Summer Fun

My sister and her family as well as my Mother came here to Texas for a quick and very fun visit. It's the first time Romy has met her cousins. Christopher is almost 2 and Gabrielle is 8. We had a blast together. Too bad Romy caught pneumonia:( But I guess I should back it up from the beginning. My family came on Wednesday afternoon. My little nephew has an obsession with belly buttons, so of course we thought it'd be hilarious to see his reaction to Romy's severe outtie. He lifted her shirt and cocked his head to the side with a confused look, it was priceless! Then he laughed hysterically and gave it a little pinch. That's when I noticed her button was harder than usual and wouldn't reduce like it should. I was always told to bring her in if it became hard. (her muscles can strangle her intestines)So that's what I did. I brought her to the ER where they took some x rays that showed that the base of the hernia was closing, but would be okay until her hernia surgery. (Aug 25) We also learned she had a slight fever so they took chest x rays as well. They found a small spot of pneumonia on in her lower right lung. Luckily it was caught extremely early (she hadn't had ANY symptoms yet) they gave her an antibiotic drip and now she's on some oral meds for the next few days. She's been a little sleepier than usual but that's really the only difference in her. She's still the smiley baby she's always been. We all went out to the Riverwalk here in San Antonio. It was Romy's first real outing (other than the grocery store or hospital) and she did great even though it was 90 something degrees. Here are a ton of pictures.........Enjoy!

Mini Flip

I've got a great family:)

7 months old (what a big girl)

The Hogue's.....what a beautiful family:)

This is her "War face"

My favorite ladies:)

Proud Grandma

Lisa (my sister), Romy and Gabrielle

Hugs from Christopher

Romy's morning cocktail

Future embarrassing picture.

All smiles:)

My little Ham Ball:)

Who are you voting for in the year 2044?

I'm voting for Romy:)

PS-What's up with her eyebrows?




Her favorite position. Ray also sleeps with his ankles crossed.....weird.


Pretty Baby

So cute, I could eat her!

Man, Romy and I are exhausted! We've had 7 appointments this week! But I do have some great news. Romy had an ultrasound and some other tests to check for internal hemangioma's. But they couldn't find any! They were so sure that she had at least one lurking around her insides. But Romy once again has shown us how well she can beat odds. She still has to have an MRI and a bronchoscopy to rule out hemangioma's in the brain and throat, but they say it's unlikely if she hasn't shown signs of them so far. So because she most likely doesn't have hemangioma's on the inside, they have decided to do a 6 WEEK round of steroids instead of a 6 MONTH round. So no moving for me! YAY! The next 6 weeks will be busy ones but nothing unmanageable. She had her ears checked again on Tuesday, and whatever fluid was built up in there is now gone. Her hearing is normal in both ears! One more thing to check of the worry list:)

Romy also hit another milestone this week. She laughed! A gurgly, very spitty beautiful little giggle. Only it wasn't to me. It was to her great-grandmother. I must admit....I'm a little jealous! But I'm so happy that they have such a great bond. They both light up when they see each other. It's very cute and makes me all warm and gushy inside to watch those two. My grandparents raised me from the time I was a few months old until I was 3 and again when I was 8 and 9. I've always felt very close with them, especially my grandmother and I love that Romy gets to spend lots of time with them.

Oh my how you've grown!

Romy at 3 months old

Romy at 6 months old


What a big girl, huh? She's doubled her weight since the first picture was taken and grew 4.5 inches. She also lost her red hair, which kind of bums me out. I was looking forward to a little redhead. It's a medium brown now, just a tad lighter than Ray's. I wish she would grow some more hair, she's a little baldy! She's been babbling more lately. She says "Ahhh" and "Bahh" especially at the dinner table while she watches everyone else eat. I started her back on rice cereal. I stopped because it seemed to upset her tummy and she was refluxing a little more than usual, so I waited another week and she seems to be doing much better with it and is learning to actually swallow the food and not immediately spit it back out. I'll start feeding her cereal twice a day from now on and if all goes well we're moving to oatmeal! Tomorrow is her first round of steroids and her first battery of tests. I'm a little nervous for her, and they said to expect to be there all day.....all day at the hospital? No fun. At least we'll get to visit Romy's old stomping grounds (the NICU) and see all the great doctor's and nurses that took such great care of her. The last time they saw her, she was still around 5 pounds, so I think they'll be happy to see how much she has grown. Here are a few more recent pictures of the little monster!

I love her feet and wish they would stay little forever. One day she'll have stinky big kid feet.....kinda makes me sad.

Hangin' out at Lola and Lolo's

Practicing sitting up<------I think she looks a lot like Ray in this one.

This jumper is Romy's addiction. She spends at least 25% of her day in this.

Pictures of the little maniac.

Pretty in Pink!

Hanging out with Lola

And Uncle Gino

This is a picture of Romy trying to look at her hemangioma. It's kind of like when a puppy chases his tail. Cute, funny and a little sad all at the same time.

Chubbs.

Wow, what a day. Romy and I got some fairly shocking news today. She had an Ophthalmology appointment earlier this morning. The good news is we finally got some answers about her hemangioma. The bad news is...it wasn't good news. It has caused vision problems in her left eye, twice as bad as her right eye. It has been pushing against her eye long and hard enough to make her pretty darn nearsighted in that eye. If we don't intervene, she will lose vision completely in her left eye. First thing Monday morning she starts "aggressive steroid treatment." Doesn't sound so bad, right? Wrong. I have to move to San Antonio. She has to be seen twice a week for evaluation, and with the drive clocking in at close to 3 hours (and 100 bucks roundtrip!)....it just doesn't seem logical. I mean don't get me wrong, I love San Antonio and have lots of family there, but it means I'll lose our house on base and I'll have to uproot everything only to move back in 8 months. Also meaning that we'll be "homeless" when Ray returns from the sandbox. Oh the things I do for that little lady:)

But anyway, that isn't the worst part. The worst part is the serious side effects that come with the treatment, the most obvious is excessive weight gain. The doctor flat out told me that my baby would become abnormally large. So big in fact, that people will come up to me and ask what's wrong with her. She's expected to become extremely overweight bordering obesity. With that comes blood pressure and glucose problems that mimic diabetes. Her growth will be stunted and she will most likely have to undergo growth hormone injections in her future. Her bones will be at risk for osteoporosis and she could very well have personality changes and mood swings. They also believe she has hemangioma's on her organs due to the fact that she has 7 on the outside of her body (2 large ones and 5 small ones the size of fleas). Although she hasn't shown any signs of having trouble dealing with them, she will undergo a bunch of tests in the next week including ANOTHER MRI. In fact I have 7 doctor's appointments in the next 2 weeks alone. Yikes! But the good news about all of this is that we are saving her vision and her body will return to normal (other than being short) once the steroid treatment is over. As of now they expect her to be on steroids for 6-12 months.

Just another bump in the road on this trip called "Parenthood".....Romy style! I feel confident that this is a step in the right direction, her doctor's down here are really wonderful. They're upfront about everything and don't sugarcoat anything. They are very attentive and always remember Romy and her "history". Back in Fort Hood, I was constantly reminding her doctor's that she was a girl and not a boy, that she was preemie, etc.

Well friends, this is the part that I ask for prayers once again. Please pray for good results on her upcoming tests and evaluations. Pray for the steroids to work and for little Romy's body to be able to handle all of the drugs. Please thank him for us as well. Even through all of this, we still have one amazing little girl that I'm so proud and lucky to be the mother of! She has taught me so much about life and has also managed to solidify my faith in the Lord. I will keep you up to date!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! Every year military bases around the world put on an amazing fireworks display. We skipped it this year because it's too loud and crowded to bring Romy Raye along. So instead we went to a friend's house and ate some good food and watched the fireworks from the front porch instead....well I did, Romy was sleeping. I laid her out on a blanket to get a little sun and took these adorable pictures.

P.S-WE MISS YOU DADDY! Happy Independence Day! Hang tough and come home soon! Mama and I love you very much! But most of all...be careful!

She will hate me for this one day.....

SOOO cute, huh? She peed on the towel about 5 seconds later.

She smiles at Angels.........

Sometimes I'll put Romy in her swing/jumper/bumbo or on the floor so that I can do stuff around the house. Sometimes I hear her babble and giggle so I run over to watch her and she's always laughing at something that I can't see. I think she's laughing with her angels:)