I don't know where the time has gone but my little miracle is 8 months old!!! I can't believe it. Even though 8 months has passed since Alanna's battle for life I still have those same feelings of gratefulness and joy each day. She is a constant reminder of God's love and power. Even Liam has felt the Lord's love through her at such a young age. He has been talking about Jesus a lot and even enlightened me with his profound words. He said last month "Mommy where is Jesus?" I said "up in heaven with God". Liam paused and then said "No mommy Jesus is in our hearts". He paused again and then went on to say "He is also by the blue doors at Alanna's hospital...." Wow those words coming from Liam's mouth gave me chills because I knew it was a sign. I knew the NICU was a special place and I could feel God's love so much there but having Liam say those words were confirmation that God was really there. Even though 8 months has passed from my direct channel to the Lord which I feel was the NICU; the Lord still speaks to me and allows me to feel his love every day. He shows me signs through my friends, words he sends me each day and family. He has followed me home and literally when I look into Alanna's eye's I see Jesus's love looking back at me. I am so blessed!
So onto Alanna updates!!
Alanna had another genetics appointment Wed February 13th and once again the doctors are puzzled at how her congenital chylothorax (hydrops) occurred. They have looked into a possible syndrome called Noonan's syndrome as a last option for answers but are feeling confident that is not the case. She is not showing any classic signs of the syndrome so as of now it's a spontaneous unexplained event. To me it's "miracle". Miracles cannot be explained and that is why I'm not getting any answers. Alanna's case is so unique that only our Lord knows the reason and it's beyond any medical professional's understanding. Either way at this point I don't really care why it happened. What matters to me is she is ok and is doing so well.
Alanna is eating so many solid foods now. She loves sweet potatoes, northern beans, peas, squash, pears and bananas. She has imitated many signs (i.e. more, milk) and gestures (i.e. clapping, hi and "so big") and is fascinated with people's faces and speech. She started babbling a ton using actual phonemes which makes her speech pathologist mommy so happy!!! She of course says "mama" all day long. She babbles syllables (i.e. dada, nana, mama) all day. I can't get her to stop talking. It's music to my ears. She also started giving kisses as well. If I say "kisses Alanna" she will smack her lips together and make kissing sounds. Keith and I could've sworn last night she tried to say her name. We were saying "Alanna" over and over again and she was smiling from ear to ear. She was so interested in hearing her name repeated. She then went on to say two times in a row "Ahna" "Ahna". It was so funny. Keith and I both looked at each other and said "she just said her name.". Not sure if she really said it but either way it melted our hearts and brought us joy.
Alanna is also completely in love with her brother! She smiles and gives him looks of amazement all day long. Liam can do no wrong in her eyes. He can grab toys from her, knock her over, be really loud in her face and she just stares at him a face glowing full of joy. It's so wonderful to see the love between them. Liam is the only one that can really get her giggling like crazy.
Alanna is rolling over and sitting up for the most part on her own. She is still very stiff in her chest area from having such a large amount of fluid for so long. She hasn't acquired the range of motion and strength to start actually crawling yet. She is getting PT and we are all working really hard at stretching her muscles to make this happen. I'm hopeful it will happen soon because Alanna is really trying hard to be mobile. She has such a strong desire but her poor little body isn't quite ready yet.
I can't wait to see what other surprises and joys Alanna brings me through her 8 month of life. She is truly a gift!
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