We also went to the Kids at Heart Holiday Party this year from CHOA. We had a great time and Olivia got to see one of her heart buddies as well. They got to make Christmas cookies and stuffed bears. It
was so much fun!
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Visit with Santa
Just before Christmas we took the kids to have their visit with Santa at his workshop. We went with my good friend Kellie and her kids Mason and Callie. It was so much fun. The kids got to see how Santa makes his toys in the workshop and even helped him make a toy car! Here are some photos from that day...
Monday, December 26, 2011
My 9 year old Princess
So, its been a while since I have updated here so I thought I would start back with pictures from Olivia's 9th Birthday party. She had a blast and we had a wonderful lady- Danielle Reier from Icing Smiles make Olivia's Bieber fever cake and put a huge smile on her face! She loved her cake and loved seeing all of her Besties! She loved getting her hair, nails and makeup done and singing Kareoke. They sang Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez! She had a blast. I cannot believe that my baby girl is 9 already! Check it out....
December 19th
Fav food: Chicken fingers & Chickfila & salad
Fav color: Pink
Weight: 52lbs
Shoe size: 1
Clothes size: 7/8
Very caring and kind. Always doing things for others.
Love to paint finger nails and toes!
Love Justin Bieber!
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Fun, Craziness and Life
So, it's been a while since I have posted on here. As most of you know we have been quite busy with Olivia with Doctors visits, checkups etc. We have seen everyone from Hematology to GI to Cardiologists and Liver specialists. It has been crazy to say the least. But amongst all this craziness we have had some great times too!! In fact, the last couple of weeks have been amazing!
To start it off we did the American Heart Association Heart Walk starting at Turner Field and was a 5k on Sat. October 29, 2011 It was awesome and COLD!! :) I had two of my sweet friends from work Chrissy and Britanie who joined my family to support Olivia and walk with us on this special day! Here are a few pics from that day.....
The following weekend we went to be a part of a Make A Wish event that we were invited to at the GSU game. We had tons of fun and Olivia loved meeting the cheerleaders and coming out onto the field at halftime and seeing what goes on behind the scenes of a college football game! Cooper loved seeing the big football players and I think that he wanted to go play too!
On Tuesday Novemeber 8, 2011 we went to Dave N' Busters to meet some of the Atlanta Falcons and go Bowling. This was another Make A Wish event that we were invited to and it was AWESOME!!! Olivia meet a new best friend named Michael Palmer #81 Tight End. He was great!! Olivia had him spinning around and clucking like a chicken while he was bowling. He made her laugh and smile that would last a lifetime!!
Friday, July 29, 2011
Read This: It Could Save a LIfe.
Kristine Brite McCormick contacted me to tell the story of her beautiful daughter Cora and how a seemingly healthy newborn could be battling something life-threatening. Cora passed, but what was learned can save others. Here it is, in Kristine's own words.
Cora's Story: Screening Newborns for Heart Defects
A screening so simple it's called the fifth vital sign might have saved my daughter's life. Something so simple it's like getting your temperature or blood pressure taken stood between my daughter's life and death. I'm determined to make sure that doesn't happen again.
My pregnancy with Cora was normal and uneventful. I had no problems during labor and delivered a beautiful 8-pound, 10-ounce little girl on November 30, 2009. She scored nines on both her Apgar tests. I took her home with a clean bill of health.
One early morning, I nursed her. Everything was going great. As a new mom, I looked down almost constantly while she nursed. I looked up for a brief second to tell my husband something. I looked back down. Cora wasn't breathing. Cora was pale. Her face was covered in blood. I jumped up. We raced to the hospital. It was too late. At just five days old, Cora was dead.
Two days later, the coroner called and told me Cora died from a congenital heart defect. It was the first time I'd ever heard those words. When I asked my OB about it, she said it was rare.
I later found out CHD is not rare. It affects one in 100 babies according to the March of Dimes. I was devastated to learn Cora wasn't alone; CHD is one of the leading causes of deaths in infants, killing more babies than SIDS or accidents. A few weeks after her death, I learned that only half of all babies are diagnosed before birth. I learned that other babies are dying from late diagnosis, or suffering from delays and brain damage.
When I found out that a simple tool already found in every newborn nursery that costs less than a diaper change could have saved her life, I wasn't angry. I was determined to prevent other babies from suffering.
Pulse oximetry measures the oxygen saturation of a patient's blood. Almost all of us have had one at some point. For adults, it's a clip with a small light that goes on the end of your finger, and in newborns it looks like a Band-Aid.
Pulse ox doesn't find every CHD. There's no foolproof test for heart defects. But it helps. It's easy. It's cheap. It's not harmful to baby or mother. In fact, it's best when baby is calm, so the baby potentially never has to leave her mother's arms during the screening.
I'm not a fan of medical interventions. Had I learned something more invasive or painful caught some CHDs, I would have thought twice before becoming an advocate. But this is a no-brainer. It's so simple yet life-saving.
I'm proud to report, my home state of Indiana was the first to pass pulse oximetry screening for CHD legislation. I'm so proud of Cora, and what we've accomplished here. There's a national movement. Protocols are being developed. It's been recommended and studied. Two other states — New Jersey and Maryland — have pulse ox-related laws. Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and New York have bills.
Some hospitals already do this. If you deliver at a hospital that does the screening and your baby's saturation levels are low, the screening will most likely be repeated, and if the numbers are still low, an echo will be ordered.
I hope that never happens to anyone reading this. I honestly hope pulse ox doesn't catch any CHDs because I wish congenital heart disease didn't exist.
However, with mixed emotions, I realize that many mothers will first be alerted to their child's heart defect because of pulse oximetry screening. I'm sad that they have to enter the world of CHD. I'm glad they won't find out like I did, from the coroner.
Soon every baby in the nation will be screened with pulse ox. It's just a matter of time now, and now you know it's important. It affects real people. Sadly, Cora could have been your baby because most types of heart defects are not genetic but linked to random events.
What happened to Cora doesn't have to happen again.
If you'd like more information about pulse oximetry screening and how you can help, visit my website, pulseoxadvocacy.com. To read more about Cora, visit corasstoryblog.com.
Kristine Brite McCormick lives in Indianapolis with her husband, Ben, and two badly behaved dogs, Reggie and Lucy. Cora is her only child. She's an advocate and activist. Other projects include Operation Healing Hearts, helping children in Iraq with heart defects, and work with several other charities.
Cora's Story: Screening Newborns for Heart Defects
A screening so simple it's called the fifth vital sign might have saved my daughter's life. Something so simple it's like getting your temperature or blood pressure taken stood between my daughter's life and death. I'm determined to make sure that doesn't happen again.
My pregnancy with Cora was normal and uneventful. I had no problems during labor and delivered a beautiful 8-pound, 10-ounce little girl on November 30, 2009. She scored nines on both her Apgar tests. I took her home with a clean bill of health.
One early morning, I nursed her. Everything was going great. As a new mom, I looked down almost constantly while she nursed. I looked up for a brief second to tell my husband something. I looked back down. Cora wasn't breathing. Cora was pale. Her face was covered in blood. I jumped up. We raced to the hospital. It was too late. At just five days old, Cora was dead.
Two days later, the coroner called and told me Cora died from a congenital heart defect. It was the first time I'd ever heard those words. When I asked my OB about it, she said it was rare.
I later found out CHD is not rare. It affects one in 100 babies according to the March of Dimes. I was devastated to learn Cora wasn't alone; CHD is one of the leading causes of deaths in infants, killing more babies than SIDS or accidents. A few weeks after her death, I learned that only half of all babies are diagnosed before birth. I learned that other babies are dying from late diagnosis, or suffering from delays and brain damage.
When I found out that a simple tool already found in every newborn nursery that costs less than a diaper change could have saved her life, I wasn't angry. I was determined to prevent other babies from suffering.
Pulse oximetry measures the oxygen saturation of a patient's blood. Almost all of us have had one at some point. For adults, it's a clip with a small light that goes on the end of your finger, and in newborns it looks like a Band-Aid.
Pulse ox doesn't find every CHD. There's no foolproof test for heart defects. But it helps. It's easy. It's cheap. It's not harmful to baby or mother. In fact, it's best when baby is calm, so the baby potentially never has to leave her mother's arms during the screening.
I'm not a fan of medical interventions. Had I learned something more invasive or painful caught some CHDs, I would have thought twice before becoming an advocate. But this is a no-brainer. It's so simple yet life-saving.
I'm proud to report, my home state of Indiana was the first to pass pulse oximetry screening for CHD legislation. I'm so proud of Cora, and what we've accomplished here. There's a national movement. Protocols are being developed. It's been recommended and studied. Two other states — New Jersey and Maryland — have pulse ox-related laws. Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and New York have bills.
Some hospitals already do this. If you deliver at a hospital that does the screening and your baby's saturation levels are low, the screening will most likely be repeated, and if the numbers are still low, an echo will be ordered.
I hope that never happens to anyone reading this. I honestly hope pulse ox doesn't catch any CHDs because I wish congenital heart disease didn't exist.
However, with mixed emotions, I realize that many mothers will first be alerted to their child's heart defect because of pulse oximetry screening. I'm sad that they have to enter the world of CHD. I'm glad they won't find out like I did, from the coroner.
Soon every baby in the nation will be screened with pulse ox. It's just a matter of time now, and now you know it's important. It affects real people. Sadly, Cora could have been your baby because most types of heart defects are not genetic but linked to random events.
What happened to Cora doesn't have to happen again.
If you'd like more information about pulse oximetry screening and how you can help, visit my website, pulseoxadvocacy.com. To read more about Cora, visit corasstoryblog.com.
Kristine Brite McCormick lives in Indianapolis with her husband, Ben, and two badly behaved dogs, Reggie and Lucy. Cora is her only child. She's an advocate and activist. Other projects include Operation Healing Hearts, helping children in Iraq with heart defects, and work with several other charities.
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