Winners

Thank you everyone for making this year a really great year. A lot of people got involved and helped spread awareness both on blogs, Facebook and Twitter. I am very pleased to announce the winners. I want to explain the process i go through to pick a winner. I write down the names of everyone who participated then assign random numbers between 1 and 50. I then go to Random.org and enter in the min and max number and then ask it to generate. The person who came closest to the number generated is the winners. So without further ado here are the winners.


In 3rd place and winner of the Gift card to Everythings Ducky and closest to the number 40 is...DAWN FELLOWS!!! 

The 2nd place and winner of the CHD hope bracelet and was dead on with the number 11 is....RALPH FANEUS

And finally...1st place and the winner of the diamond heartbeat necklace and another dead on with the number 29 is.....ARIKA NIELSON

Paul Cardall: Saving tiny Hearts CD - Teagan's story

We really love Paul Cardall. Abby has had the chance to meet him and he holds a special place in my heart as well as our family. He composes and plays some beautiful music. By downloading his album Saving Tiny Hearts you can help fund CHD research. So not only do you get some beautiful music to listen to, but you can help save lives.

Memoriam

CHD is the #1 birth defect, with millions of babies born with this birth defect a year. Some of these defects are a lot more severe than others and sweet beautiful heart babies become perfect sweet heart angels. To forever watch over their families. In honor of those sweet spirits we light a candle every Feb 12th. To remember, honor and cherish the memory of them. Fly high little ones and know that you are loved.

Abby's Perfect Broken Heart--First Open Heart Surgery

My sister in law made this beautiful video for my niece. I really wanted to share it with all of you.

Beautiful Hearts

Imagine if you can, learning that you were pregnant for the first time. First the shock, then the joy, then the realization that you and your spouse are going to be parents. You go through all the milestones that one goes through with pregnancy. Morning sickness, loss of memory and train of thought, fatigue, excess energy, food cravings...sometimes weird ones. Seeing your baby for the first time on the ultra sound, hearing your baby's heartbeat, watching your belly grow, finding out if its a boy or a girl. Then the day for your babies arrival finally comes, you are so excited and nervous, but mostly in a lot of pain and exhausted. Then after the pain, pushing, and exhaustion you hear your baby's cry. You are so thankful that she is finally her, they place her in your arms for a little so you can see her and say hi. Then they say they need to clean her up and do some tests. They take a long time, in fact they take a very long time, and there is a lot of whispering between the doctor an the nurses. Then it hits you, somethings wrong. But what could be wrong with such a sweet precious angel. After a few more long minutes the doctor comes over and says that your sweet fragile little baby has a heart murmur. It could be nothing but they would like to do a few tests to make sure. The nurses finally bring you back your sweet little girl, wrapped up in a cute blanket with a cap on her head.  After a few days in the hospital full of visitors and happy times with family and your new little one the day comes that you can finally get to take your little one home.  You go through what they say is the usual routine before you leave. Watch videos, get shots, fill out paperwork. Then the doctor says they want to do a few more tests on your baby before you leave. An hour goes by, then two. You start to get bored but after four hours the doctor comes back and says that you are ready to be sent home. However he has made an appointment with a cardiologist at the Children's Hospital just to make sure but he thinks something is wrong with your baby's heart. Two weeks later sitting in the cardiologist office, he tells you that your baby has a birth defect and needs to have open heart surgery to fix it.
This is not my experience, but it is the experience of my sister in law. Her first child, a beautiful baby girl was diagnosed with a Congenital Heart Defect known as Tetrology of Fallot. At 6 months old, my niece Abby had to undergo an open heart surgery to fix a hole in her heart.

 I cant even imagine the emotion that came with finding out Abby had a CHD. I have read her mothers account numerous times and have gotten her most descriptive account of what she felt and went through personally. But to me it is still incomprehensible. I wasn't there for this time in Abby's life. I met my husband, her uncle, when she was 6 years old. But she touched my heart and I instantly fell in love with her. She is the reason I started to help spread awareness and do this contest and event, and I keep it going because of her as well as all the beautiful heart babies and heart angels that I have learned about since starting to help spread awareness. You can visit her facebook page to learn more about Abby.

Saving tiny Hearts Society

I think this video is so powerful. CHD Awareness Week Feb. 7-14. The research being done today will help millions of lives. Unfortunately, CHD research is grossly underfunded, despite it being the #1 birth defect and the #1 cause of birth defect related deaths. Research is the hope for millions of babies born every year with this birth defect and may benefit children and adults who already have a CHD. Like my sweet niece Abby. Research can help heal these perfect broken hearts.

What is CHD?

The word "congenital" means existing at birth. The terms "congenital heart defect" and "congenital heart disease" are often used to mean the same thing, but "defect" is more accurate. 

The heart ailment is a defect or abnormality, not a disease. A defect results when the heart or blood vessels near the heart don't develop normally before birth. Working with your healthcare team, learn about the different types of congenital heart defects, treatments and tests.

In this section you will find these articles:

Healthy Heart Function
• Common Types of Heart Defects
• Aortic Valve Stenosis (AVS)
• Atrial Septal Defect (ASD)
• Coarctation of the Aorta (CoA)
• Complete Atrioventricular Canal defect (CAVC)
• d-Transposition of the Great Arteries
• Ebstein's Anomaly
• Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome
• I-Transposition of the Great Arteries
• Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA)
• Pulmonary Atresia
• Pulmonary Valve Stenosis
• Single Ventricle Defects
• Tetralogy of Fallot
• Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Connection (TAPVC)
• Tricuspid Atresia
• Truncus Arteriosus
• Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD)

***Article Came from heart.org

1 in 100

"1 in every 100 babies are born with CHD...well 1 out of 100 seems pretty small right? 
I googled how many babies are born in a day.First in the U.S. I checked a few different websites but got the same answer. So, how many babies? There are 10,829! That’s in 1 day in the U.S. alone. (Website) Close to 11 babies born in the U.S. are born with a CHD. I wanted to go further than that so I googled How many babies were born every day in the world. Again I checked a few different sites and they all had roughly the same number. Approximately 360,000 babies are born throughout the world in a single day. Now if I did my math right (which I might not have) that means that approximately 3,600 babies are born throughout the world in a single day with a CHD. (Website) Congenital heart defects is the number one birth defect around the world. It is also the cause of the most infant deaths in the US. (Website) 

When we were expecting our little girl, I talked to my doctor and told her about our niece who has a CHD. Because I expressed concern early my doctor paid very close attention to our little girls heart, she even set us up for an ultra sound that focused on our little girls heart in detail. We got to see all four of her chambers and watch the flow of blood through her heart. It was amazing. Then when she was finally born, we took another precaution and asked for them to add the pulse ox test to the number of things they were doing to her. It use to be that this very simple test had to be asked for or else it never got done, because of that there were CHD's that went undetected. Because of some brave Mommy's of CHD survivors and CHD angels, laws are being passed all over the U.S that pulse ox tests are routine when welcoming a newborn into the world. Utah is one of these states. Thank goodness.  I have talked about pulse ox before, in fact I mention it every year we do CHD, this was mainly because of the new parents needing to ask for this test to be performed on their babies. I am not saying that it still shouldn't be asked for. I would definitely still ask just to make sure, if its part of the hospital routine now or not, always ask. Better safe than sorry. This test is very simple and painless. These pictures are of our little girl having her pulse ox test done. It's  a light that is either placed on the hand or the foot. It monitors that flow of blood and can detect any murmurs that the heart could have. If you or anyone you know is going to have a baby soon, make sure to talk to them about asking about the pulse ox test. 

CHD Dads Sing

I just really love this video and wanted to share it again. I shared it for my CHD Awareness last year on my other blog as well. I hope you enjoy, it brings tears to my eyes every time I watch it.

Also I wanted to introduce the items that you can win this year. I am actually really excited about these prizes. Over the years of doing this it has varied between 3 prizes and just one. This year I am having the normal beautiful diamond necklace that I usually offer. I am really excited about this necklace because I feel it is so cute and helps tell our CHD story. Here is the diamond necklace we are offering:

It's a sterling silver necklace with 16 round diamonds lining the heart. Here is the link to see a better picture of it. (Website)

If we can get 10 people to participate in this CHD Awareness Week then I will include another prize. A handmade beautiful infinite hope bracelet made by a loving mother of a CHD baby. Here is the picture;

If we can get 20 or more people to join in the event, I will also add a $15 gift certificate to my Etsy Boutique.

Remember the more you share and help spread awareness the more you are helping educate and save lives. So change your profile pictures on facebook and/or twitter to help spread awareness about CHD, post about it, blog about it, tell people about CHD and this event, etc. There is so much you can do to help spread awareness. As always I am grateful for the chance I have to continue to spread awareness and be apart of this. God Bless.

Congenital Heart Defect Awareness

I wanted to use today to talk about my niece Abby and her story, But I am currently having some difficulty. So instead I thought i would post this video she did in 2013 to help introduce herself and to talk about her CHD and more. I hope you enjoy. Also I will be posting soon what the items for the contest. Please feel free to ask questions and  don't forget to help spread awareness. Thanks everyone.

What is CHD?

So what is a Congenital Heart Defect (also known as CHD)? The American Heart Association explains it as...

"A normal heart has valves, arteries and chambers that carry the blood in a circulatory pattern: body-heart-lungs-heart-body. When all chambers and valves work correctly, the blood is pumped through the heart, to the lungs for oxygen, back the heart and out to the body for delivery of oxygen. When valves, chambers, arteries and veins are malformed, this circulation pattern can be impaired. Congenital heart defects are malformations that are present at birth. They may or may not have a disruptive effect on a person's circulatory system.
Congenital heart defects are structural problems with the heart present at birth. They result when a mishap occurs during heart development soon after conception and often before the mother is aware that she is pregnant. Defects range in severity from simple problems, such as "holes" between chambers of the heart, to very severe malformations, such as complete absence of one or more chambers or valves.

Having a congenital heart defect can also increase your risk of developing certain medical conditions. 

Associated Conditions

Having a congenital heart defect can increase your risk of developing certain medical conditions.

Pulmonary Hypertension
Arrhythmias
Infective Endocarditis
Anticoagulation
Congestive Heart Failure. "

You can read more from this article here. CHD affects 1 in 100 babies born. Not a lot is known why a CHD forms or how it can be prevented but there have been numerous medical advances to help save the lives of children born with a CHD. Our Abby is a true miracle girl. She constantly inspires our family to live each day to the fullest and to see the beauty and good in all things. And in her words "staying awesome in everything!" CHD may not be able to be prevented but it can definitely be fought and overcome.

6th Annual CHD Awareness Week 2015

         

                Hello everyone and welcome to the 6th annual CHD Awareness Week. Sorry this post is so late, I got sick over the weekend and was down all day yesterday.

Today (like the first day of school :p) I would just like to explain what you can look forward to with this CHD week as well as a little of what I will be talking about. Also I will be including a post or two on organ donation as well. This year I have decided to do one prize instead of two. But the winner will get to choose from 3 different items. I will be keeping the prizes based around CHD. For example heart shaped jewelry, etc.   

                    There are 3 different ways you can submit your name into the drawing. (So a chance to have your name in the drawing 3 times instead of 1) One way is posting a question in the comments here on the blog, I will be answering all questions at the end of each week. The 2nd & 3rd way is helping to spread CHD awareness.  Examples are: Posting something on your blog about CHD and then put the link to your post in the comments so that I can go read about it. Helping to spread awareness on Facebook or Twitter. You can do this by posting about CHD awareness, sharing my blog or event, making your profile picture something about CHD, etc. Please remember to tag me on Facebook/Twitter or post a link in the comments section on my blog, so I know to add your name to the drawing. I would hate to only have your name in 2 times when you deserve 3. These are just some examples and will only get your name in the drawing once.
 

                 Tomorrow I will start all the facts and news about CHD what it is and more. Also about organ donation. Also an update on our family's CHD hero Abby Wardell. This event will last until Midnight on Feb 14. I will be announcing the winner of the contest on Feb 15th before 5PM U.S. MST (Mountain Standard Time). I am excited to share what I know with you and more and look forward to your stories, comments and questions.

6th Annual CHD Awareness Week

I am getting excited to host another CHD Awareness Week. I made this blog specifically for this event, the majority of my posts on here are going to be in February to help spread awareness but I will be posting on here throughout the year as well. The officially CHD awareness doesn't start till Feb 1st, but I wanted to make you aware of a silent auction that will be taking place on instagram tomorrow. It's to help raise money for a sweet baby boy named Andrew. To visit the page where he will be having his silent auction just click this link.
 instagram.com/auctionforbabyandrew

I know the family would love any help and support that they can receive. They have some really cute items that they are auctioning off. Please check it out.