The Beauty Mark

As many of you know, we went to Seattle Children's Hospital this week to have the mark on Whitney's face looked at. We were pretty sure it was a hemangioma but now it is official. We met with the dermatologist and she said it is definitely a hemangioma which is pretty much a collection of blood vessels. Normally they go away on their own over a few years and there is nothing to worry about. That is not exactly the case for Whitney. Hers would most likely go away on it's own but because it is so close to her eye there is more to worry about. The first worry is that as it gets bigger it might put too much pressure on her eye and affect her vision. It might even start to close her eye. The other worry is a syndrome called PHACE syndrome. The doctor said this is very rare, so don't get too worried, but sometimes the hemangioma can affect the brain and the heart. So, to rule out PHACE syndrome we are going back to Seattle and Whitney will have an MRI on her brain, which she will be put to sleep for, and she will have to meet with the cardiologist to have tests done on her heart. She will also have to meet with the eye specialist to make sure it is not affecting her eye. That is not going to be a fun couple of days. Since the doctor is concerned about the hemangioma continuing to grow and causing problems, like vision problems and it breaking open causing infections, we are going to take action and try to stop it from growing. Right now Whitney is on a medication that I apply to the hemangioma which is supposed to help it stop growing. If all the tests at the hospital look good then we are going to stop this medication and she is going to be put on a drug called Propranolol. She will have to take it 3 times a day for atleast 6 months. The problem with this propranolol is that it will lower her heart rate and blood pressure. So they are going to teach us how to check those and we will have to check it on a regualr basis to make sure they don't get too low. She will have to meet with a doctor monthly while on the medication and hopefully after 6 months the hemangioma will be mostly gone. Lots of you have been asking about laser surgery which the doctor did mention. She said that because Whitney's mark is so big it might not completely go away and her skin will probably never be as smooth as the rest of her face. She said that in the future we might need laser to lighten it more. Although she might not need is at all, we shall wait and see. I know that was a lot if info but I know some of you were wondering what is going on. We should be going back to Seattle within the next month to get the tests done and gets her started on the medication. I will keep you posted on how it goes. We are excited to start getting this taken care of but I am not going to lie, I am a little scared at the same time. I'm sure it will all go well. We sure love this little girl!

Update on the kiddos

Whitney is 2 months old and I am now finally finding a little time to blog. It has been so long that I don't even know where to start. I guess I will start with Whitney. She is the cutest little baby girl. I LOVE having a little girl. Don't get me wrong, Zach was a lot of fun but I never got to put him in dresses and bows. I love little girl clothes. She grows out of them way too quickly. Whitney is an awesome little baby. She eats and sleep likes a champ which makes for a happy baby and a happy mommy. I hate to brag (okay, I love to brag) but she has been sleeping through the night for about 3 weeks. I don't mean sleeping until 4, eating and then sleeping some more. I mean she is sleeping from about 10 til 8. That's right, I am one lucky girl. I guess that is one positive to having such a big baby, she doesn't need to eat as often. She is also such a happy baby. She really never cries and she loves to smile and laugh. All I have to do is smile at her and she will smile back every single time. I love it! I was terrified to have a second child, I thought it was going to be so hard. Thankfully, it has been so much easier than I expected. I love this little girl and we are so happy to have her in our family. Now for a Zachy update. He is 2 1/2 and he sure acts like a little 2 year old boy. He has so much energy and loves everything a little boy should like. He loves cars, trucks, garbage trucks, trains, golf, baseball, bob the builder, Thomas the train, and he especially loves being outside. Did you notice that golf was on that list? This kid LOVES golf (he gets it from his Grandpa). Ray and Zach were watching golf a couple months ago and within minutes of watching it Zach grabbed a stick and a ball and started golfing. We eventually bought him a little plastic golf set and he plays golf everyday. Sometimes our house gets a little wild, gold balls flying all over the place. Grandpa says Zach has a pretty impressive swing. The best part is that he learned to do a slow motion swing, since they show it on the TV. It is pretty cool. He is one fun little kid. He is also a great big brother. He loves his little sister so much. We were worried that he was going to be really rough with her but for the most part he is very gentle. He always wants to hold Whitney or sit by her. Tonight I put him to bed and after a few minutes he was yelling for me. I went in to see what he needed and he said he needed kisses from Whitney. Come on, isn't that the cutest thing in the world? It melted my little heart. Then as I was leaving the room he said he wanted to play cars with Whitney in the morning. So cute! I love that little guy! I was hoping to have time to post pictures from the past 2 months but I have to go feed the baby. So here are a few pictures and I will try to post more later!

So Cute!

Here is my sweet little 2 month old