Dats My Baby

Just wanted everyone to check out the new picture of Ollie at the top of my blog!

Ollie's Army

GREAT STRIDES: Taking Steps to Cure Cystic Fibrosis is the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's largest national fund-raising event. Tens of thousands of co-workers, friends and family come together each year as one community for one cause…to help find a cure for CF. In 2008, nearly $37 million was raised to support vital CF programs.

About GREAT STRIDES
In cities all across the United States, tens of thousands of people just like you are showing their commitment to "adding tomorrows every day" to the lives of those with cystic fibrosis through the simple act of walking.
Year after year, volunteers make every GREAT STRIDES walk site both fun and successful. Their dedication has helped GREAT STRIDES become one of the country's most effective and efficient fundraising efforts. Since the first GREAT STRIDES walk in 1989, more than $180 million has been raised to support the vital research and care programs of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
You can help us reach our 2009 national fundraising goal by participating in a GREAT STRIDES walk near you. Register online today and you'll have the opportunity to use our interactive fundraising tools. You also can invite walkers to join your team, request online donations, and check your fundraising status.

Why We Stride
Join us at one of more than 600 walk sites across the country for food, fun, music and a healthy 10K walk. It's easy to sign up! Join a walk today!


**I have created a team (Ollie's Army) and am currently looking for team members to join in this wonderful cause. The next walk near us is on October 3rd at 8:30 AM in Crestview, Florida. If you are interested in joining Ollie's Army please contact me through comments. I need your e-mail address and I can send you a direct link to sign up. It's easy and fun to be team member. You will receive an e-mail once you sign up, with a password in which to log on to your Ollie's Army page. There you can view other team member's progress as well as watch your donations and send e-mails to friends to get more walkers. Our team goal is $3000.00 with each individual goal set at $150.00. How easy is that?! It would be a fun day for everyone and for a GREAT cause!!! If you do not live near Crestview or would like to make a donation to Ollie's Army please click on the Great Strides link at the top right side of my blog.

Thank you everyone for the support!!

Training Day

This past Wednesday the family, along with John, myself, Ollie, my parents, John's mon and dad and stepmom loaded up and headed to the Children's Hospital in Birmingham for family education. We were introduced to several members of the CF team along with the nurses on the hospital's CF floor. We learned so much about Ollie's disease and what we could expect for the next year as far as doctor's visits and treaments. I feel more secure having met the doctor's and nurses that will be treating her. They are an awesome group of men and women who have dedicated their lives fighting CF and knowing this gives me peace. It looks like several Doctor's visits are in store, we just pray they are all "well" visits.

Right now Ollie is doing great. She now weighs over 8 lbs and is getting bigger everyday. Right now her treatment includes 2 different inhalents (albuterol to open the airways and Tobi to fight the bacteria). She takes these twice daily along with chest PT's in between each one. Chest PT's, or love pats, as we call them, are when we pat Ollie's chest, sides and back to break up any mucus in the airways. Ollie has taken very well to her inhalents and chest PT's and normally will fall asleep during the process.

Other than the adjustment to our new life, everything is still the same. We are all doing great and little O is the cutest, sweetest thing in the world. She is smiling and cooing and thanks to my sister, sticking out her tounge.....all the time!

Nip it in the Bud

A few weeks ago we were told that there was a chance that Ollie has Cystic Fibrosis. This was found by a blood sample taken the day myself and O were discharged from the hospital. This, known as a newborn screening, is required by Alabama State law and is done on all babies. The blood sample is then sent to a lab where it is tested for many genetic disorders as well as allergies and other things. It takes two weeks for the test to come back and when it did Ollie's test was inconclusive due to the lack of sample. Although hers was "inconclusive", we were informed that her screening for CF was positive. We were then contacted by Children's Hospital at UAB that we needed to bring O in for a sweat test once she was a month old to confirm CF. (Babies w/ CF have large amonts of salt in their sweat.) We had high hopes that this was all a big mistake and everything would be OK after this second test. Well, after the trip to Children's Hospital, we were informed that O did indeed have Cystic Fibrosis. I am posting this announcement so that not only is everyone informed but because there has been many inaccurate rumors flying around town about her disease. I wanted our friends to not only understand what CF is, but to also be able to correct these folks who are sharing our private information and getting the details all wrong. It is hard enough to deal with this diagnosis alone.

Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic disease that causes thick, sticky mucus to build up in the lungs, digestive system and other organs of the body. The mucus can lead to chronic lung infections and difficulty digesting food and nutrients causing poor growth and development. CF is an inherited disease caused by a recessive gene. This means that a child must inherit two copies of a defective CF gene, one from each parent, to have the disease. One in 33 americans are carriers of CF. This does not mean you have CF, you simply carry one copy of a defective gene. When two carriers have a baby, there is a 25% (1 in 4) chance that this baby could have CF (meaning we both passed on a defective gene). John and myself had no idea that we were carriers of this gene (which was passed down from one of our parents) and have NO family history of CF. Mandatory testing babies for CF just started a year ago, which means some people who have CF were not diagnosed until they began having symtoms. These symptoms might not even show up until adulthood. Early detection is so important for leading a happy healthy life and with proper care and prevention life expectancy is around age 40 and is getting higher every year.

With all that being said, Ollie is doing great. We have started her on enzymes to help with her digestion and she has started taking vitamins as well. As she gets older she may need some sort of lung therapy to assist in the fight against lung infections. Besides this extra medical care, she will be a normal baby and child. She can play sports and do all the things that children her age can do. Of course we are upset that she has CF, but we are happy it was diagnosed early and treatment has begun.

We simply ask that you keep us in your prayers but treat Ollie, John and myself the same as you normally would.

Ollie has always been special, now she's just a little more special.

Thanks for listening and love to all!

One Month O

Little O is one month old today. So much has changed in this past month and our lives have been blessed because of our sweet baby girl. At Ollie's one month check up this morning she weighed in at 7 lbs 10 oz. She has gained over a pound in less than 2 weeks.....YAY!!! She is doing great. She is now eating close to 4 oz at each feeding (in around 10 minues). Thank you Ginny for the Dr. Brown's bottles recommendation. She LOVES the bottles and so do we. (It was taking us over an hour to get her to eat just 2 oz before with another brand of bottles.) Ollie loves to be held and talked to (she even likes my singing). Chilling in her vibrating bouncer and hanging out in her swing are her favorite past times (besides eating and sleeping). She has also started to really observe the things around her and loves being outside. With all that being said, life is perfect, O.P. is perfect and we couldn't be happier!