Oh em gee. We did it. We made it to 2025 and although I'm kicking off on a slow/fast start, I couldn't think of a better way to start my year here than to first reflect. A lot happened in 2024 that I'll always be grateful for because it was truly a unique, one of a kind year where everything just happened as it was supposed to. Here are the deets.
Sofia
Sofia turned 1 this year and it was an age most would be so excited about celebrating, but for me, it was the birthday I dreaded since she was born. At my 20 week anatomy scan, ultrasounds revealed Sofia's left kidney had some kind of abnormality where urine was being retained thus enlarging her kidney. There was no way of knowing what it was until she was born, so I was transferred to a high risk doctor to follow me the rest of my pregnancy keeping a close eye on the kidney's development. After Sofia was born, actually the second day of her life, she was taken away to run a few kidney tests to see what was going on and was immediately put on medication to reduce risk of bladder associated infections. Literally from day one until her first birthday, we never went to sleep without giving her her medication because the risk was her coming down with a UTI and at a young age, those symptoms and infections are just never good. Anyway, long story short, initial tests showed some kind of blockage in Sofia's left kidney that didn't allow the bladder to fully empty. Two more intense tests were conducted to measure the functionality of her kidneys (since they weren't sure if her left kidney even worked from being beat up in the womb) and to take a better look at the bladder. These two tests concluded good/bad news. The good news is her left kidney didn't suffer much and she really only lost a tiny bit of function that doctors aren't even worried about. The bad news is we found she had what looked like a large cyst hanging out towards the bottom of her kidney that didn't let her urine completely drain. Leaving this liquid in the kidney caused risk of infections and a life of constant UTI's isn't something we ever wanted for Sofia. So the only option to make this right, was to undergo surgery after Sofia turned 1, which is why I dreaded her reaching this age because I knew it would be go time.
We regularly checked in on her kidneys with blood tests and ultrasounds every 3 months. The last ultrasound before her first birthday was in December 2023 and at that point, we just knew we had to figure out the best surgery route and schedule our big day. After the results posted, the urologist called us to share news we weren't expecting. The news was the large cyst like object in her kidney looked much smaller than before. Almost like it was deflating on its own and in the words of our urologist, was like a miracle. She hadn't seen a reversal like this before and instead of scheduling the dreaded surgery, she said let's hold and scan her again closer to her birthday.
Jumping to 2024, we sent her in for another ultrasound closer to her 1st birthday and anxiously waited for her results. It was either a fluke or this thing was really fixing itself. The results posted and this time and the thing was even smaller. With hardly any risk of infection, they gave us the green light to take her off of the medication she'd been on since birth and we left it all in God's hands from there. Since then, this thing has completely deflated, Sofia's kidneys are in great shape and we are so lucky to just feel a sense of normalcy with her and her future. Surgery is thankfully not necessary and our incredible team of doctors will continue to simply monitor her on a yearly basis.
A miracle happened in 2024 and how special that it happened to my baby.
Daniel
Daniel turned 2 and this seems like his longest year yet! The jump from 1 to 2 felt fast because Sofia was in the mix and we were so busy, but 2 has been so eventful. It's not always perfect, but Daniel makes 'terrible two's' the easiest thing ever. I hardly even remember this is supposed to be the phase that every parent hates!? He has grown so much and my heart absolutely aches at the thought of him turning 3 in just a few weeks. Daniel's personality came out this year and I always want to remember it. It's so special. It was a year of finding out what his favorite things are. From Baby Shark to the aquarium, to Disney movies like Luca, Finding Nemo, Finding Dory, Frozen, Nightmare Before Christmas spending time at Disneyland, becoming absolutely obsessed with Halloween...the list can go on and on! It was his year to show us who he was and we had the absolute best time giving into everything he wanted to explore.
It truly has been our adventure year and I'm so excited for year three with our guy. One of our most impactful adventures was starting daycare. This hit him pretty hard. Daniel had been taken care of by our family since I went back to work and as life happens, things change! We enrolled both kids in daycare and it was pretty rough for the first month or so. Daniel cried every day on our way to daycare and it broke our hearts. He was so used to hanging out one on one with family that getting into a new routine, learning how to be more independent and doing things he wasn't accustomed to completely threw him off. Something else that was rough were the post daycare meltdowns. Woof! Just a miserable ride home where all he could do is pour his pent up feelings out. We had to trust the process and know this would be good for him - and it has been. We made it over the hump and he finally got used to it, except now he's so used to saying he doesn't want to go that it just naturally comes out lol. It's painful though as a parent! Knowing daycare is the first step to dropping your kid off somewhere knowing from here on out, it'll always be this way. Daycare to preschool to real school, my baby is always going to be going somewhere. In a perfect world, they'd both be home until they have to start real school, but I just always have to remind myself that this is going to be so good for them, and it's already proving to be exactly that way.
Year 3 with Daniel is going to be so fun. This kid is pure magic and I'm so excited to continue watching his development.
Martin
Okay, our recaps will likely be short because our lives revolve around our kids and what do we even do lol. Huge news for Martin this year. He finished his MBA in May and worked for a promotion within his company that landed him a role back in the DTLA office. All good things for such a hardworking man. Martin is our captain. He keeps things moving and keeps us focused on our goals, so to see him win is always such a proud moment for me. Watching him walk at his graduation was so beautiful and having our kids there with us was the cherry on top. They won't remember anything! They'll only have photos of the day, but I'll remember. I'll remember the Sundays spent single mumming it up while Martin worked on homework. I'll remember the times he ran home from work to work on his assignments. I'll remember the nights we stayed up together to proof read, edit and write papers until our eyes gave out. Proud is an understatement and I'm so happy that era is over LOL. Time and energy well spent because shortly after his graduation, he went back to his LA roots in a promoted role and it made our future goal of finding the perfect home for us much easier.
Me
Ahh where do I start. Well, I kicked off the year knowing I was being let go in the spring. Around Feb/March, I started interviewing for other jobs because I just didn't know what life would be like to be unemployed. On my last day of work, I was offered a role with an incredible company in the beauty industry but for some reason, I just felt weird about it. Everything aligned though. The opportunity was all I could've ever wanted, but I couldn't commit. So I was let go and had zero leads. Super nerve-racking but my mindset was to have the best time while something else came up. Funemployement turned into a 4 month thing lol. Lots of interviews, one break down over a job I thought I was going to get but nonetheless, beautiful time off with my babies that I know I'll never get back. We got used to our routine and we loved our trio adventures! I learned a lot about being a mom this summer. A lot about how to do challenging things and the art of no expectations. I mean, we took Disney trips together! I couldn't be more unphased lol. It wasn't always easy, but we tried to make the best out of every single day. My dream job finally presented itself towards the end of August and I started in September. We've been on-the-go ever since I started. The house is never fully clean, there's always something to organize, take out triumphs the amount I'm able to cook now and we're just barely finding our balance. It hit us pretty hard to both work demanding jobs with our kids at such young ages! But it has to be done, not for us but for them. I can't tell you how proud I am to have landed this job though. In my wildest dreams would I become who I have career wise and I always have to pinch myself when reality feels unreal. 2025 kicked off to a fast start and I get to do so many fun things with my stamp on it. Something to be beyond proud of and give me the trajectory I'm looking for to continue growing within my career in benefit of my family. What started iffy ended in a dream state and I couldn't be happier.
I told you it was a year of divine timing. Such an amazing year for us and a lot that set the stage for 2025. We have a lot we hope to accomplish this year and I simply can't wait to start. Thanks for always being here, even through my occasional pause.
Chat soon.
xo
Melissa Victoria
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