Thanksgiving pictures and update on Analise

First of all, here are some of the pictures we promised from Erik and Dawn's Thanksgiving celebrations (we told you they have big families!!)  ;-)

The week before Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving celebration with Annette, Dawn's mom's side of the family: Great Grandma Thelma, Grandma Annette, Auntie Victoria, and Analise

Analise had her ears pierced last week!!  How about a bottle to help her forget the pain!!

Hailey hugging her cousin Analise to make her feel better after her ears were pierced, awwww!!

Thursday: Thanksgiving celebration with Bill, Dawn's father's side of the family.  Dawn's Aunt Cindy holding Analise while Erik and Dawn ate their Thanksgiving meal.  Erik didn't get a chance to take too many pictures because he spent a lot of time playing with the kids and talking to Analise's Great Grandpa Jim, who was spending his first Thanksgiving in over 60 years without his wife Margrette.

Friday: Thanksgiving celebration with Ed, Erik's Dad's side of the family: Uncle Steve and Auntie Jen, Grandpa Ed, Grandma Sandy, cousin Tyler, Auntie Monika and cousin Isabela, Kassandra, Dawn, Analise, Erik, Kyle, and Kaley

 Auntie Jen (Erik's stepsister) is recovering from surgery.
We all wish her a speedy recovery!!

Saturday: At our Araoz Family Thanksgiving (Erik's Mom's (me ) side of the family):  Here is Abuela with 20 of her 24 great-grandchildren (and there are 2 more on the way!!) (Big sister Kaley is holding Analise)  Abuela loves these big family get-togethers.  All of Abuela's children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren who were in town were part of this celebration... more than 50 of us!!

Analise and Dawn during the Araoz Thanksgiving...Analise was pretending she was eating the all the yummy Cuban food her great-aunts and uncles prepared for this Thanksgiving celebration, that is why she is smiling!!

Dawn and Analise visit with friends Jana, Georgie, and Vlandita.  Vlandita is also doing a great job being Dawn's long-term sub for her class this year. 

Jana

Georgie

Vlandita

We know the posts don't come as often as they used to, but as Erik said, " it sometimes feels like the movie Groundhog Day" and the same things happen every day and we don't want to lose any blog followers.     Just to give you an idea of what typical day in Erik and Dawn's life nowadays consists of:  Analise wakes up around 6:30 or 7am.  Dawn feeds her then gives her her breathing treatment for the bronchiolitis.  Then "usually" she goes back to sleep for a couple more hours (Analise that is, not Dawn ).  Then the routine rotates around: exercises, tummy time, feeding, napping, changing diapers, and wiping her up for the rest of the day.  She usually gets pretty fussy around dinner time, probably because she doesn't eat the same food as the rest of family and probably the most stressful part of their day.  Then she eats around 8pm and falls asleep for a few hours, wakes up around 10 or 11pm and 3 am (Erik and Dawn love that time) and it starts all over again the next day!! 

Analise continues to struggle with congestion and vomiting.  Everyone's prayers are needed to help her overcome this latest challenge and to help her doctors determine the cause of these issues and prescribe the best treatment.  Weight gain has been minimal due to the vomiting, and she is so tiny as it is, we don't want this to continue.  Erik and Dawn are trying a new feeding schedule, feeding her one ounce less of the formula with each feeding, with the same frequency, and the vomiting seems to have decreased. Let's just pray that she was eating too much!!  Analise has an appointment with the gastroenterologist on Friday. 

Despite challenges that would slow most of us down, Analise is thoroughly enjoying not having her casts any longer and is LOVING her baths.  She loves kicking her feet and legs!!  Dawn only gives her a bath every other day, but if Analise is crying before her bath, she relaxes as soon as her feet touch the warm water!!   

Although we have not had the pleasure of seeing this yet, Erik and Dawn have told us that Analise has started to laugh sporadically...we will work on making her laugh more often!!   She is also imitating her 5 month old cousin Shayne's way of complaining by blowing bubbles and "raspberries"!!  Analise, and all of us will miss her cousins, Shayne, Carson, and Tyler, and her Auntie Ashley and Uncle J.B., who just moved to San Antonio, Texas...Thank you God for Skype!!!

Analise will be having a new cousin, probably tonight or tomorrow!!  Dawn's sister Victoria is in the hospital tonight and she and her husband Andrew will soon welcome their second daughter, Chloe.

Big thanks to Erik and Dawn's friend Donny.  Donny's father owns an electrical company called US Electric Co. out of Murietta and they donated their time, expertise, and materials installing the electrical wiring and light switches in Analise's bedroom, as well as the ceiling fan that Erik never had a chance to install after Analise was born.  THANK YOU!!!

Suzie,Thelma, Dawn, Analise, Debbie, Jack and Erik

Also, one more thank you to Debbie and Jack Freeman, Thelma Jenkins (Analise's great grandma) and Suzie Titus from Prudential in Cerritos.  They stopped by Erik and Dawn's house last week and delivered an amazing check with the proceeds from their fundraiser.  Analise now has a generous emergency account that is waiting to be used towards the expenses that Erik and Dawn will continue to have, associated with Analise's medical condition, medical treatment,  and travel to the Philadelphia Shriners.



 On a sad note, Analise's roommate in the Kaiser Sunset NICU passed away a few days ago.  Erik and Dawn had befriended little Courtney's parents after their long days and nights together with their children in the NICU.  Courtney sadly passed away from congestive heart failure this past Sunday.

The difficulties Erik and Dawn have been enduring, in no way compare to the loss that their friends, Jenna and Joe, have suffered.  Erik and Dawn, and all of us, send our heartfelt love and prayers to Courtney's parents, Jenna and Joe, and her big brother Dylan.

Erik and Dawn are heartbroken for their friends and are holding Analise just a little bit closer, knowing how blessed they are to have her!!

Happy Thanksgiving and our thanks go out to all of you!!

From Erik and Dawn:
"Today is Thanksgiving and we have so much for which to be thankful.  The past few months we have been reminded daily of what extraordinary family and friends we have.  EVERYONE has gathered around us with so much love and support for Analise and for our family in more ways than we could have ever imagined!!

The generosity of friends, family, and total strangers (with your prayers, your support, your kindness,  your time, your gifts, your thoughtfulness, etc.) has been overwhelming and has been just what we needed to get us through some tough times.

On this Thanksgiving Day, 
please know how thankful we are for 
EVERYTHING

ALL OF YOU
are doing for our family.  

Both Dawn and I  have large families and today we have started our family Thanksgiving celebrations, which will extend into Saturday.  We will gather pictures from all the events and post them on Sunday.

Analise is still getting over the bronchiolitis, and has slightly less congestion, but she is throwing up more than she should.  We will see the doctor again on Monday and we will not be able to schedule surgery in Philly for her hamstrings until Analise is no longer sick. "

Analise will be 100 days old tomorrow!!!

                                           
                    Analise at the gym again. . .those arms are moving!!

From Erik:

It's hard to believe it, but Analise is 100 days old tomorrow.  She has only been here for a little time, but she has affected so many people.  She is such a special little girl and we are so glad she is in our lives!!!

 

Everytime Erik says "I love you" to Analise she gets the biggest smile!!

After weeks of going back and forth about the surgery on her hamstrings, we decided to do it.  We made all of the arrangements, flight, hotel and car reservations for next week, one of the busiest times of the year to travel.  

But we forgot to ask Analise, and so we think she got sick on purpose to give herself a break.  She got really congested, and when we took her in to the doctor, we found out she had/has bronchiolitis.  It is an inflammation or infection in her bronchioles.  She now has a machine that makes the medicine (albuterol) into a fine mist that she has to breathe in every 4 hours to open up the airways. Analise used to like the mask, but now screams every time.  She coughs and sneezes a lot due to the congestion and she hates that "nasal mucus sucker" that we have to use after her treatment.  

Due to this infection, the anesthesiologist in Philadelphia said we need to cancel the upcoming surgery and wait until her chest is clear for at least a month.  Luckily, at the last minute, we added insurance to our flight plans, so we are in the process of getting our money back for the flights.  So with all of that, we are now waiting… again.

"Getting my breathing treatment"

Analise finally got her casts off and she got fitted for her new "fancy" shoes.  Bill Kearney, of Johnson's Orthopedic, fit Analise for a new pair of shoes with a hinged bar between her feet so her knees have more mobility.  She does not like them because we have to make them very tight to stretch out her achilles tendons.  The hinged bar allows her to move her knees, but it keeps the feet out so they will not turn back in.  Club feet in arthrogrypodic children have a tendency to turn back to their original positions.  She has to wear these braces all of the time except during bath time.  She will wear them until she is walking, and once she's walking she only has to wear them at night.  

Bill Kearney, Dawn, and Analise with her new braces/shoes. . ."I'm not too sure about these!"

"Are you sure these are on the right way?!?!"

Thelma (Dawn's grandma) and her friend Debbie held an incredible fundraiser/open house (a party really).  

We had never met Debbie Freeman (the owner/manager of the Prudential California Real Estate office in Cerritos) before Saturday, but this amazing woman did so much for our little girl, whom she had never met.  

We know it takes a lot of people to put on an event like this and we would like to also extend our thanks to all those who volunteered to help, especially the local real estate community and their partners, for their unselfish support of Analise and their generosity.


It was an AMAZING success because of all their hard work and commitment to Analise.  Everything was beautifully organized and lovingly presented.  The weather was out of their control, but they improvised beautifully!!  Every detail of the event, from the silent auction to the 50/50 raffle, was not only fun but designed selflessly for the benefit of our family.

Four Generations: Annette (Dawn's Mom), Thelma (Dawn's Grandmother), Dawn, and Analise

Fundraiser at Debbie Freeman's home

Thelma, Debbie, and Annette

We continue to be astonished at everyone's generosity... 
with their time, talent, energy, gifts, love, and prayers!!  

We know Analise will succeed in life and exceed the doctors' expectations because of all this love and support!! 

 Debbie, thank you for sharing your lovely home with all of us for this event...you were a gracious hostess and we felt very welcomed in your home!!  Our "family" is definitely growing!!

So, as we wait for Analise to get better, we will actually be able to spend Thanksgiving with our families.  

We have so much to be thankful for and we are so lucky to have such great people in our lives.  
Again, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!

No more casts. . . at least for a little while!!

 "Ready for bed . . . Good Night!!  
Thank you ALL for EVERYTHING you ALL do for me and my family!!!"

Analise is 3 months old and her casts are finally off!!

From Erik:

"Analise is 3 months old today, but when Analise was 30 days old, we started the process of casting her each week to try and correct her severe club feet.  We had to go in each week after the initial casts, and have the casts cut off and put back on with a different position in her feet (Ponseti method).

After 9 weeks of casts, Analise is finally out of them.  Yeah!!!  They look so good and are such an improvement from before the casting.  She keeps kicking her legs, moving her toes and extending her knees in and out.  We can finally rub her legs and she can take a bath (for the third time in her life).  It's actually a little bit harder to hold her and change her now because we were so used to the casts, but we will manage.

Unfortunately, when Analise goes to Philadelphia and has the hamstring tenotomy on November 23 with Dr. van Bosse, she will be back in casts (probably the big, clunky plaster ones) for about 4 weeks until our next visit out there.

Now that she is "technically" out of casts, she will need to wear braces on her legs for many years so her feet will not turn back in.  She was fitted for them today and we should get them by Friday.  They will be specially made for her and have a hinged bar in the middle so she can move and bend her knees.  She will also be measured for another brace in Philadelphia for after the surgery on her hamstrings.  

Analise has many things going on in the next two weeks.  She has 5 doctor appointments and a fundraiser open house to attend on Saturday (thank you great grandma Thelma and her friend Debbie Freeman).  She is finally getting her 2 month shots since she doesn't have casts.  She also has a little cough and is congested so she might have a small cold/flu.  It's not fun seeing your little baby sneezing and coughing so much.  We hope she gets better soon.  

Analise's 16 year old sister, Kaley, passed her permit driving test with 100%.  Good job Kaley!  You'll know it's Kaley driving because you'll see a very scared dad screaming in the passenger seat.

Analise's 11 year old sister, Kassandra, is finally off for a month from school after receiving honor roll.  You did awesome in school and we are very proud of you.  And she is all finished with soccer for the fall season.  Great season Kassandra and keep working hard so you're even better for next season.

Analise's 13 year old brother, Kyle, is just finishing up soccer and is finally hitting a growth spurt.  Hopefully he's taller than his old man.

Dawn is doing so much every day for Analise.  She is trying new stretches and exercises and Analise is actually enjoying some of them.  I just have to remind her to take time for herself every once in a while, but she doesn't really listen.

As for me, I'm doing fine.  I get a little stressed from time to time, and I'm probably not as easy-going as I used to be, but I will hopefully find that happy medium soon.  

We want to again say thanks for everything everyone is doing for us day in and day out.  We might not say it enough, but we are truly grateful for everything everyone is doing.  Our friends and family have been so generous and we hope you know we would do the same for you.  Have a great Veterans Day weekend."

Analise at 1 month

Analise at 1 month

Analise at 3 months

Analise at 3 months

 Analise at 1 month

I am sooo happy to get my casts off. . . but back to my exercises!!

Don't my feet look great!!

Just a reminder of Great Grandma Thelma's open house/fund raiser next Saturday, November 12, 2-5pm

Week 11 and start of week 12-Big decisions!!

From Erik:
"Analise did very well this week with her achilles tenotomy recovery.  She wasn't too fussy and didn't even cry that much.  She is one tough girl.   We also had a very big decision to make about what to do with her hamstring tendons.  If you recall, Dr. Hurley didn't want to cut the hamstrings and Dr. van Bosse in Philadelphia said it should be done and rather soon.  After many sleepless nights, we made a decision. . . 

We decided to take Analise to Philadelphia.  We just felt that Dr. vB would give her the best chance to walk, and walk as close to "normal" as possible.  I emailed him several times and he always emailed me back promptly and answered all of our questions.

We scheduled the surgery for November 23.

Yes, we will be eating turkey dinner the next day at the hospital (she has to stay one night in the hospital after the surgery).  But that's o.k., we feel we are making the best decision with the information we have at this time for Analise.  We are staying there for about a week (hopefully at the Ronald McDonald house) and then will probably have to return 3-4 weeks later to remove the casts and get fitted for braces.

Finding flights was a nightmare, especially at the busiest time of the year, but we were lucky to find some tickets. Even up to the last second, booking the flights was hard. . . making a decision that could affect Analise for the rest of her life was not easy.  

We had an appointment with Dr. Hurley yesterday to check on her achilles.  Analise's feet looked great and the little scars on the backs of her legs seemed to be healing nicely.  She put on Analise's final casts of the club foot correction (Ponsetti method).  Next week she will take them off and Analise will be fitted for braces.  

We weighed her again and she is now into double digits, 10 lbs. 2 oz.  She is finally graduating from newborn diapers to stage 1.  Some of her newborn clothes are not even fitting any more.  Yikes, growing so fast!! 

It was pretty funny too, when we were in the room taking off the casts, I got that "are you going to tell Dr. Hurley about the surgery" look from my wife.  So, nervous as can be, I told her.  She kind of looked at me funny and said that we have to do what we think is best, but it is wrong.  She said that she actually would consider that surgery, but when she was of walking age, 12-15 months.  I also asked her if she would take off the casts from Philly, and she didn't really give us an answer either way.  Its very hard to tell a doctor you are going to another doctor to get surgery.  She said only time will tell if it was the right decision or not.  

And that will be the story of Analise's life, "only time will tell."  It so hard to do things, and not see immediate results.  With Analise, results may take years and that is so difficult.  We have patience, but wow, it will definitely be tested with this journey. 

But with all of this drama, it seems as if all worries go away when we wake up and see her beautiful smile.  She gets so excited and is such a happy girl (when she's not crying or sleeping or pooping). 

These are the smiles we're talking about. . .
that makes all our worries go away!!

Analise went out on her first Halloween and got so much candy.  She even said, "twick or tweet!" Well, actually, she traveled in her stroller all around the neighborhood with her family, including a special visit from Auntie Katrina.

Next year though, Analise will be walking and talking. . .
We promise!!

Hope everyone had a safe Halloween, and don't eat too much of the kids' candy, at least that's what I'm telling myself."

I dressed up as a ballerina this year!!

Trick or treating with Kassandra, Kaley, and Kyle

These casts are bigger than I am!!

"Daddy says NO DATING until I'm 25!". . .
Say what!?!?

Big sister Kassandra

At the gym again . . .

. . . and Tummy time with Papa

This week after casts were removed.  Looking better and better!