A new year and lots of catching up

A fresh new year, brand new start, and a year full of good times ahead! 

We brought in the new year with my family-Travis, Christine, and Ashley.  The girls tooted in the New Year with fireworks and noise makers, running wild around the yard, all the while our New Year princess Lauren rested.

Cousin Ashley and Uncle Travis with Taylor and Peyton

Princess Lauren

 We recently went to Lauren's pre-op appt with ortho.  We talked about plans for her upcoming surgery next Monday.  On the right foot, he will release and stretch some tendons.  On the left, tendon work will be completed as well-not as much though as right.  Also, on left she will have a bone (vertical talus) corrected and pinned.  Both feet will be casted for a while.

We will check in at 6:00am Monday February 13th for a 7:15 surgery.  Lauren will stay one night and if all goes well will be discharged Tuesday.  Which is good cause we don't want to spend Valentine's Day in a hospital all day:(  

The urologist will perform a cystoscopy (a camera) of her urinary tract.  Lauren has a urogenital sinus cavity.  For a girl, there should be 3 separate tracts-vaginal, urinary, and rectal.  Lauren's are all connected as one.  So the first step is to evaluate the defect-figure out if it's high or low, then use the camera footage to come up with a plan to fix.  Further surgery will be required at a later date...

Overall, I dread going back to the hospital, having Lauren go back to surgery.  In fact something strange and unexpected happened to me a couple of weeks ago.  I was grabbing my mother form a procedure in an outpatient surgical facility and while I was waiting the monitor of the patient next to my mom began to beep with her heart rate.  That noise gave me chills.  I immediately felt extremely nauseous and a pit of anxiety rested in my chest.  It was a flood of not so great memories.  I had no idea the amount of anxiety that has been resting quietly inside of me.  In fact I have never had blood pressure problems until Lauren was born.  It's still very high, but I have been working at trying to deal with it, rather than keeping it all pinned up.  I want to be healthy, so that I can give my best to each of my girls.

Lauren currently is being treated for a UTI/kidney infection.  But is showing no discomfort and is doing wonderfully.

She began to say "mama" and "baba" at the beginning of the year.  She doesn't say them often right now, but she is still learning a lot of things right now.  She is doing well in each of her therapies.  A university nearby engineering dept is making a crawler for Lauren.  I'm really excited about it.  It will help and aid her in the crawling motions...  Should get it in about 4-5 months.

 Another recent development is that Lauren is becoming a serious daddy's girl.  She has got him so wrapped around her finger.  It's very sweet to see.  Her favorite thing to do is to have Tracy take her hands and plant her feet on the floor and to dance her around.

 Well, we'll be in touch after the surgery t let you know how things went.  Thanks again for following and keeping up!

 Love from the McGinnis Fmaily!

A Snapshot

Lauren is still doing wonderfully.  Sitting tall, trying to roll over (at least mommy standing by waiting...).  She is still doing her regular therapies and each is seeing progress. 

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, blessed with health and family.  I have much to be thankful for this year...

Article

A friend posted this article on her facebook page.  It was well written with great pointers for me and any other parent of a child with a disability.

" The kids don't know fear unless we teach it to them. It is only fair to let them explore life on their terms, without hesitation and without fear..."

Article: From Patient to Parent

A.F.O.s

Well, we went Friday to pick up her A.F.O.s.  They actually look pretty cute, we were expecting something more bulky...  Even my husband said they were "cute"-a word that is not usually in his vocabulary.

She will have her foot correction surgery on Feb. 13th.  She will be casted and will wear special shoe braces with a bar for a while, then get some new A.F.O.s.

Just moving right along!

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!

Since Lauren was a little thing, she has always tried to sit herself up while you held her on her lap.  She LOVES it. 

Well, with those heavy and sturdy casts on her legs it made it easier for her to try and sit up on her own for little bits at a time. 

Today, she has no casts on AND she sat up on her own!!!

You can imagine my excitement and surprise.  Oh, I could just squeeze her, I'm so proud of her!  We were told not to expect this for another 4-6 months-I just love it when Lauren proves us wrong this way!

I know that she has many more things to accomplish and is currently working on, but today we celebrate her achievement.

PT & OT

Lauren is now getting her Tennessee Early Intervention services weekly for an hour.  During these sessions we talk about her progress... and make plans on her future and work on her developmental things.  It's working out nicely and Lauren appears to enjoy the extra attention.  Although, her time allotted is typically during a nap time, so she often gets very sleepy towards the end.

Lauren has also began going weekly for half an hour to a physical therapy session one day and an occupational therapy session another day.  It's been really nice to be able to move forward with her development.  I get a lot of feedback and ideas on things that I can do at home with her.

It is ABSOLUTELY amazing at the things that we take for granted with our healthy children.  I never once thought about having to teach my other two daughters so many typically easy developments and milestones.  But with Lauren its so many things that really have to be intensely targeted and worked on.  It is honestly a completely different life.  Lauren has already made some progress and I am so super proud of her hard work and the way she tolerates things.  She is so adorable, sometimes she even pants from exhaustion after an exercise. 

She got her results back too from her PT on the Peabody test.  It was a little surprising in some areas, and others weren't too much of a shock.  It just really leaves us a lot of room for improvement and progress, which we will work really hard for.  She has some really great goals set ahead of her and I look forward to her achieving each of these and some nearby milestones.

Results:

                        Age Equivalent             Percentile

Reflexes           5 months                            25

Stationary        6 months                            37         

Locomotion     2 months                              5

Lauren does wonderfully with her core strength.  She absolutely LOVES to sit up, and for a long time we have been sitting her straight up with support.  Over the past few weeks Lauren has really gone forward and has began to sit up on her own for a little bit at a time.  I am soooo incredibly pleased and proud of her.  The PT is very surprised and happy with this ability.  We just need to work on other things and keep her moving forward.

Holding her upper-body up!

Playing with grandma keeping her body upward.  What a strong little girl!