making new ones for her. We went for follow ups to Riley's in January and all went welll. She is now on the highest program on her cochlear implant and made three new sounds today for her hearing impaired teacher. We saw a Neurologist in February for Botox injections in her legs. Within three days I saw a difference. Her muslces aren't tight anymore and within two weeks she was able to put her left foot on the floor and took steps!! I still have to hold her upright or put her in her gait trainer but the fact that her leg is loose and that she can touch the floor with her foot is awesome! I've been doing alot research on CP lately. It's come in handy for school too. I'm writing three different papers for my classes on treatment options. I'm really excited about Hyperbaric oxygen Therapy. I found out we have a clinic near us in Mishawaka IN but they are shut down until the end of summer to build a new building. There is another place in IL that I'm checking into. It's near Aunt Dar so that would be nice because she'd finally be happy that we'd come visit her! lol Bekka is still getting OT, PT and ST at Memorial Children's Therapy and we're going to throw in some aquatic therapy too so I can learn what I can do with her. We finally got a membership to the new YMCA. They have a heated therapuetic pool that we can use. We have an evaluation on Wednesday to see if Bekka can be a part of Reins of Life. It's a horse riding program for special needs. I am busier now that when I was working full time!!! But it is soooooo worth it. Just the small changes that have taken place with Bekka is worth it. Well if you've hung in this far, Thanks! Hope you had a Hoppy Easter! XOXO
11-12-2007: Well things have been busy around here. We took out our front door and windows and put in french doors. We are putting on a deck and wheelchair ramp too. It's looking really nice. We're gonna take our shower doors down and put a rod and curtain up for now so I can give Bekka a bath easier. Hopefully in the spring we will be turning our small bedroom into a large new bathroom with a jacuzzi tub and a roll in shower!! The 16th is my last day of work! I'm excited. I'm already going to be busy. Bekka will go to therapy on Wed and Thurs afternoon. I'm going to start helping out with my grandma and grandpa Deuel. I'm excited to be able to work with Bekka more. I'm also going to enroll in college to start in Jan. We are waiting to here if we qualify for a scholarship for the YMCA so I can take Bekka in their therapy pool. Otherwise a family membership is $720 a year!! I also want to work out. Our neighbor and Bekka's first babysitter is now a fitness instructor there. They also have free babysitting while I work out! I need to get in shape so I can pick Bekka up. She's getting soooo tall! She weighs 28lbs now.

9-20-2007: Hello everyone! I know it’s been way too long but I’ve finally gotten some spare time to update on Bekka! I’ve been sick for about 3 weeks with a really bad case of bronchitis. Bekka missed her first day of school because Mommy was too sick to take her! I was soooo worried we would have a repeat of last year (She got horribly sick on her first day and ended up being out of school for over a week) and here it was me this time. Bekka is in her second year of preschool. She’s in a new preschool because we moved back to Niles. She has been doing great. She’s getting OT, PT and ST at school and then I take her to Memorial Children’s Rehab Center once a week. We went to Riley’s Children’s Hospital in Indy at the end of July. She got her cochlear implant processor remapped. We also went to the Cerebral Palsy clinic for the first time. We stayed in the same exam room and everyone came to us. That was VERY nice! She got x-rays again and her scoliosis is unchanged, yay!! She had a growth spurt!!! She’s up to 27lbs and 35”. She grew 1 ½ “ in six months. So now her leg muscles are getting really tight. We’ve been doing a lot of stretching exercises. She’s wearing bilateral knee immobilizers and AFO braces at night to give her a prolonged stretch. We are playing the waiting game but her therapist might recommend Botox injections in her legs. We’re giving it until January when we go back to Riley’s for our follow up. Bekka went to the fair at the beginning of August and went on her first ride, a carousel ride. I stood next to her and held her on. She absolutely loved it. She smiled and laughed. Then she went on a real pony ride. She went bizerk! She LOVED it! I had a hard time getting her off it. So now we’re looking into a local hippo therapy program in our area for the spring. They don’t have a heated riding arena yet so I don’t want her in the cold and get sick. She was in the Niles Apple festival youth day parade with her school today. We started off very cranky but she was happy in the end. They won their entry and get to be in the Grande parade next Saturday. We had over 300 people show up for her school’s parade entry! They offer all kinds of services in the same building. They have special needs program for 0-6, head start preschool and begindergarten. She has everyone at school wrapped around her finger! She got a personal aide at this school which makes me very happy. A lot of the kids in her class have more behavioral/mental limitations and Bekka’s is pretty much all physical so it’s nice to have someone there to help her participate in activities. She got to play duck duck goose in her wheelchair the other day and though it was really funny. She is starting to push up on her arms more and more everyday. One more step closer to crawling!! And the most exciting news is that I’m working on being a stay at home mommy soon!!!! I am so happy! I’m getting some things taken care of medically, dental, vision etc and then I’m done. I will have to go on Medicaid for myself (that sucks!!) because I’m not married to Bekka’s dad. I need to finish my degree before we get married. Well I know this was very long so if you hung out till the end thank you!!!!

3-24-2007: Just a quick little update. Bekka is in the hospital with pneumonia. I'm tired so that's it for now! XOXO
1-7-2007: We have been pretty healthy lately! Bekka starts back to school tomorrow in her new wheelchair! She's been adjusting to it fairly well. Yesterday I showed her how to push herself and she did pretty well. She's been keeping her processor on alot better. Her new sound is "eeee" and she points at things she wants. We got her a Vtech Vbaby Vsmile (educational video system) for Christmas and she absolutely loves it! We were in the bedroom earlier and she pointed at it and started making happy squeals because she wanted to play on it. She got alot of toys and DVD's for Christmas which she loves. My house looks like a daycare because she spreads her toys all over the whole living room. Once a day I match toys together with their parts and she'll destroy it in minutes! lol We go to Riley's on Jan 22&23 for follow ups and then to a Pediatric Gastroenterologist on the 25th. I'm hoping to find some answers. We think her tummy has problems digesting her food and that's why she's been getting sick. We've tried the top medication on the market for that but she had a bad reaction to it so I'm hoping there's something else out there for us to try. Please say a pray that we have safe travels and get some answers!




Love Always.........
 

 Home   My Guestbook 


  My Journal     My Milestones   My Photo Gallery!  


This web page was created at BabiesOnline.com
and sponsored by Clark Color Photo Labs
Last updated Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Viewed 3235 times.