11 Months

Our sweet Vivienne turned 11 months last week. It's hard to believe she's going to be a year old soon! Everything has been going really well. Viv is sleeping through the night, has really mastered crawling, and is now pulling up/standing on everything. It's only a matter of time before she tries to take her first steps! The only area where she's a bit behind is feeding. She does great with her bottles and purees, but she is still having issues with textured foods. She's getting there though and this isn't abnormal for a CDH baby. I'm confident she'll be enjoying a variety of snacks in the near future.

Here's a video of Viv showing off her crawling skills:

And, as always, here are a few pictures of our girl.

Just catching up on some reading.

Always so happy.

Working on textured food.

Her new favorite spot looking out the window.

March 1st marks the one year anniversary of when we left home to prepare for Vivienne's birth. Dave and I have been reflecting a lot on our time at CHOP and the Ronald McDonald House. Strangely enough we look back on that time fondly. I'm sure it's largely because everything turned out about as well as we ever could have hoped, but it's also because the experience brought us closer together and allowed us to meet some amazing people.

Sadly, we lost some of those people this past week. We met our friends Pat and Casey at the Ronald McDonald House. Casey was pregnant with her daughter Madi when we first met. Madi was diagnosed with Spina Bifida and Casey and her mom Pat traveled to CHOP from Michigan to have fetal surgery. We quickly bonded and became very close during our time there and stayed in touch after we went home. Tragically, Pat, Casey, and baby Madi were taken in a fatal car accident last week. Dave and I are still in shock and are so devastated for their family. We are so sad that we will never be able to see them again and introduce the girls to each other. Pat and Casey were inseparable, and Casey fiercely loved and protected Madi during a year full of hardship and uncertainty. I don't understand why they were taken like this after enduring so much, but it only reinforces the notion that our time here is short and precious. It's important that we cherish the moments we have and make the most of the time we're given.