Due Date - Feb 11

So, today was February 11th. This would have been Heathers "official" due date according to the doctor. Actually, he seemed to go between saying the 11th and the 12th, but for our purposes, we called it the 11th. This made for a very awkward explanation every time someone asked "so, when are you due?" because we have known since week 20 that the plan was most likely an early delivery..but all along we were encouraged that "nothing is certain" and things may change and she could end up going full term. So when someone would ask, "so, when are you due?" we would just say Feb 11th.

It is still strange to think what might have been different if we had gone until today. Very few babies are born on their actual due date. The world is just full of uncertainties. Actually, there is a guy we went to high school with who's wife was due like 2 weeks before Chloe was. She ended up going something like 9 days past her due date. Their son and Chloe were born exactly a month apart.

Chloe came early, and that in itself came with its own set of risks although we seem to have overcome most if not all of them by now. One thing that has come up that neither of us had ever really heard of was the advent of what we thought was a birth mark. Actually, at first we thought she somehow scratched herself because it was just slightly red by her right eye. So it turns out it was the early stages of something called a "hemangioma" and it has actually gotten quite a bit more visible in the last few weeks. This was confusing to me because she was not born with this but I would come to find out, that's how they work.

Our pediatrician let us know that the best thing to do would be to visit a pediatric dermatologist where they might need to do some sort of treatment on it (which supposedly will help it go away?). Actually, they apparently go away on their own, but it can take like several years and specifically because it is near her eye, the concern is that it could potentially affect her vision. So, the bottom line is, we are going tomorrow to find out more about it. From my research it seems like this is supposedly not all that uncommon.
From a website:
Between 4% and 10% of Caucasian infants have at least one hemangioma.
Hemangiomas are three to five times more common in females (especially fair-skinned girls) than in males, and occur more frequently in Caucasian infants than in Asian infants. They are rare in African-American infants.

So what does this look like? Well:

and to be honest, I had sort of touched it up in previous pictures because I thought it was a scratch or a bruise that would go away quickly. Not the case. So, we'll see tomorrow what or if there is anything they need to do for her.

In other news, our dog is doing better but a lot happened between my last post. Last Friday I took her in to the vet because she has been getting sick. They did some x-rays and didn't find much so they sent us home with some medication to "calm her stomach down". By Saturday morning she still did not eat or drink anything (and also continued to get sick) so right back to the vet we went. over the course of the next few days they ended up finding that her gall bladder was on the verge of bursting and would require surgery to remove it. So that's what they did and she is now at home with us recovering. Who knew something that seemed fairly insignificant would turn into something so serious? Life, is unpredictable as I said before.

I will report back. G'night yall.

B+H+C