Pook, part 1

Proud Mama Alert: Pook is fan-freaking-tastic.

This kid is the smiliest, giggliest, goofiest baby I’ve ever known, which is really saying something when you consider all she’s been through. This short little video encapsulates her spirit and just MAKES. ME. HAPPY.

See, Pook and Boogie arrived early and with much drama. I left my 32 week checkup, where my OB told me how great things looked and that we’d schedule my induction next week, and then my water broke 24 hours later. Labor itself was super traumatic, culminating in a torn uterus, two surgeries and nine blood transfusions for me and a defibrillator for Boogie. It was scary and awful, but once I got to finally hold my teeny preemies I thought the hardest parts was behind us. I was wrong.

Pook was diagnosed with a condition called Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome. It’s a condition that affects the way the body grows, manifesting in a big tongue, uneven limbs, and a 1 in 5 shot at pediatric cancer. Thus far we’ve got the jumbo tongue and her right side is about 20% larger than the left. Every quarter, we have cancer screenings to catch any tumor growth as early as possible. When she was a baby, Pook couldn’t eat because that big ole tongue made sucking almost impossible. I had to feed her via a tube down her nose until she was about four months old, when she was strong enough to have a feeding tube surgically implanted in her belly. I was told over and over that she wasn’t going to make it. I refused to accept that and made it my personal mission to get this baby over the finish line to life if it meant dragging her there by the scruff of the neck. Luckily, Pook inherited her Mama’s stubborn streak. And although I will likely despair of it long before her teenage years, that stubborn streak has surely saved her life.

I’m sure we’ll talk a lot about Pook as time goes by. We’ve got some major surgery ahead this year and will be flying across the country to meet with specialists in a few weeks. So consider this a brief introduction to my very own Warrior Princess. Though she is little, she is but fierce.