Christmas Letter

Hello all.....and Merry Christmas and Time for the Annual Allen Christmas Letter. This year has been beyond crazy. We rang in the new year living in California and we decided to move to Arkansas in the beginning of February and arrived on March 4,2009. I got a job right away working for Fashion Bug which I would strongly recommend never working for that company it was horrible in every single way and then I got a wonderful job working for Chick-Fil-A. It took Larry longer finding a job, but eventually he got a job working for Schwan's Food Distribution. Once Larry worked for schwan's long enough we got health insurance we decided to take Rilee to the doctor and get her checked out. We have had a feeling that Rilee has been hard of hearing, but we never really knew how severe it was. We took Rilee to an ear, nose, and throat doctor and we found out that she had a more severe hearing loss so we had to go to the Children's Hospital in Little Rock.

So Larry and I went down to Little Rock on the 16th if December to get Rilee's hearing checked by a Sedated ABR. And for all you who don't know what that is, it is: "An Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) test is a sleep EEG hearing test which h shows the softest sounds your child's ears can detect at various pitches." --Children's Hospital Website. We found out that Rilee has no hearing in her right ear and hardly any hearing in her left ear so what that means from here on out is that we have to go to several different doctors to do MRI's and CTScan's to determine if the nerves in her ear are developed properly and once we do that, we can pursue the cochlear implant and what that is: "A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. The cochlear implant is often referred to as a bionic ear." --Wikipedia.com. We are very confident that Rilee will catch up in no time before she has to start school.

As for the rest of the year we found out we were prengnat on the 13th of September with our second child and we have had a little excitement with that one as well.

The other little one is Six inches long this week and about eight ounces in weight and is the size of a "Large" mango and is now covered in a protective substance called vernix. Arms and legs are finally in proportion, neurons are now connected between the brain and muscles, and cartilage throughout the body is turning to bone. As I told you two weeks ago, the "cyst" that was detected when we were about 10 weeks pregnant had several different possibilities that were scary and well scary. The doctor gave us so many possibilities on what it could have been either down syndrome or trisomy 18 and what that is:

There are 23 pairs of human chromosomes. In Trisomy 18 (Edwards syndrome), there is an extra chromosome with the 18th pair. Like Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome), Trisomy 18 affects all systems of the body and causes distinct facial features.

Trisomy 18 occurs in 1 in 3,000 live births. Unfortunately, most babies with Trisomy 18 die before birth, so the actual incidence of the disorder may be higher. Trisomy 18 affects individuals of all ethnic backgrounds.

Symptoms

Trisomy 18 severely affects all organ systems of the body. Symptoms may include:

• Nervous system and brain - mental retardation and delayed development, high muscle tone,seizures, and physical malformations such as brain defects
• Head and face - small head (microcephaly), small eyes, wide-set eyes, small lower jaw
• Heart - congenital heart defects such as ventricular septal defect
• Bones - severe growth retardation, clenched hands with 2nd and 5th fingers on top of the others, and other defects of the hands and feet
• Malformations of the digestive tract, the urinary tract, and genitals

And that same day we took a test to determine if the babies blood had the extra chromosome and it didn't so we were very blessed to find out that piece of information!! When we went to our appointment on the 14th of December and the baby was developed more so we could see where the "cyst" was on the baby and it was on the baby's kidney. And to shed light on what that exactly means it is: "The prognosis for children with simple renal cysts is excellent. Although data from long‑term studies is limited, it appears that most cysts do not change in size or cause problems with renal function. In most instances, if a firm diagnosis of simple cyst has been made, further investigation is not necessary Barring complication, children with simple renal cysts can be managed with regular periodic monitoring" so of course we were more relieved that it wasn't as serious as down syndrome or trisomy 18.

Other than all that information things have been pretty "normal". Larry, Rilee, #2 and I will be moving to Oregon on the 31st of December. Tuesday was my last day at Chick-Fil-A and it was filled with mixed emotion I was very excited because we were embarking in a new chapter in our lives and sad because Chick-Fil-A was the best job I ever had!

We have been so blessed to have had wonderful friends this last 8 months who have helped us when we needed them and all the prayers that we have requested this last year they have truly made our lives more complete. We will be keeping in touch as we get settled in Oregon, get Rilee's surgery and welcome the other little Allen. May God Bless your Christmas and your New Year.

All our Love

The Allens (Larry, Tricia, Rilee and #2)

17 Weeks Pregnant

Today Larry and I went up to Joplin, MO to get an ultrasound today for the next allen on the way. The first time we got an ultrasound on the 9th of November,they found a "cyst" like thing on the baby, but they could determine what exactly it was until the baby was "bigger" so we went today and found out that the "cyst" is in the kidney and it is in no immediate danger of anykind. The Doctor said, " If it had to be something we are really happy this is it, the kidney is one of the most common 'Birth Defects' and mostly has slim to no consequences at all" We were so happy to hear that. The Ultrasound technician did the ultrasound today and was really trying hard to detemine the sex, and she is around 85% sure it is a GIRL!!! She was being ornery and was crossing her legs and wouldn't uncross them, she was pushing the little stick on my tummy so many times to make the little move, but she was being modest. haha. She is already subbourn Man oh Man am I ready??? Probably not!! But I will have to be soon hahahaha.

Rilee has her appointment on Wednesday in Little Rock, AR for her hearing so we will be taking our little "trip" tomorrow and will return on Wednesday night hopefully we will walk out of the hospital and find out something!! She is getting so big and so smart more and more all the time. Today we got our camera back from getting repaired and she took the packaging and took them to the garbage and we never even showed her how to do that it was amazing!! We praised her so much and she was so happy with herself.

I am getting more and more pregnant everyday! I actually look pregnant!!!!! Larry and I will be moving our family to Oregon on the 1st of January because it will be much easier for us to do things and save money that way also Larry will be getting transferred with Schwan's and will be guaranteed a job which is nice. Hopefully Rilee will do well on the road she did so good on the way here but she was also so much younger!!

Christmas is approaching and we are taking it easy this year we are not buying much of anything, because we will have to save to move but Rilee will be fine, because her Grammy and Nana will be buying her stuff for christmas also her aunts and uncles as well!!!! We really are going to miss everyone in Arkansas thanks so much for being such wonderful friends!!!!