I love my girl.

My Isabell is the most amazing little girl, and has something incredibly special about her. Her sweet and innocent little personality touches all who cross her path. I am more than lucky to be her mom.

On November 23rd, 2005 at 7:43pm, Isabell Maxine was born weighing in at 4 pounds 9.5 ounces and 16 inches long. She was tiny and perfect. Her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck at birth and they medical team took her to the incubator/warmer to clean her off. Proud new Daddy, my husband Richie got to put her first diaper on. Her beautiful bright little eyes stared at him the whole time. After the staff quickly evaluated her, and determined she was ok they wrapped her in warm blankets and handed her to me. Being a brand new mom was something incredible- but being a brand new mom to Isabell Maxine Leon was the Best Ever. Richie and I were so in love with our tiny little Pumpkin Pie. We spent Thanksgiving in the hospital that year since Isabell was born the day before.

Isabell was super tiny, but doing great. She had jaundice and had to get her UV Therapy to improve her biliruben levels before we discharged. We were only at the hospital for 2 days and Isaebell was doing good enough to discharge. We were so excited to take our precious little tiny HOME!

When we got home and settled in, I enjoyed the lazy days of staring and gazing at Isabell. I held her all day, and adored her in every way. When we met our amazing Primary Care Physician Dr. Kevin Berger for the first time he was surprised that she was so small and gave her two thumbs up otherwise. After a few months went by and Isabell's growth and weight gain was appropriate for her, she was consistently in the -10 percentile range under "Normal". Dr. Berger mentioned that if her growth remains steady then that is good- but he wasn't sure if she would have any developmental issues as she grows and we wondered if she would catch up to the "Normal" range eventually.

By the age of 15 months, Isabell was meeting some developmental milestones and was the sweetest, smiliest and cutest little baby. She ate well, slept perfectly. She was the definition of a perfect baby. So well mannered, social, friendly and had such a sparkly personality. Even with all these amazing qualities- there were some important milestones that she hadn't met. She wasn't talking OR walking yet. I am a stay at home and very pro-active mom and I was doing all the mommy things that moms do. Play dates, Kindermusic, reading books, singing goofy baby songs, making silly faces- the whole nine yards. Isabell and I had a hay day playing hours on end and she would always just laugh her sweet laugh and smile her sweet smile. Still with all these fun things we were doing, Isabell was not saying any words. She was vocal and would coo and make funny sounds. Never any words. Isabell was active, but didn't roll over very well until she was 3 months old. She also didn't sit completely on her own until she was 7-8 months old. At 14 months old she finally started crawling. I had concerns that she was delayed and I went to see Dr. Berger for our 15 month well check. We decided to cover all bases, and he recommended seeing a Genetics doctor, Audiologist, Neurologist and Cardiologist and get their opinion on her delays. When we met our amazing genetics dr, Dr. Grebe, she evaluated Isabell and thought that it was possible that Isabell may have a genetic disorder and thought blood work could determine if this was fact. Isabell had genetic blood work done which came back normal. We met with a Neurologist and he recommended an MRI to evaluate her brain. The brain MRI was normal. We met Dr Bryan Sandweiss, Cardiologist, and he performed a series of heart ultrasounds and EKG's and an innocent heart murmur was detected that didn't alarm his at all- and recommended a follow up in later development. The audiologist we met at PCH sent us to ENT Dr. Chapel after a failed hearing test. After severe fluid buildup was discovered on Isabell's eardrum- we had tubes placed. Her medical evaluation was nearly perfect. But still I felt that Isabell had some significant challenges with her development.

Around this time I learned of Arizona Early Intervention from my cousin Amanda. She was able to get a contact name and number for them. I had NO IDEA what early intervention was, or who I would be calling. So after getting the phone number I called into Arizona Early Intervention having no clue what an amazing organization I was calling into. After some confusing conversations, I was directed to a person who organized a developmental evaluation for Isabell. Arizona Early Intervention was sending a qualified developmental specialist to my home to evaluate Isabell and her developmental progress. When Isabell and I met Developmental Specialist Haley McMakin- she determined that Isabell had significant developmental delays and would benefit from Speech Therapy to work on her speech, Occupational Therapy to work on her fine motor skills and Physical Therapy to work on balance coordination and gross motor skills. We started in home therapies at 18 months of age.

By age 3, Isabell qualified for a special needs pre-school program. She had PT, OT, and ST at school and her Teacher specialized in working with special needs kiddos. Isabell made an amazing amount of progress, but still wasn't talking.

At age 4 Isabell was still small and petite. She was doing great, but still had her challenges. She was still physically uncoordinated, and had overall muscle weakness. She wasn't writing her name, or coloring that great which meant her fine motor skills were very delayed. Her teachers and I thought she should get a hearing evaluation again. We seen our ENT, and her tubes were out. She had fluid on her eardrums again and failed her hearing test. Our ENT placed a second set of ear tubes and sent us back to PCH to have the Audiologist check Isabell out and and the Audiologist recommended a Sedated hearing test. The sedated hearing test determined that Isabell had mold to moderate hearing loss and would benefit from hearing aids. During this time frame, I also took her back to the cardiologist for a follow up from her visit when she was a little. We did a heart ultrasound and our new cardiologist Dr. Ellsworth discovered that Isabell had a Pulmonary Ring and needed to have it surgically repaired by a cardiothoracic surgeon. A Pulmonary Ring is a very potentially life threatening condition, as the ring was encircling Isabell's trachea and espohogus potentially cutting off her air and/or food supply! Isabell was a choker, and maybe this was why. So we scheduled for cardiac surgery in April of 2011. Surgery went well, Isabell was a perfect patient and recovered like a champ!
After surgery Isabell seemed to have much relief as she was immediately no longer a choker!

Isabell had always been a good eater, and always remained small and petite. That is until now.

I am having an incredibly hard time with this- and I am going to commit to helping my little girl reach her maximum potential with all the limited abilities she has. Isabell has gained alot of weight in the last several months, and the extra weight is not helping her make any progress when facing her physical challenges. She went from being petite and small, to the opposite end of the spectrum. Before this gets completely out of control, I want to do all that I can to change this downward spiral. Food has become an incredible obsession for Isabell. In Isabell's current state of development, she is quite obsessive over everything. Primarily food. She is really smart, but has trouble communicating which is challenging when she is obsessing over things. From food, to putting a certain outfit on- it can be a battle when the obsessing begins. Most times it starts first thing in the morning. It gets super tiring repeating myself 1000 times to an obsessive child. An obsessive child that is otherwise perfect in every way! NO I am NOT partial to her! Ha. Well of course I adore her in every way- she just makes me work really hard. My primary challenge now is to cut the food obsession. I also need to learn how to get her on a really great healthy meal routine.

We have an incredibly busy life, and my kiddos require alot of special care. I have gotten used to quick unhealthy meals, and serving high fat/high sugar/high calorie snacks. We love chocolate milk, and I am a sucker for milkshakes. I am not one that loves to be in the kitchen, and I don't feel like I am very creative when it comes to mealtime. I am wanting to change this, for the better.