Love for the Matza Family and their new daughter Holly

Our daughter Holly has been diagnosed with Spina Bifida. It is a neural tube defect when the spine and spinal cord do not close properly within the first month of pregnancy. This diagnosis came with a million what ifs and maybes, and even as we have gathered more information there are still a lot of unknowns. For Holly, her specific diagnosis is a myelocystocele at L4/L5-S4/S5. Her defect is considered to be closed, which just means she has skin that developed over it and is protecting her spinal cord and nerves from the amniotic fluid while she finishes growing, which is a HUGE blessing! So what does all this mean once she is born? The only thing we know for certain is that she will need surgery pretty immediately after birth. Once she is born via c-section on July 31st, she will be transported to Children's Hospital of Atlanta where they will surgically close the defect within 24-72 hours of her being born. After that they will monitor her recovery in the NICU for about 2 weeks. After the initial surgery we will work closely with her team of doctors at CHOA to monitor her progress and make sure she gets all of the support she can to grow and thrive. I am setting up a meal train to help Ferran, Sawyer and Joshua for the first 4 weeks after Holly arrives. The first 2 weeks while Ferran and Holly will be in Atlanta and Sawyer will be traveling back and forth, we think it will be easiest for them to have gift cards to various restaurants so they can grab food as they are able. Once they are home and getting settled home cooked meals will be much appreciated! If you are able to help in any way we would be most grateful! Thank you so much!