The Beacon Issue 4 | 2017 | Page 4

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: Savannah & Austin Hefner By: Tracy Hefner On September 24, 2011, we welcomed our precious Savannah Faith to our family. She was born a healthy baby girl after a healthy full-term pregnancy. From the very beginning, Savannah loved being outside and was always happy. For the first couple of months of Savannah’s life she grew and acted like a typical baby girl. When Savannah was four months old, we became concerned that she wasn’t able to hold her head up on her own and she wasn’t 4 | THE BEACON beginning to sit on her own. At her four-month checkup, her pediatirician told us that some kids don’t sit as early as others do and we shouldn’t be concerned just yet. As her six month checkup rolled around, Savannah still wasn’t sitting or holding her head very well. At this appointment, her doctor referred us to a neurologist. The neurologist ultimately decided that since Savannah has no other symptoms than low muscle tone we would wait until Savannah was one year old to have an MRI. In the meantime, we began therapy with SoonerStart. Savannah’s MRI came back inconclusive. The doctor told us that her brain had a little white matter toward the back, but it didn’t tell them anything about why she had such low muscle tone. Savannah continued to get therapy every week and although her progress was very slow, she did continue to make progress. It was just before Savannah’s MRI that we found out we were going to have another baby. We welcomed Austin Todd to our family on March 26, 2013. Once again, Austin was born a healthy baby boy after a healthy full-term pregnancy; he weighed 9 pounds 5 oz!