I'm 8 Months Old!!

We're LATE posting this one again! Avery turned 8 months on Tuesday, May 29th! Time is REALLY flying by....

She's not only getting bigger, but she's actually growing up. She can hold her own bottle, feed herself finger foods, drink from a cup... NOT a sippie-cup... a real cup!, she can sit unsupported for long stretches of time, and she can ALMOST crawl! (She still "scoots" but if she had a little more traction on those knees we'd be in real trouble. She's definitely mobile... just not really crawling yet.)

Everyday brings a new "trick" for Avery. She's so much fun, and we're trying to soak in every minute of it as time flies by.

Austin! Swimming & More!...

We headed South for Memorial Day and decided it would be fun to go swimming in Austin. ...too bad for us that the weather didn't cooperate more... We still swam TWO days out of the three we were there, but we also saw quite a bit of rain! Nevertheless, Avery had a wonderful time! I think she thought the pool was one gigantic bathtub, but she sure had a good time.

We also got to visit Avery's Cousin Ian! Nana was keeping Ian while his parents (Uncle Josh & Aunt Melanie) were in San Francisco! Nana's big brother, Gary, and big sister, Chloe, were also there! It made for a fun afternoon.

Thanks for having us, Gram & Grandpoppy! We had a BLAST! We'll be back as soon as we can! :)

Avery figured out that the funniest thing in the world was her own hand...

Out to dinner!

We had a fun night out with Dad's family! Aunt Kendra and Uncle Erroll were there, along with Aunt Kara and Uncle Jonathan, and also Pops (Daddy's Dad) and Christine. I slept through most of it, but woke up for just enough time to make some pictures.

Thanks for the "grub," Pops!

Cheerios :)

My new favorite activity: Eating Cheerios!

Here comes trouble!...

I've learned some new tricks! Mom and Dad call this the "4-point stance!" I plant my hands and feet and push my bottom up into the air. It's fun. Sometimes I drop a knee and act like I'm going to crawl. I probably could crawl if I wanted to, but I figure I need to spread out my tricks to give Mom and Dad something to look forward to.

Other new tricks I've learned are feeding myself some finger foods like cheerios and cheese, and sometimes feeding myself from a spoon but I still use a little help with this trick. I can turn the pages of the books that Mom and Dad read to me, and I even wait for them to stop talking and I know that's my cue to flip the page! I can stand up from a squat holding onto Mom's hands, and I took ONE step!... still holding onto her hands... but then I didn't know what to do. My most favorite trick of all is when Mom feeds me a big bite of baby food and I make a "wet razz" spitting noise and "ptoooie" it all over the place! Mom's not a big fan of this one, but it's pretty cool.

OH! And I talk a lot now. Most of the time I just say a lot of "ba-ba-ba" and "ya-ya-ya" and "mum-mum-mum" but I had one really good moment when Daddy was leaving to run some errands and I said, "ba-ba-da-da" on his way out the door! Mom and Dad were amazed!! I think they thought I said, "bye-bye Daddy" which I'm sure is what I meant to say. I tried it out again about 10 minutes later... Still worked! Mom went nuts again! ...Doesn't take much to impress these two... They're easily entertained... Maybe they need some new toys.

See ya!
Avery

**P.S.** Mom says she's sorry that some of the pictures are blurry. Apparently I don't sit very still.**

Friends in Low places ;)

Saturday night we headed to our Sunday School party at the beautiful home of Ted and Desiree Low. (I know, the title of this post is a HUGE pun, but come on... it's ME... what did you expect?) The Lows were SO sweet to host our group and everything about the evening was perfect. God provided AMAZING weather for us and the food and conversations were just as wonderful. It was such a treat to see all the home improvements the Lows have done. They are definitely "visionaries!" ...We felt like we stepped into "D Magazine!" Spectacular to say the least.

Thanks, Ted & Desiree! It was a beautiful evening!

GOOD NEWS!

Just heard from Dr. Nale!! Avery's blood work and urine test all turned up "normal" results! Hallelujah!! :) :)

For anyone reading this who "missed the memo" and has no idea what they were testing for, this was the last round of tests trying to determine if there was something going on to make Avery's head size measurement so large while her weight was falling off the charts. The blood and urine tests this round were looking for various scary things such as Rickets, Adrenal Insufficiency, Anemia, Hypoparathyroidism, and Lead Poisoning. Praise God, she doesn't have ANY of these things and we can go into this beautiful weekend knowing that our baby girl is completely healthy.

We're lovingly calling her our "lollipop!" :) Big head, skinny body... but undoubtedly "fearfully and wonderfully made!" Thank you all for your fervent prayers throughout this twisting and turning path. We give all Glory to God for the way we've been ministered to in this scary time. We pray blessings over each of you for the way you've loved on us.

Have a wonderful weekend! We will...
Hugs to you--
Stephanie, Collin, Avery & Howie

**P.S.** A special "thanks" to Andrea for snapping this cute picture of Avery!

Outdoor FUN at the Arboretum

Roller Coaster...

Just when you thought the ride was over..... Our Pediatrician wants to do a couple more tests on Avery just to BE SURE that we truly do have a healthy baby on our hands.

....Sigh....

I am ALL FOR being thorough and checking things out, but MAN I was really thinking this was behind us and it's no fun preparing for MORE tests. We're not sure yet if we'll go in today (Friday) or Monday, but Avery will need to have blood drawn and give a urine sample. They are now looking for potential diseases/illnesses that cause irregular bone growth. Signs of this will appear in the blood and urine. (Some strange kidney disorders can cause large heads... Did anyone else not know that, or was it just me?)

Not looking forward to whatever it takes to draw vials of blood from a baby, but if these tests come back negative we will officially be in a "wait and see" mode which means no more tests for a while. Let's pray for some good veins in there and skilled nurses to hit them! My precious little "pin cushion" thanks you guys for your enthusiasm with the good results from the MRI! We hope to continue the good-test-results streak next week too.


*****And on a much more serious and tragic note, if you believe in the healing power of prayer... please read on.*****

Friends of ours, Mike and Lori Calder, were expecting their first children - identical twin girls - to arrive in September. Lori, in her 5th month, lost both babies last night when she went into an unexplained pre-term labor. The girls were born with heartbeats, but did not survive long outside the womb. Mike and Lori are obviously broken, but said they have peace about it.

Please lift up Lori, Mike, their siblings and parents, and everyone who was anticipating with great joy the arrival of these baby girls. With Mother's Day quickly approaching, and Lori's younger sister's wedding in just 3 weeks, I know it will have to be God's strength that gets them through this valley. Please pray that they feel "held" in this, and not abandoned. That somehow, supernaturally, they feel HOPE in the midst of their grief.

Good things must also come in BIG packages!!

"...Everything is Okay..."

Wow. What amazing words to hear from the pediatric nurse as she called with the results from Avery's MRI! Our pediatrician (Dr. Nale) doesn't work on Wednesdays but my friend Andrea (who has walked the MRI road TWICE before with her baby Ella) told me to call and just ask his partner, Dr. Karam, if the results were in yet. Such GREAT advice! (Thanks, Andrea!)

Not even ten minutes passed after originally speaking with Dr. Karam's nurse that she called back and said those three wonderful words that every anxious Mom hopes to hear when awaiting test results... "Everything is okay." I said, "Wh-h-what do you mean?" :) She went on to tell me that the MRI showed no Hydrocephalus and no lesions, and that our Avery has a completely healthy brain. It may be "super-sized," but at least it's healthy! I guess good things come in big packages too! :)

What I'll remember best from this day are words that Collin just prayed as we knelt next to her crib after hearing the good news. He said, "Thank you [Jesus] for Your Faithfulness- Not only in good results- but Your Faithfulness throughout this entire experience." He has been Faithful in every step of this process, and He's used many of you as His voice to speak to us and His arms to hug and comfort us.

I will also never forget the amazing outpouring of love and support you have shown us. Thank you for holding us up when we wanted to crater. Thank you to the people "out there" reading this who we have never met who have prayed over Avery. Thank you to those who redirected our fear and pointed us towards scripture. No words can express our gratitude. We pray you'll be blessed exponentially for the love you've each shown us.

Resting in His Faithfulness--
The Poages

***OH YEAH*** And, I have to mention that Collin had a CT Scan today. Weird, huh? It wasn't planned, but he saw his ENT Doc and found out he has a sinus infection. This doc did surgery on Collin's sinuses about 3 years ago and wanted to X-Ray his head just to make sure things were still looking like they should. It's official-- I'm the only one in the family who hasn't had a major test done today! ...Of course it's only 4:00pm and there's plenty of day left... ;) Kidding.

MRI Day!

"I get more done by 8:00am than Howie does all day!"

--Avery Poage

What a DAY it's been already... and it's still not even lunchtime. We were told to report to the hospital this morning by 5:50am for a 6:30am MRI. I realize that for some of you reading this, 5:50am is no big deal... but to the Poages (and Ellisons) 5:50am is one of those times that just doesn't exist unless there's a plane to catch, or something like this. Our house "woke up" at 4-something and we were all zombies.

Avery was wonderful. She slept through the night beautifully, which is what I had asked some people to pray specifically for. She was a little confused when we woke her up and started changing her and putting her in her car seat while it was still dark outside, but she really didn't complain! She started to get hungry in the waiting room before the MRI, but all-in-all, it was a very "fuss-free" morning.

The hardest moment was laying her little body down on an adult-sized gurney and watching the Anesthesiologist administer the gas. Poor baby girl thought that it was supposed to feed her (she was HUNGRY by this point) and was trying to nurse from it. She started to struggle with it, but soon fell asleep. I can't tell you what a strange sensation it was for us as her parents to watch that and be so scared, yet feel SO at peace and "prayed-for" at the same time. God is good, and it was all His strength this morning.

They carried her off, limp as could be, and directed us to the waiting room where we all sat and said a prayer. Comic relief came shortly after we said, "Amen" and reached for the Kleenex box. A nurse walked in as we were simultaneously blowing our noses (all four of us) and said, "Whew! You all got the same cold or somethin?" We looked around at each other in our pathetic state and laughed.

Seemed like just a MINUTE and Avery was back in our arms coming out of the anesthesia and doing fine. She was still very hungry! But fine. And now we wait....... It may be a couple of days before we'll know the results, but we're praying that all is well in that precious little head of hers.

Collin and I can't say "thank you" enough... Thank you for your phone calls and e-mails. Thank you for your prayers and sweet words. Thank you for thinking of our little family this morning. Your friendships are truly treasured to us and we hope to have GOOD NEWS to report soon.

...We'll keep you posted...

With Grandpoppy watching the fish while we waited to be called back



Out of the anesthesia and waiting to be cleared for discharge

My FUN weekend!

Since Dad was canoeing in Oklahoma this weekend on a Men's Retreat, and Mom had a Women's conference up at the church, I had to recruit some people to keep me company! (Or, as Mom and Dad would call it, "Babysitters!")

Friday night, I got to hang out with Nana at my house. We had fun like we always do! I ate lots of baby food and took a good-sized bottle and then, after we played, it was time for bed. (Nana, we need to take more pictures when you come over! I want to put them on my blog.)

When I woke up the next morning, I realized that Gram and Grandpoppy had arrived while I was sleeping! They took care of me Saturday. We went down to the neighborhood park and Grandpoppy taught me how to swing sitting on his lap! I had never done that before. After Mom got home, we went downtown and got to see the fountains at the bottom of the green pointy building! They were amazing!

Saturday night I was completely wiped out! I slept very well, but Sunday brought another day full of activities! After Sunday School, we came home and changed clothes and waited for Daddy to come back in town. THEN we all went together to Ella Mitchell's 1st Birthday Party! This was my first time to ever go to a Birthday Party for one of my friends and it was so much fun. ...So much fun that I was SOUND ASLEEP by the time we left!...

WHEW! What a weekend! It sure was great to have a lot of fun things to do. I think it took everyone's minds off of my MRI on Wednesday. Thank you for praying for me! God gave me lots of hugs and kisses this weekend through my Grandparents and all of YOU!

Here are some videos of us at the fountains!...

Think we're related?

I had fun looking through old baby pictures of Collin and myself when our Moms were trying to show us what BIG HEADS we both had as babies, and I thought I'd post this...

She's a pretty good mix of both of us, huh? And her head looks tiny compared to ours!! If only Collin were in a cute dress with a gold bracelet, we could REALLY compare... :) Glad you're not, honey... That would be weird.

I'm 7 Months Old!

In all the craziness of the past week, Mom and Dad nearly forgot that I turned 7 months!

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for me and for my Mom and Dad. We go back to see Dr. Nale tomorrow and Mom will get to hear a more detailed report of what the Radiologist had to say about my brain. I'm being very brave about the MRI that's coming up and I've been laughing a lot more lately with Mom to cheer us all up. I think she's still a little scared about the anesthesia... but I'll be okay! Jesus loves me and He's watching over me!

Lately, since Mom's been concentrating a little more on putting some weight on me, I've been getting to eat whatever I want! It's fun! I am eating two meals a day of fruit and veggies (and sometimes MEAT!) and also still nursing from Mom. After Mom feeds me, she always offers me a bottle and I've been taking a lot of that too. I'm pretty fat and happy these days! Hopefully when they weigh me at Dr. Nale's tomorrow, I will have gained some weight... I'm eating like a champ! :) I'll try and get Mom to post a report after we see the Doctor! Thanks again for all the prayers! Mom says God did a miracle in me, and I believe it. :)

Snuggly Hugs--
Avery

Answered Prayer

We are not "out of the woods" yet, but this morning's sonogram brought a real sigh of relief. In fact, we have seen God's fingerprints all over EVERYTHING that's happened since Friday afternoon's initial worry.

The sonogram went perfectly well. Avery took a bottle and was VERY still throughout the process. Her fontanelle (soft spot) was still open enough for them to get a clear view of the brain and the technician was able to take 39 pictures to be sent to the Radiologist for analysis. On the spot, the technician was able to say (after heavy disclaimer reminding us that he was not the doctor) that her ventricles seemed a little dilated, but he would say she was within a normal range. He also said he didn't see any growths or tumors. (PRAISE GOD!)

Avery's pediatrician has already called us at home and his first words were literally, "Prayers were answered." (So thankful for a pediatrician who is also a believer in the power of prayer.) Dr. Nale still wants to go forward with the MRI on May 9th, and we agree. He said that the difference between analyzing the sonogram pictures and seeing MRI images are like trying to view it on your Granny's old black and white TV versus seeing it on a new plasma screen in high definition. The MRI will just give us a much clearer picture of her beautiful little brain (he didn't say "beautiful"... I'm taking some motherly creative license...) and we will know from that if there is ANY reason to be concerned. It was wonderful to hear him say, "The sense of urgency that I felt on Friday is no longer there."

Friends and family.... LOOK what your prayers to a Sovereign, Almighty God have done for our little family! Thank you for going to your knees for us. We may never be able to find the right words to thank you for your sweet prayers and words of encouragement during the past few days. We appreciate your continued prayer support throughout the MRI on May 9th, and we will keep everyone posted until then! We are truly blessed by each of you.

Resting in God's GOODNESS,
Stephanie, Collin and Avery Poage (Howie too!) :)

Encouragement

THANK YOU for your wonderful encouraging e-mails, voicemails, spoken and written words, scripture references, and mostly for your prayer!

We feel "prayed-over" today. Avery is having a wonderful, bright sunshiny day! Looking in her eyes, I keep thinking that everything is okay. That's our prayer.

Feeling VERY loved and lifted up--
Poages

We covet your prayers...

Life can change so suddenly.... I probably won't proofread this, so please forgive me if it's typo-filled and scatterbrained.

At Avery's routine check-up today, her measurements raised some red flags with her pediatrician. For those of you who understand the percentile structure, Avery was 50% on length which was fine, 10% on weight which was odd, and OVER 95th percentile on head circumference which is alarming with such a low weight. Up until now, it had been a little bit of a joke that her head was large since Collin and I both had bigger heads as babies. But with head-growth spiking as weight plummets, her doctor expressed concern that there may be an issue.

Avery will need to have an MRI to receive a diagnosis, and the earliest we could get her scheduled for an MRI was Wednesday, May 9th. There are a number of things that could be occurring here, but the doctor speculates it's Hydrocephalus, or "water on the brain." We have a sonogram scheduled for Monday morning, April 30th. The sonogram could possibly show confirmation of Hydrocephalus, but the MRI will give the doctors a clearer picture of exactly what's going on. An MRI is inevitable. If the sono shows nothing, they'll do it as a precautionary measure. If the sono shows "something" they'll do it to see exactly what we're dealing with.

They will put Avery under anesthesia for the MRI, which will be difficult to watch as her parents. If she does have Hydrocephalus, there is treatment. They will go into her skull and put in a shunt/tube which will remain in her body to redirect the collecting fluid and drain it out through her natural waste. (Frightening to think of this surgery, but we are so thankful to at least know that there is treatment!)

This is all very unexpected/shocking/hard to absorb at this moment, but Collin and I are resting in God's peace and we know that all of this has passed through His hands. This surprised us today-- but it didn't surprise God. There's PEACE in knowing that. It's the kind of peace that allows me to type this with tears running down my cheeks/chin/neck when all I really want to do is go peer into Avery's crib as she sleeps... I may be there all night. I hurt. I'm scared. I'm sad. I don't want anything to be wrong with my precious, seemingly-healthy daughter's brain. Nevertheless-- I have peace.

What keeps coming to mind as all of this sets in is something that was laid on my heart weeks, maybe months ago... That God brought Avery through us, not to us. Avery is not ours-- She is God's child. We are praying (and we ask you to pray with us) that the MRI shows a completely healthy baby girl, and that all this worry is for nothing. But even if it does show something is wrong, our position is..... Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Our sincere appreciation for your prayer,
Stephanie, Collin and Avery

Bed Head!

Being a Mom is so strange at times... Mainly because the weirdest, most random things can completely melt your heart. Today I experienced this very thing.

Avery has had a rough couple of nights this week (probably more teeth coming in) and the exhaustion must have finally sunk in because she CRASHED this afternoon and took a long, hard nap. When she woke up all cheery and smiley, I couldn't keep my eyes off of her and her cute little "bed-head" hair! She must have slept on it wrong because I couldn't smooth it... but honestly I didn't care... it was really cute!

Here's a video of her duck-tails hair, and it also shows her sitting up for a couple of seconds! :) (And then she topples over and you'll hear me assure my mother that the edge of the bed is further away than it appears!) :) We all survived!

Bootie-Scootin Boogie!

One step closer to crawling for Avery! She SCOOTS, and she goes backwards, but still it's a form of transportation and it involves hands and knees... so it counts. I hope you have time to watch the top video (2 minutes) that was my attempt at catching the "scoot" on tape. I kept talking and distracting her though, so it's not a very fluid scoot... Must learn to keep quiet while trying to video tape Avery. If you don't have 2 minutes to spare, check out the sped-up version below. We did this for laughs... but it's kind of fun to watch and hits the high points of the full version. (Also, it's oddly reminiscent of my own baby home videos on 8mm film... Sped-up with no sound. Gotta love the early 80's!)

Special thanks to Glen for helping us get these videos to a size that could be posted on the blog! The Grandparents would hug you if they could! They love these videos.

Hope everyone's doing well!

Shower "Power Nap"

This post isn't particularly dignified or news-worthy... but I had a few cute pictures I wanted to post and I thought I should also share the story behind them.

Well, it hasn't happened yet... but Avery is REALLY working towards crawling and at any moment our world could completely change from "She stays where we put her" to "Where in the world is she?! Check the doggie door!"

Now usually this isn't a problem -- the situation that Avery is becoming "mobile" more and more -- because I can keep an eye on her and scoot her back to the middle of the blanket and away from Howie's toys, etc. However, it gets tricky when it's time for me to hop in the shower and there's nobody to keep an eye on our little wiggle-worm. (Howie isn't exactly "babysitter" material.) So I had to resort to putting her in her bouncy seat in front of a Veggie Tales video so that I could feel confident she'd be in the same place I left her when I was through.

When I came back to see if she was still watching, she was napping. But this was no ordinary nap... She was napping like a cute little old man reclining on a Sunday afternoon with her hands folded in her lap and her little head tilted to the side as if on purpose. I thought it was precious! I had to share... No offense to Veggie Tales, of course! I'm sure it was a very entertaining (yet soothing) video.

I'm dreaming of a White.... EASTER??

Ahhhhh... Nothing says "Easter" like being curled up in the living room under a warm blanket watching the snow flurries outside the window and sipping a hot cup of coffee. ...Wait... What?! Sounds crazy, but it's true! SNOW. In TEXAS. In April! Somehow it just felt more like Christmas than Easter, didn't it? Strange...

We invited my Mom and Dad in town for the weekend and had great plans to go see "Dallas Blooms" at the Arboretum, but the weather had a different agenda. Nevertheless, we found lots of ways to make Avery's first Easter a memorable one. (Special thanks to Northpark Mall, Dudley's Dye, Cream of Tartar and Charlie Brown.)

It's always amazing to celebrate the resurrection of Christ and to reflect on what this holiday means. I hope everyone had an incredible Easter Sunday!... Snow and all!

Avery in Aggieland!

The wonderful thing about being a "stay-home Mom" is that you don't HAVE to stay home! :)

Collin had to go to College Station on a recruiting trip last Monday and Tuesday, so Avery and I decided to tag along! Avery had never seen the city where her Mom and Dad went to school, dated, etc... and it was prime time to introduce her to Aggieland! We were barely there for 24 hours, so we didn't get to see or do very much, but we visited some friends and got to see the Bonfire Memorial which was very special to me since my first "real job" was in the Bonfire Memorial Design Competition Office. It's amazing to see it finished! For so long it was just an idea.

We'll have to go back to College Station again soon. I had forgotten how wonderful it is... What a peaceful break from the "big city" lifestyle! It was wonderful.