Progress is progress — Los Hicksons

After we kicked off the new year, it felt like we got off of a really fun roller coaster ride of family visits and celebrations. You know what I mean? It was like, “Woooo! Put your hands in the air! This is so fun!” and then, “Woah, that went by so fast!”

Looking back over our first year as a family of four, although it has been somewhat intense it has been so speacial. Felicity has been through some challenges for sure. She had an incredibly tough time in the NICU. Although Lucie was much smaller when she was born, and did have scary complications like brain bleeds, they mercifully healed before she came home. After her brain bleeds resolved, her stay in the NICU became about feeding and growing. Once she was home she started her journey towards developing and thriving consistently once she was able to get therapy to help her catch up to other typical kiddos her age. Basically once she hit her stride around ten months old, she never looked back.

Our sweet little Fafa was born later than Lucie and for her first two weeks she blissfully grew at a steady pace in the NICU. Unfortunately she got an infection, it made it’s way to her heart and wreaked havoc. We learned she also has a genetic adrenal deficiency, requiring a cocktail of medications that she needs to take daily and will need for the rest of her life. After the infection, her stay in the NICU became all about survival. There was one particular week where she just seemed to go from bad to worse, and things were especially worrisome so we were even told to prepare for the worst.

Fast forward to now and our sweet 12 month old, who is 10 months adjusted, is still dealing with a lot of delays. Her Developmental Pediatrician commented that she is tracking as if she was about 3-4 months old. The main contributor to this seems to be that she has very low tone and is very weak which is not uncommon for someone who had such a rough time in the NICU. We’re hopeful that there is not any other underlying reason for her delays and for now her team of doctors are not alarmed, saying, “progress is progress”.

Over the past couple of months, even in the midst of those wonderful times with others, thoughts about Felicity’s development would float up to the surface of my mind like the small floating triangle inside of a magic eight ball. Wondering, questioning, worrying about what might be the reason behind the delays she is experiencing in her development. She is receiving Physical Therapy four times a week along with Occupational Therapy, and she is making some progress so we are thankful for that. Through it all, we have been amazed at how fitting her name is... she is such a happy baby. She smiles, she laughs, and she just lights up the room when she can’t stop laughing. She’s a true delight. Would love your prayers that she would begin to make even more progress in the coming months.

I’m sharing some photos from the past few weeks while I watch a Florida storm roll in during our winter break.

Love,

Los Hicksons

Lucie learning to ride her bike with Rob

A fun surprise getting to pick Nat up from school across the street from her school.

Lucie builds a new creation every morning before with these Magnatiles

One building on our block kept decorations from Christmas up way longer than everyone else and Lucie loved passing it every morning.

“Lucie’s Cafe”; we’ve seen a fun assortment of birds stop by this winter

We had Felicity dedicated at church on her birthday

Celebrating her birthday with our friends in NYC

Reading Bear Snores On and building forts on a cold day — Reading *Bear Snores On* and building forts on a cold day

Happy girl at a really good cardio follow up - we take her every 4-6 weeks to be monitored

A lot of firsts in this pic - Lucie’s first ride on a school bus… Lucie’s first class field trip… and my first time chaperoning!

Dealing with a cold and being so sad about it