BIG NEWS!!!!

Jaime, 23 days old, post-op first CDH Repair!

First off...let me say "Happy CDH Awareness Week" to all of my CDH Family! I love seeing your pictures...it's always bittersweet to see our kiddos hooked up to all of those machines, but we know that those are the very machines that have kept them alive...no matter how long! ALL of our kiddos are such fighters...and they have all made us stronger than we could ever imagine we could be! Not to mention, they have united us forever all because of this nasty birth defect known as Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia!
Here is a neat video that explains CDH in the simplistic form...as we know, Jaime has had significant complications for the last nearly 4 years because of this, but it does give a nice explanation! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1k9ok3QpzIs

Jared and his Lego Pilot sporting their turquoise!

This video shows a left-sided CDH baby, as that is more common, but Jaime is a Right-Sided CDH'er and doesn't have a diaphragm on the right-side at all. He just has 2 patches as shown in the video to create a "fake" diaphragm. It's amazing how far medicine has come these days, but the fact is, 50% of ALL CDH babies are still dying from this horrible birth defect...we need to spread awareness and gain more funds for research to decrease this number in the future! Since March 31st is Easter this year, we are celebrating CDH Awareness all week long. Don't forget to wear your turquoise (take pics and send them to me) and be sure to tell someone why you're wearing turquoise this week! Jaime and all of his earthly and heavenly CDH Friends and their Families appreciate it! 

OK on to the BIG NEWS!!!!! Tonight, Jaime came up to me with his empty water cup and said, "I want milky (Pediasure) in THIS cup!" Stunned, I said, "really?" He said, "yes, with chocolate." OK, so I poured a few ounces of Pediasure and Hershey's Syrup (man, he's obsessed with that stuff) into his M&M cup from Grammy and gave it to him. I watched him for a minute...he drank it. Then, he drank some more and more until he finished those few ounces and asked for MORE in THAT CUP! I poured the rest of the can of Pediasure and added Hershey's Syrup to it and waited to see what would happen. Well, he drank that, too! He did spill a little bit of it, but at that point he had almost finished it! Why is this significant, you ask? Well, it's the VERY FIRST TIME that he drank Pediasure from a REAL cup. You see, he has ALWAYS REFUSED "milky" in a cup and only wants to drink it from a sippy cup...and not only that, he SIPS the sippy cup taking HOURS to finish an 8 oz can. Well, tonight, not only did he use a "real" cup, but he "gulped" it rather than sipping it...and he kept it down! I am so proud of him! Really, this is a BIG DEAL in our little world! Jaime's had this cup for nearly 2 years and we have been trying to get him to use it...he recently started drinking water from a "real" cup, but as I said, had always refused Pediasure. Tonight, it was HIS doing! I washed that M&M cup, ready to offer it to him in the morning! Here's to many more "drinking" days ahead! Keep it up, Jaime!

Jaime taking his first few gulps from a real cup!

Jaime with the rest of his can of Pediasure in his "real" cup...his glasses are off because he can't figure out how to drink without getting Pediasure all over his glasses! Haha....baby steps! :)