Saturday, January 9, 2010

Week in Review

Baby it’s cold outside…..but not as cold as Missouri.  We’ve been chilly here in NC, but we’ve been about 30F warmer than my sister in Kansas City, so I guess our 30 isn’t so bad!

Due to the chilly weather we stayed inside as much as possible.   Tuesday we did have to head out to PT and when we came out it was barely snowing.  Lindy did get her new braces.  The major difference is that the right one is now a tall one like the left one.  Lindy was in quite a mood that morning.  She did not want Heather to touch her.  I ended up having to put the braces on her.  She wanted nothing to do with Heather.  Then she decided she didn’t want to walk.  I guess the braces are different but she seriously wouldn’t walk at first.  Finally Heather left to go find some bubbles and I got Lindy to walk with me.  After that she was fine walking.  Her right foot was turning in some which Heather was trying to figure out.  Heather feels that Lindy was just trying to get used to it.  I haven’t noticed this week so I hope she is used to it now.  Her old braces used to have 2 velcro straps on the top of her foot and her new braces only have one.   I’m not really sure why but I don’t think her foot stays down in them as well.  One day when I went to take the brace off to get ready for bed her foot was practically out of the brace.  Which would explain why she was so fussy that afternoon.  I guess we all need to get used to them.

Wednesday morning we had a joint hearing and vision therapy session.  Chris and Leslie do a lot of the same activities so we did a session together.   After our session Chris stayed longer to do some testing on Lindy.  She has to test her every 6 months.  It feels like every 6 weeks.  I just hate answering those questions.  I feel like Lindy does some of the stuff they ask but I have to sit and think of one specific time so that I can definitely say she does it.  It’s just stressful!

The only other time we got out this week was Friday and Lindy had a routine hearing test.  Except Lindy didn’t make it quite so routine.  Once again she didn’t want anything to do with Cathy, our audiologist.  I had to practically hold her in place to do the test to make sure her ear drums were moving.  When we are in the booth they usually put these inserts into her ears and pump the sounds/noises into the inserts.  Lindy gave us a big fat no on that one.  They got the inserts in one time and before I could catch her hands she pulled them both out.  The only way they could do the test was to send the sounds through the speakers in the room.  Lindy did awesome with the play audiometry though.  She completed the entire test by putting a ring on a stack or a block in a bowl whenever she heard a sound.  Because Drew was with a church member having surgery that morning, Will got to play with one of his favorite babysitters, Janice.  From what I hear they read lots of books!

Will has had an interesting week.  I keep forgetting to mention that he finally got one of his two year molars in.  It came through a couple weeks ago.  He is teething badly so I’m hoping the others are close.  I’m so ready to be done with these baby teeth!  He’s back to crying out in the night and waking up earlier than normal so I know it’s those teeth. 

Will has learned how to lock the back door by himself and successfully locked Drew out twice this week.  Monday he locked the lock on the door handle and Drew blamed it on me.  I lock doors all the time so I just assumed I had done it.  Tuesday Lindy and I returned from PT to find Drew outside and Will inside. I walked in the house and saw Drew looking down through the little window in the door mouthing “Unlock the door.”  That time he locked the dead bolt on Drew.  It sounds funny but it could have been a bad thing if Lindy and I hadn’t have come home when we did.   I did have to laugh when I first walked in though and realized what was going on.

Will’s other story for the  week is that he called 911 tonight!  We went to Charlotte today and I went to my friend Margaret’s baby shower this afternoon.  This evening we had a Southern family birthday celebration at GrandBob’s and Suzette's.  I was changing Will into his pajamas before we left and he was playing with the phone.  Then it rang and I heard Suzette answer it and when she got off she said it was 911 calling back to say they had received a call from this number.  oops!  Then Drew was carrying stuff out and loading the car and a cop shows up to check and make sure everything was okay!  Drew had to show him his license and he took his name and telephone number!  We don’t normally let the kids play with phones but it was keeping him still for a minute while I got him dressed.  The phone had a button on it that dials 911 directly and evidently he hit it.  No more phones for Will!

That was a long post.  Now for the good stuff, pictures!

How I found Lindy one day after naptime. She was all laid back in her bed!DSC_0722

Lindy has been copying us a lot lately.  One day I had my hand up on my cheek while watching her eat and she did the same thing.DSC_0725    Who doesn’t love a little kid in adult shoes?DSC_0730Cute girl in a cute outfit!DSC_0739Cute boy in a cute outfit!DSC_0744 The kids playing with one of Will’s Christmas presents.DSC_0774  And what happens to the Christmas present when I turn my back.DSC_0792This picture describes Will best this week.  He’s been running from one end of the house to the other all week, and usually screaming while running.DSC_0807  He has also been looking longingly outside lately.DSC_0810 And made hats out of Mt. Dew boxes.DSC_0813 Lindy, I think you have your glasses on wrong.DSC_0786 DSC_0787 A super-cute new Christmas outfit on Lindy.DSC_0830 Tonight we celebrated the January birthdays with the Southerns.  Here are the birthday kids:  Anna (Jan. 10th), Drew (Jan. 2nd) and me (Jan. 18th).DSC_0851 The newly engaged couple, Drew’s brother and Jamie.  Yep, there are about to be two Jamie Southerns in this world!DSC_0839

Happy Birthday Aunt Anna!!

2 comments:

Andrea Cominini said...

Hey, thank you for your precious infos.
Angelica is born on 7th march 2009 of 24+1 week.
She developed ROP while in the NICU as your kids.
She had 2 laser surgeries in both eyes here in Italy but retina detached.
So we came to the U.S., at Beaumont Hospital Royal Oak, Detroit, MI.
There we met Dr. Antonio Capone an he visited her and told us that
the laser surgeries done were done well.
Then Angelica had vitrectomies in both eyes and Dr. Capone told us that both retinas reattached in the visual part... He expects vision... light, colours, shapes, movement! but what is this??? VISION!!! He was happy... Just after the vitrectomies the eyes of Angelica were frenetic, always in movement. Capone told us that this is normal and that the optical nerve was touched and stop his role. The movement would stop between 1 or 3 months after his last visit (24th september). At that point she will begin to see something, to gaze objects. Now it's about 3 month and 1/2 after his last visit and the eyes are not so frenetic. Now they are firmer, more steady... we are hoping. We stimulate her as they told us. We did other visits in Italy and the phisicians told us that both retinas are attached everywhere even if they are thinner than normal retinas.
The optical nerve is not so pink as it should be, it's a little bit pale (on visit of 20 november). But Capone, after we communicate it to him about this visit, he reassured us and told us that for now it's normal.
We continue to stimulate her!!!

How much your little sweetee sees? when she wore for the first time her nice glasses? When you notice, after last surgery, that she began to see something?

Excuse me if I annoy you!!

If you want let me know.
Your news are very important for us.

Thank you .
Andrea Cominini from Italy

Jamie said...

Andrea, I'm glad your daughter's retinas are attached and that they expect vision for her. It is very difficult to say what Lindy sees as she really isn't talking much.
She got her first pair of glasses when she was around 9 months old. She definitely sees and we think she sees amazingly well. Her glasses prescription is ridiculously strong (-17.00 and -24.00) but we are often amazed at how well she sees. She never runs into furniture, with or without her glasses on. The only time we definitely tell she has vision loss is when she looks at books. She puts them very close to her face. We often forget she has vision issues.

When Lindy first came home from the NICU her eyes went all over the place. Slowly but surely they stopped and now they are pretty normal. We just watched her closely and we noticed see was gazing at certan toys hanging around her.

We are all anxious for the day that Lindy can tell us exactly what she sees. Right now we go with what the doctor tells us. But I really think she has surprised us all, including her doctor.