Our new baby

In the midst of everything else that our family has been up to the last few months, we aquired a new little one at our house. If I had known what lay in store for us, we may have waited until another time to do this! Back in April, just before Averi was born, we saw an ad in the paper for chocolate lab puppies. We had talked about getting a chocolate lab and had been half heartedly looking at the pound and in the paper. This litter of puppies was closer and less expensive than others we had seen. I called the day I saw the ad, and because we were the first to call, we were told that we could have the pick of the litter. Well.......we made the mistake of going to look at the litter of puppies. They were so small and cute and irresitable. We were drawn to the smallest, darkest, female. We also were hooked on getting a puppy. Who could resist. Here is one of the puppies on April 30th. Little did we know at the time that Averi would come the next day!

After Averi was born and I stayed with Tiffany and her family for awhile, when I came back to Virginia, the owners were anxious for us to come over and pick out which puppy we wanted so they could let others come and pick out theirs. Glenn, Courtney, and I met up with Kenny and Cherish for the big event. We kept leaning towards a cute little, active female puppy. We made a final decision and they put a tiny little collar on her.

On June the 7th, we got to bring her home. Kaili was staying with us for the week, so she got to go too. We named our new puppy Mocha. We had a lot of names, but it was hard to find one that all of us liked!

From the day we got her, Mocha has slept in her crate... but she sure picks some crazy sleeping positions.

So being the lab that she is, she just keeps eating, pooping, and growing........

and growing.......


And growing!!!!!


I'm not so sure Oscar, our dashund is happy we have Mocha. She chases him and chews on him and pesters him anytime she can. So far, Oscar still lets her know whos boss, but I figure one day she will figure out that she weighs 4 times as much as he does. This is Mocha when she wasn't much bigger than Oscar. Now she is MUCH bigger.

We did take Mocha to Obedience School. I don't know who learned to obey - us or the dog - but she did graduate! She is pretty good at come, sit, lay down, roll over, fist pound, wait, leave it, and watch me. We still have some work to do though. One of her worst habits is jumping up and putting her paws on the cupboard. Here's the graduate. She looks so "intelligent" - :)

So - here she is now. I estimate that she weighs around 50 lbs or so, she was 7.5 lbs when we brought her home. She loves her dog chow!

Homecoming Dance

I have been promising myself for several weeks that I would get some updates to my blog. I thought I would start with where we are now and possibly catch some past activities later! Courtney started High School this year and along with that - all the High School activities. She is still doing competition dance team and piano, but now she is also in the marching band, has a lot more homework, and goes to Seminary Book of Mormon class at 6am every school day! She keeps busy to say the least, and so do we.


She's not old enough to date, so she went to the Homecoming Dance with some girlfriends. I got to make her dress. It is always hard to find time to sew, but I do love working with my daughters on their special occasion dresses. We had actually picked out this fabric, etc in April to make a dress to wear the a church formal dance, but when Tiffany's little one, Averi came early and was in the NICU for 7 weeks, we didn't get around to making a dress. The skirt has several layers, plus netting, the top was a beaded top that had come with a skirt I used for Kenny's wedding, and we made the jacket. Here is the whole ensemble.






Here's the back.




And here is the Courtney we all know and love!!!

Time for a new post about Averi. Thank you so much for those of you that keep her in your thoughts and prayers. I haven't had new pictures because I have been gone for two weeks now. I wish I could be there each and every day! I got Tiffany to send me some pictures from her phone!

The big news is that Averi had a G-tube put in today. A G-tube is a tube inserted in her abdomen that goes directly into her stomach for feedings. She has continued to have problems with swallowing and reflux which leads to her heart rate dropping and her oxygen levels dropping. This will be a better long term way to feed her and the hope is that she will not have as much trouble with reflux since she will not have a tube going down her throat keeping her stomach partly open.

They tried to put the tube in on Friday at her bedside, but had trouble with her breathing. They thought they couldn't schedule her for the OR until this Friday, but her GI doctor was able to work her in today. Everything went well. She is on a ventilator for a short term. they will start using the G-tube tomorrow. We will see how that goes. Here is a picture of her shortly after her return from the OR.

Averi had to be put back on C-pap after they tried to do the procedure on Friday. She has been off and on oxygen and c-pap since she was born. Tiffany says her breath smells like a wet dog when she is on it. Here is a picture of our little elephant.


These last few pictures are from last week. I hadn't seen Averi in awhile. She is starting to fill out a little! Such a cutie. The nurses put a bow in her hair with some surgical lubricant. It stayed in for several days. Tiffany asked where she could get some - it is not for sale to the public, but the nurses assured her that they would send her home with some :)

This picture was taken a couple of days after I left. I had taken some of her baby clothes to the hospital and the nurses had dressed her up!

I love this last picture. It was taken the day before she was transferred from St. Ann's to Children's. They made mother's day flowers for all the moms in the NICU. I have never seen her without tubes coming out of her mouth or nose. I guess they took all of her tubes out long enough to take a picture. I took a picture of the picture. Can't wait until I can see her for real with no tubes!!!

Averi was a month old on Friday - even past her due date now. I'll keep you up to date whenever I can.

For those of you that want - we are asking friends and family to please include her in their fasting and prayers this coming weekend.

I thought I would send an updated post on Averi. Thank you so much for those of you that have called, sent notes, e-mails, or are just keeping us in your prayers.

I am back in Virginia now - it just about killed me to leave Ohio, but at least Tiffany is doing better and able to drive herself places now. Dan's parents arrived at their house last night and will be able to stay with them until the 29th of May, I believe. I am so glad they could come.

Averi seems to still be doing her dance of 1 or 2 steps forward and 1 or 2 steps back. She has times she is more alert now. This is one of my favorite pictures of her so far because her eyes are open (a rare occurance)! This picture was taken last Wednesday when she was waiting for her swallow study.

Her swallow study did not show a hole between her esophogus and trachea, but it did show that she has a very weak and uncordinated suck and swallow. They were able to get her to take about 4 sucks total and then she wore out. Occupation Therapy will be working with her on this, but they said she is weak enough right now, that they best thing to do is encourage her to breastfeed. Tiffany has very patiently been working with her several times a day - sometimes she will latch, but no real sucking. She still receives her feedings by tube. The feeding is delivered over 45 minutes because she has episodes of her heart rate dropping and her oxygen saturation dropping if she spits up at all. She was off of oxygen for a couple of days, but is back on again - mostly to help out with those episodes.

Here is a picture of her over the weekend - sporting a trendy nasal canula and feeding tube! As you can see, she is still a bit jaundiced - it seems to be taking a long time to go away.

They also let us know this last week that she has a significant heart defect that will require open heart surgery at some point in time. They hope to be able to hold off until she is at least 4 months old. They will use medications to help - and when they are not effective enough anymore, they will do the surgery. She has an opening between the two lower chambers of her heart, so blood that is supposed to go to the body also gets pushed back into the lungs and this will cause fluid accumulation in her lungs.

Kenny and Cherish came to visit last weekend (Mother's Day weekend) and here are a couple of pictures of them with their youngest niece. It was sure nice of them to come in the pouring rain!

While I was there - the routine was pretty much -

Wake up at 7, Tiffany would pump, leave by 8 to be at Children's Hospital by 8:30 for Tiffany to try to feed Averi, at 9 they would start her tube feeding and Tiffany would continue to try to feed her. At 10, Tiffany would pump and I would get to hold Averi for awhile, then Tiff would come back and do Kangaroo care (skin to skin) until the next feeding and pumping. Kaili would come with us. She was allowed in the NICU and did a great job - especially if we brought Tinkerbell and the DVD player. When she got restless, there were many choices of places to play in the hospital. Around 1 or so, we would head home for lunch and naps for Kaili and hopefully Tiffany. Dan and Tiffany would head back around 5pm for the 6pm feeding. I got to hang out with Kaili, make dinner, etc. Tiffany would usually go to bed around 11 and get up around 3 to pump again. And then the day would start again! Poor Tiffany really doesn't have time for anything!!!

Here is Kaili holding her new baby Averi! What a great big sister she will be. If you look closely, you will see this was when she was off of oxygen.

This is such a beautiful picture of a mother and her daugther. Tiffany has been doing so well.

Keep them in your prayers. I think Averi is saying her prayers too!

Averi Michelle Fisher

Averi Michelle Fisher was born May 1st at 8:05am at St. Ann's Hospital in Colombus, Ohio. She weighed 5lbs and 6oz and was 17 inches long. After an eventful pregnancy, Tiffany's water broke at 4am and they were off to the hospital. Averi was delivered by cesearean section and did well for awhile, but then had problems with her breathing. She was off to the NICU to help her out. So far she has been in the NICU for 1 week and 2 days. She has had several problems pop up, and we are still waiting to find out all her "ins and outs"!

Averi was diagnosed with Down's Syndrome, and that seems to be the root of a lot of her other problems. She is so cute!

She needed help with breathing only for a short while, but has had to be on oxygen off and on all week. She has also had jaundice and has been in and out of the bililights. Averi has had a lot of problems with swallowing, and on Friday she was transferred to the Children's Hospital in Colombus. They think there may be an opening between her esophogus and her trachea. Further tests this week should let us know what is going on. She also has a small hole between the ventricles of her heart, but for now, they are just going to watch how that does. It may heal on it's own. Her bloodwork has been off and they will watch that too.

For now, we are enjoying what time we can spend with her. Some days she is very sleepy and other days she is a bit more alert. We had a great visit with her this morning for Mother's Day.

We will keep you posted. I may post this without pictures for now. I have been trying all evening to download pics to facebook and to the blog and it is not working! I will add pics when I can.

This is Averi and Tiffany shortly after birth!

Here's Kaili visiting her sister when she was still in the isolette.

Dan's excited about his new little girl.

Tiffany and Kaili while still in the hospital. We sure were happy that they had such a great NICU at St. Ann's and that Averi and Tiffany were in the same place.

Grandpa Davis!!

Averi has been in and out of the bililights a couple of times. Here is her designer eyewear!

Averi was pretty alert for a few days. She is a bit sleeper again now - but growing every day!

She has had visits from her PaPa Davis, Aunt Courtney, Uncle Kenny, Aunt Cherish, and Nama Davis.

Her favorite visitor of all of course is her big sister - Kaili!! You can see the picture that Kaili colored for her.

New York

For Easter weekend, we went to upstate New York to see Glenn's mother - she lives in a nursing home. It is by far the best nursing home we have ever seen. It was clean, no smell, and the staff were all friendly to the residents and to visitors. Kenny and Courtney came with us, as well as Glenn's sister, Debbie and her husband, Dave.

Glenn, Debbie, and his mother, Ella Jean

Debbie and Dave with mom

Our Family with mom

Glenn grew up in Waddington, New York. We found out while we were there that it is the carp capital of the world!!!!! Is Glenn a carp??