Pumpkin Carving

We carved a pumpkin last weekend. Sophie didn't want to touch the messy stuff at first. Sometimes she's a girly girl and doesn't want to get her hands dirty. But once she saw mommy dig in she decided it was okay. I'll post Halloween pics later this week. Sophie's going to be a peacock!

Cystic Fibrosis Scare

We received a phone call last week from our pediatrician that Ava failed one of her newborn screening tests. The state of Michigan started testing for Cystic Fibrosis in newborns beginning October 1st, 2007 (the day Ava's blood happened to reach the lab). The screening test for CF measures the IRT level. Ava's level was in the range that required further testing, so they then looked for mutations in the CF gene. This test was positive, meaning Ava either had CF or was a carrier for it. This past Monday we went to Devos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids for a sweat test. Luckily she passed this test and is only a carrier for CF. The only thing negative about being a carrier is that when it comes time for Ava to have kids, her husband should get tested to see if he's a carrier. If two carriers have children there's a 25% chance they will have a child with CF. Approximately 1 in 28 people are carriers. So it's something she'll need to think about later in life.

Let's just say the past week was a bit scary. Things like this make you realize how fortunate you are to have healthy children!

Sophie is getting tested as well. We thought it would be a good idea to find out if she is also a carrier. Jeremy and I will be tested to see which one of us is a carrier (one of us has to be a carrier in order for Ava to be a carrier). We'd like to have one more baby and need to make sure we're not both carriers so we can make a smart decision. Knowledge is power!

If you'd like to learn more about Cystic Fibrosis, please use the link below. There's a lot of great information there! And if anyone has questions, feel free to email me. I know a lot about CF now as well as the tests.

http://www.cff.org/AboutCF/Faqs/

A day on the farm...

We all went to Lewis Farm this past Sunday. Sophie had so much fun petting and feeding all the animals. They also had a pumpkin patch as well as some activities that Sophie was a bit too young for. Next year I think we'll go a little sooner as it was such a cold day, and all the good pumpkins were picked over!

Sophie and Daddy sat on the floor eating popcorn and watching the Monsters Inc. movie. I even looked over once to see Jeremy drinking water out of Sophie's sippy cup. I giggled and he said, "What, I was thirsty". I thought it was so cute and had to include a picture.

I finally got Sophie to hold Ava this past weekend. She's such a good big sister and is wanting to help out more and more. Everything is going so well!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from this past week.

She's finally here!

Ava Patrice

All I can say is, WOW! Labor started just a few hours after the last post, at about 2:30 pm. Jeremy and I went to the hospital about 5:15 pm and I gave birth at 7:41 pm. We were going to wait another hour before heading to the hospital because the contractions weren't very painful. Things progressed really fast, good thing I didn't wait! Ava Patrice was born on September 27th. She weighed 8lb 4oz and was 19 inches long. I didn't realize how much I missed having a baby until now. Ava is so precious and looks so much like Sophie did when she was born. I've even called her Sophie by mistake a few times.

We got home on Saturday (9/29) at 4pm. Everyone is doing great. Of course it's been very busy with two little ones. I'm very fortunate Jeremy took 2 weeks off of work to help out while we all get settled in. Sophie is adjusting well, too. She doesn't pay much attention to the baby, but has been saying "mine" all the time.

If anyone wants to stop by and visit, just give us a call to let us know the day and time. We're up for company at any time.