Lillian Grace is One Year Old Today!

I'm a happy kid...

One year ago, after spending only 23 weeks inside her mom, Lillian Grace Denby decided to pop out into the world. She was a scrawny little thing, only one pound, eight ounces and just eleven and a half inches tall. Her chances of making it were not good, the doctors at Memorial Hermann Southwest NICU told us, but they’d do everything they could to give her a fighting chance. And they did. She spent four and a half months there, and her mom and dad were with her every day.

Today, she is a happy, healthy eighteen pound, twenty-six inch tall baby, who crawls and stands (and falls) and laughs and fusses just often enough to prove that she is human.

So many people have helped us this past year: NICU doctors and nurses at Memorial Hermann Southwest, pediatricians and specialists at Texas Children’s, friends with advice, food, gifts and prayers: to all of you, our thanks!

Happy first birthday, Lillian Grace!

Ashley & Lillian Grace Denby Update: 4/15/2011

Thanks & Hi to my STE friends!

Ashley met with her surgeon, Dr Albo, today; he gave her the results of the biopsies done from her surgery last week.

Unfortunately, the biopsy of the sentinel lymph node under her left arm showed that the cancer has spread there (this means her cancer is in Stage 3). The biopsy of the skin removed from her back was cancer free, and the growth removed from her head was pre-cancerous, so removed in time. This afternoon, she returned to the doctor and underwent a CT scan and more blood tests to determine whether the cancer has spread beyond the lymph nodes. She’ll go back Dr Albo on Wednesday and get the results of the latest tests.

Of course, we hope that these tests show that the cancer has not spread beyond the lymph nodes. If this is the case, Ashley will have the lymph  nodes under her left arm removed and begin a course of interferon. If the cancer has spread, she’s facing aggressive chemo-therapy as well.

Lillian Grace is doing very well. She’s had to transition from breast to bottle feeding, but, in the way of babies, has done so very quickly. Her smiles and charm help keep us all going when things seem gloomiest.

We thank you for all of your prayers and support, especially this week Loren, Pam, Carin, Becky, Georgia, Charlotte and Michelle for the fabulous food, and Ashley’s cousin Emma for a superb cheesecake.

Lillian Grace and Ashley Denby Update: 4/5/2011

 

Napping in the car

Lillian Grace is 239 days (4 days shy of 8 months) old today; her adjusted age is 4 months, 3 days. She’s been home from the hospital for 3 and 1/2 months!

 

Lillian’s Official Stats as of Tuesday, 4/5:

• Height: 64.5 cm (4.8 cm gain) 25.39 in
• Weight: 6365 gm (1035 gm gain) 14 lb 5 oz
• Head Circumference: 42 cm (2.6 cm gain) 16.5 in

Lillian had visits at Texas Children’s today with her neurologist and her pulmonologist. The results: she is breathtakingly normal: right where she should be at 4 months adjusted age. For a baby born at 23 weeks gestational age, this is very good news. Dr West, her pulmonologist, after listening to her lungs said that she sounds like the million dollar baby that she is. She’ll follow up with the neurologist in 8 months and with her pulmonologist if needed.

 

Eating solid food for the first time

Yesterday, Lillian had solid food — rice cereal — for the first time. She loved it, though she left a lot of it on her face. She’ll be eating some twice a day, and next week she’ll get to try oatmeal. Ashley has started her on one bottle of formula a day. Ashley won’t be able to breast-feed Lillian for about a week after her surgery, due to the medicines she will be taking. If no further treatment for her cancer is needed, then she should be able to go back to breast-feeding then (she has about a week’s supply of breast-milk stored in the freezer). If Ashley needs further treatment, then Lillian will switch to formula at that point. We are expecting that Lillian isn’t going to be happy about having to feed from bottles; but we know that when she’s hungry enough, she will — reluctantly.

 

 

I'll be crawling soon... watch out!

Ashley’s surgery is tomorrow and we’ll send out an update afterward.

 

Thanks for your prayers and support!

 

Whan that aprill with his shoures soote…

Lillian welcomed April (though March’s drought remains unbroken by showers sweet or otherwise) with a small party on her veranda and entertained her mom and grandparents with sweet smiles. She laughed at every gust of the cool southeasterly breeze.

 

Enjoying life...

My grandpa thinks I'm cute...

With grandma Nancy and my Mom

With my mom and great-grandparents...

 

 

Ashley and Lillian Grace Denby Update: 3/30/2010

In the great outdoors...

Lillian Grace continues to grow and flourish: she now weighs just over 14 pounds, loves to smile and laugh and sticks her tongue out at all and sundry. Ashley and Josh take her outside regularly; she loves to ride in her stroller, particularly if the path is bumpy. When you put her down on her back, she’ll do one of two things: either try to eat her feet or roll over and try to crawl. Sometimes she sleeps through the night and sometimes she doesn’t; however, her appetite never flags.

Resting from my labors....

Ashley met her surgeon and plastic surgeon today. She will have surgery Wednesday, April 6th, to remove a large area around and underneath the site of her melanoma; the tissue removed will be biopsied at the margins to ensure that they have removed all the cancer (if not, she’ll have to go back to have more tissue removed); then the plastic surgeon will take skin from her thigh and make a skin graft to cover the wound. Her surgeon also discovered another mole on her scalp that he will remove at the same time and have biopsied. The surgeon will also conduct a couple of tests using isotopes and dyes to help determine whether the cancer has spread to her lymph nodes: he’ll remove any suspicious areas and have them biopsied: the results take about a week; if they are positive for cancer, she’ll face further surgery and additional therapies.

Her surgeon (Dr Albo of the Baylor Clinic) expects that she will take about 7 to 10 days to recover from this first surgery (she’ll have some pain and will have to protect the healing wound). She may be able to come home the day of the surgery, though she may also have to spend a night in the hospital.

Thanks for your prayers and support.

Saturday in the Park

Today my mom and dad took me for a walk at the Houston Arboretum. It’s a great place for a nap.

 

Me and my Chauffeur...

All this spring air makes a girl drowsy...

 

 

Pink Girl

 

Sometimes I feel like a princess...

...and sometimes I feel like a dancer...

... and always I like pink!

My great-grandmother Joan gave me this dress!

 

Ashley and Lillian Grace Denby

Dear blog and email friends,

Lillian Grace is 7 and 1/2 months — 226 days — old and doing very well. She’s been off of oxygen support for over 3 weeks, can roll herself over from back to stomach and (usually) from stomach to back. She’s trying to crawl, but without success — yet. She’s almost 14 pounds and has plenty of good baby fat.

She went yesterday and visited some of her earliest and dearest friends, the NICU nurses and staff at Memorial Hermann Southwest. She had a great time and smiled and showed off for them. They in turn admired how she has grown and were thrilled to see her without tubes or wires: where Lillian is today is in no small part due to their love and superb professional care.

After that visit, Ashley, Lillian’s mom, went to see the surgeon who, a few weeks ago, removed a growth from her back. Although not long after Lillian was born she had had a biopsy of the growth which indicated it was benign, her surgeon had this re-biopsied and the biopsy revealed that it was a melanoma.

Ashley went to see an oncologist today. She has a level 4 nodular melanoma, the most aggressive form of melanoma. As of right now, her cancer is considered to be at Stage 2. She will have her lymph nodes tested next week to see if it’s spread. At the least, she will have additional surgery to remove another 2 cm or so of tissue around where the melanoma was removed; if tests determine that the cancer has spread, she’ll have additional therapies.

Right now, she’s a little shell-shocked, but overall pretty positive: she thinks she’s got a good oncologist and they’re going to tackle this aggressively.

We’ve been sustained by your prayers and support throughout Lillian’s trials and humbly ask for them again for Ashley, her wonderful husband Josh, and for Lillian as they meet this new challenge.

Some of my best friends: NICU staff at Memorial Hermann Southwest

More of my best friends: NICU staff at Memorial Hermann Southwest

Wearing of the Green

 

Happy St Patrick's Day!

 

 

A 7 Month-Old Girl

 

Lillian Grace: 7 Months of Joy

 

In my Bumbo Baby Seat