In the past 4 years since I have updated this page, Emily has come a long way. She is now 5 and a half years old and attends kindergarten daily. She is receiving occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech in school, while enjoying time with her friends. She continues to amaze us with her determination and zest to learn and to do things by herself. Emily has had a total of 13 surgical procedures, including all of her finger separations, including her thumbs; 2 cranial surgeries, eye muscle surgeries, cleft palate repair and tonsils and adenoid surgery. She continues to be an inspiration to all who know her. Below are some updated photos of Emily doing some of her favorite things.

Here is a photo of Emily in the NICU, where she stayed for 11 days until they were able to get her to feed from a bottle. I remember the first time that I got to hold her to feed her.  I was amazed that she was able to squeeze my fingers in between her thumb and hand.  It was like our first connection.

Once we got her home we started the process of the doctor visits.  The doctors told us in the hospital that it was Apert Syndrome, which we never heard of.  Now we had to take her to all of the specialists to get her checked out.  This was a very stressful and emotional time for our entire family.  The excitement of having a child became overshadowed with so many concerns for her health and well-being.

Emily had a craniotomy at 3 months of age to correct the coronal sutures that were fused.  She was in PICU for 5 days.  Her head was very swollen and her eyes were swollen shut for 2 days, and she had tubes coming out of every part of her body.  As every day went on, she improved more and more and came home right on schedule. At 6 months she just had ear tubes put in due to an excessive amount of fluid in her ears. 

Emily got glasses at 7 months old because of strabismus as well as the fact that the eye doctor said she sees everything blurry.  I must say she looks adorable in her glasses.  At 9 months old Emily had her cleft palate repaired.  She can finally eat food without it coming out of her nose.  She only had to stay in the hospital one night and recovered beautifully.
 
 

Emily is our second child.  Here is a photo of her with her big brother, Nicholas.  We all had to get used to having another child in the house, but Nicholas adjusted well to his new role.
 

Here is a photo of our little angel at Christmas, as well as a photo of the Krebs family; Brian, Janine, Nicholas and Emily. 

Emily is a very happy, little girl with a great disposition.  She began sleeping through the night early, and has been keeping up with the things her brother did at this age.

We have just celebrated Emily's first birthday and it was truly a very emotional time for all of us, to have come so far in one year and to celebrate everything that Emily has accomplished.  Here is a picture of Emily at 1 year old. 

We are truly blessed to have her in our family.

One of the hardest things was to feel so secluded from the rest of the world and not being able to gain information that would help Emily.  Thank you, Don, for creating Teeter's Page, and everyone who helps work on it.
 

Brian, Janine, Nicholas & Emily Krebs