We thought James needed another specialist so...

...we decided to get him one! Notice the sarcasm?!?! Anyway, we have "adopted" a new specialist: a pediatric plastic surgeon named Dr. Jeffrey Marsh. We were given Dr. Marsh's name by Dr. Beckwith (yes, THE Dr. Beckwith) as he is the go-to guy for tongue reductions in Beckwith Wiedemann Syndrome Children. Dr. Marsh is in St. Louis, so Tommy and I decided to take James on Valentine's Day for an appointment yesterday. We left Emily and Matthew with my parents (are they great or what?) and traveled through the snow (it snowed a lot in St. Louis) on Sunday afternoon. James did pretty well until the end, when he was tired of sitting in the darn car seat. When we arrived in St. Louis, we decided to find a place to eat on The Hill. For those of you who aren't familiar with St. Louis, The Hill is the place to eat if you want quality, authentic Italian food. We found a parking spot at Rigazzi's. Um, can you say "YUMMY"? Wow, I had an amazing chicken dish and Tommy ate a delicious mozzarella-chicken concoction. James had a fun time eating his chicken baby food, crackers, and bread. There are some cute pics of our Valentine's dinner together. Gramma and Grampa took Emily and Matt to a fancy dinner at a local restaurant and they had so much fun--yay for a super great Valentine's Day.

Yesterday, we had our appointment with Dr. Marsh. It was also my birthday. Yes, I am 21 (again) and I had a wonderful day. My sweet husband also bought me a really cool (and very much needed) gift: a new laptop. Yay for Tommy! Thank you, baby. But I digress...so we met with Dr. Marsh and he had a lot to tell us before he looked at James. Then he looked at James' tongue and told us what we needed to hear: James needs a tongue reduction and without it, his lower jaw will continue to move forward which will cause severe jaw and tooth issues. This was a big deal to us as we had prayed for a concrete answer from Dr. Marsh. That is exactly what we got. Then Dr. Marsh introduced us to DeAnn, who will be the nurse who is in charge of James post-op. We really appreciate the fact that James will be taken care of by a nurse who knows how to deal with BWS kids and tongue reductions post surgery. DeAnn showed us before and after pictures of BWS children who have undergone surgery--needless to say, there were some tummy-churning photos, but we have seen worse. Today, I scheduled the surgery for March 24th. My parents will come up to watch Emily and Matthew again and we will head to St. Louis. Please pray for us as we anticipate this surgery. We are expecting James to be in the hospital for about 5 days. It is a major surgery, complete with an overnight stay in the Pediatric ICU. We are having a number of feelings: hope, anxiety, fear, excitement, and acceptance. We know that this is the best decision for our Sweet Baby James and we are confident in Dr. Marsh's abilities. And it doesn't hurt that people have come from as far as Guam, New Zealand, China, and Italy to have a tongue reduction surgery performed by him.

This is all for tonight...please remember all of the babies and children who are battling for their lives. There are way too many of them and they need prayers. God bless you all and thank you for checking in on us and for all of the birthday wishes for James!!!! Don't forget to scroll down for lots of pictures...