Snow Day

Well, we had a snow day today so I thought I'd take the time to give a short update. Autumn has decided to once again change her sleeping pattern since last week. She's decided she would now like to skip her evening nap and instead wake up super early in the morning and then go back to bed around 8am for an hour or two. Okay, whatever she wants but she's not going to like when I make her get up on therapy mornings. ;) She's been doing really well this year so far. I think this will be a year of seeing huge improvements with her. She's really wanting to learn how to get on her knees and rock back and forth...she practices this all the time on her own but has not gotten it down yet. She also is wanting to sit up more on her own when on the floor instead of being content laying on the floor to watch TV. She's getting stronger and I know by the end of the year she will have the sitting ALL by herself and getting on her knees thing down. When she wants to do something she works hard for it but if she is not interested then there is nothing you can do to make her work. It's hard for me since I like to control things but I'm learning I have to just let her do things in her own timing. Really she does her own physical therapy most of the time...it's the fine motor skills and feeding she HATES!!! We are making progress on eating though...we have now accomplished giving sweet potatoes from a spoon and most days she eats without gagging or spitting it out but still fights when you feed her so I have to be really fast with the bites. I think now that we finally found a food she can handle we are going to stick to it until she actually wants to take bites and then slowly add other tastes/textures with the sweet potatoes. I finally got over the frustration of what she use to do and what she's not doing now with eating food and decided to quit looking at the past and start setting new goals for the future. I have fixed most of her gagging/vomiting problems but we still have our bad days here and there. She's being fed most all of her food at night while sleeping and then gets 12 ounces throughout the daytime. It seems to be working the best from everything else we have tried so far. Autumn also has been tolerating her non-modified speaking valve ever once in awhile so I'm excited to make progress with that and hear some little ah's out of her and a quiet laugh every once in awhile. She's also breathing more through her nose and mouth when she sleeps..this makes our vent alarm though and does not give us a pleasant nights sleep so I'm waiting for our dr. to call us to see what changes we can make when she has a good night like this so we won't have to hear vent beeps all night long. Autumn has decided she does not like her vent on anyways. Last night she pulled it off and when I grabbed it she was pushing it away from her and trying to push it out of her crib..so I turned it off and let her watch the rest of her show without it and just waited until she was almost falling asleep to put it back on. ;) We met a new nurse that may be picking up our Saturday nights so I am excited about that so we can get back to church. We will also be meeting another new nurse this week who may be doing a weekday shift for me as well.

Layla is doing great in her recovery. Actually, a little too good and wants to jump, run, and play. We try to keep her in her kennel but it's so sad seeing her lay there all day bored so she's out way more than she should be. I also should still be taking her on her leash outside in the backyard but I really don't have time for it so let her out on her own and then she takes off running...bad dog. Hopefully despite my giving into her, she will heal well. We go back in March to get an x-ray to see how thinks look.

I took the 2 older kids to the dentist yesterday. Everything looks good. Gage has still not lost a tooth...I think he may have my genes and if that is the case he will have to get most of his teeth pulled by the dentist. ;( At the end of last year we were told by Madison's pediatrician that she has a heart murmur and we should get it checked before she gets into high school just to make sure everything is fine. Well, I did not know if you have a heart murmur that you have to take antibiotics before getting your teeth cleaned so Madison was not able to get hers done. So, we will be back next week for her teeth cleaning and she will get a tooth pulled. This should be VERY interesting since she's my drama child...you have no idea what I go through for a simple check-up with that child. It's always a draining experience for me..she's a one of a kind child that is for sure. ;) I guess I will stop putting off the visit to the cardiologist and go ahead and take Madison just to get it over with and make sure everything is fine. I guess my update was not so short but when do I ever give short posts? ;)