In the course of her short life, Ameera has been through a lot.   Prior to her birth, her mother, Jennifer, was placed on bed rest at 30 weeks due to Ameera being in the 15th percentile.  By 39 weeks, she was down to the 2nd percentile.  Jennifer went into labor but ultimately had to deliver Ameera via C-section due to the umbilical cord being wrapped around Ameera’s neck.  



About a month after her birth, she was admitted to Lebonheur Children’s Hospital due to her inability to gain weight.  At this time, she had an NG tube placed to receive nutrition, and through various testing, it was determined that she had laryngomalacia and dysphagia.  She was sent home with a thickening agent to make her feedings a honey consistency and a special nipple for her bottle.  Everything seemed to be going well.  A few weeks later, she hit a plateau and started having regular weight check-ins.  



On July 26th, she was re-admitted to Lebonheur and has been through about every test imaginable.  Ultimately, it was determined that between her diagnoses of laryngomalacia, tongue tie, lip tie, dysphagia, and acid reflux, she would have to undergo a procedure to place a G-tube, have the tongue tie and lip tie fixed, a Nissen procedure, a supraglottoplasty, and receive a Prolaryn injection to help with everything.  Ameera has taken everything like a champ and things are finally starting to look up.  



As if this was not enough for this family, Jennifer was forced to resign from her current job, and the father, Jimmy, was laid off the day before the surgeries.  As of me writing this (8/17/19), Ameera has been in the hospital for 23 days and will hopefully be discharged sometime this week.  The road to recovery has begun, but it will be a uphill battle for the next several months for this family.  They’ve been through a lot in a short amount of time, and everything at this point helps.  Funds raised will help pay for the medical bills Ameera has accumulated up to this point as well as future medical bills associated with a G-tube.