Month 10 and 11!

Life continues to move along at a pace that I just can't keep up with. Rachel is still doing fantastic in every way.  We went on vacation to the Smoky Mountains. We visited the water park, and she wore her leg in the water.  We just took it off to dry, and it worked great.  We went to the zoo for a field trip, and we went camping again in the RV.  It has been a fast 11 months, and it seems like she has been with us much longer. She got her first stomach bug and ran a fever of 103.  She was pitiful, but she bounced back quickly!

We were so happy to be able to celebrate her 3rd birthday with her at home!  We were anxiously waiting to travel last year, and I really missed celebrating her birthday.

Pigeon Forge, TN

Doing School

At the zoo with friends

Painting

Happy 3rd Birthday Sweet Girl!

Etowah Indian Mounds and camping

Rock Garden in Calhoun

Rock the Baby

Sick baby.

Home 7, 8, and 9 months!

We have been busy living with a large family. We got Rachel's prosthetic leg in June.  She quickly learned to walk, run, and hop with her new leg. She climbed the rock wall at the playground all by herself. She loves the water, but she wants someone to hold her in the water.  We went camping twice this summer.  Her language is amazing, and she can say or ask for almost anything she wants. 

Leaving Shriners with her new leg.

Learning to walk.

Playing with brothers

Climbing!

Kayaking

Being silly at the HEMC annual meeting

Worn out from the boat ride and playing at the lake shore. 

Classical Conversations Day...Rachel stays with Grandma

No hands!

She is a quick learner! She has had her leg for 3 days.

Home 6 months!

This month we got to try out Rachel's test leg.  We are still waiting on the call to go pick up the final product.  We have been wrapping up our school year, and we took a couple of hiking trips.  She just goes with the flow and all the activities that come with having 5 big siblings.  Her vocabulary is still amazing, and she is quite a stinker!

Hiking with Daddy at Minnihaha Falls

Trying to figure out how to manage her leg.

Hiking at Anna Ruby Falls

Home 5 Months!

Rachel got really good at walking in her cast.  She was quite speedy all around the house.  They removed the cast, and they ended up having to pull out the stitches that were supposed to absorb.  She is still not walking on her short leg the way she was before surgery or in her cast.  She indicates that it still hurts, but sometimes, she will walk some on it.  She has been molded for her prosthetic leg, and we hope to go back in a couple of weeks to test it and then a couple more weeks, we should get her new leg! 

Rachel enjoyed hunting for Easter eggs, but since she wasn't walking, I had to grab a few eggs and put in front of her.  All the toddlers just ran right past her.  

Her language continues to grow, and she is almost speaking in full sentences...I wanna sit in your lap.  

She is precious, happy, and settling in as a wonderful addition to our family!

Look at her go!

Ummm...she isn't supposed to walk on the cast. She has worn a hole in the bottom. I think she is busted.

Home 4 Months!

The big event this month was Rachel's surgery to remove the foot that was affected by the amniotic banding.  The dr. also did a "z-plasty" to smooth out the skin that had a cleft from the banding.  She will have another surgery in 6 months to further refine the skin affected by the banding.  For now, she had the foot removed and will be fitted in a prosthetic in a couple of months!  We spent the night in the Ronald McDonald house right next door to the hospital.  My mom kept a couple of kids, and Matt's dad kept a couple of kids.  My dad came up and took us to dinner and stayed with us during the surgery.  We had many people praying for our sweet girl, and she did great.  She was quite upset when she first woke up from surgery, but after a quick nap, she was in a much better mood.  We were allowed to walk her around in the hospital wagon, and we took her downstairs to the casting room to get a pink wrap on her plain white cast they applied during surgery.  Once she ate a little and drank some juice, the nurse gave her pain medicine, and we were discharged.  She got to pick a build-a-bear from the hospital, and she got an Anna bear.  Her cast comes up her leg and wraps around her waist.  It makes diapering difficult, and the cast is going to smell lovely when they remove it.  So far, Gold Bond foot powder is helping quite a bit.  She will wear the cast a total of 3 weeks, and we will post next month what the next steps are.

at the Ronald McDonald house

After surgery nap

Riding in the wagon with her new pink cast

Home 3 months!

Rachel is such a happy girl...unless someone else climbs into Mama's lap.  She has decided it is for her only.  She is learning to say more words.  She can name hair, head, eyes, mouth, nose, chin, ears.  She loves lollipops.

We have her surgery scheduled for March 12.  

Home Two Months!

Rachel is doing fantastic!  She wasn't too sure about all the excitement at Christmas, but she enjoyed the new toys.  She had a visit to the cardiologist to evaluate her heart.  Her file said that she had a "patent foramen ovale, temporarily" so we went to the cardiologist to make sure it wasn't anything we needed to treat.  They did an EKG, which she hated.  She screamed the whole time they were putting stickers on her chest and running the test.  I wasn't sure it would record correctly, but they got what they needed.  We met the cardiologist, and he said she sounded great.  Then, she had an echo of her heart (ultrasound).  The technician said it was very important to keep her quiet, and the tech had already heard all the commotion from the EKG.  Rachel was very quiet and watched Tinkerbell the whole time.  She was so good!  The Dr met with us again and said that she does have a PFO which is a small hole that is supposed to close soon after birth.  He said about 20% of people do not have them close, including his own daughter.  It is nothing to be concerned about, and we don't need to see him again. He wrote us a letter of clearance for Shriners just in case they asked.  We are still waiting to get scheduled for her amputation.

She sleeps all night and takes great afternoon naps.  She has decided riding in the car is pretty fun.  She is using more words.  She calls everyone in the house by name, and she loves tattling on her siblings.  She eats almost everything but only on her terms.  She is walking almost all the time, and I wish we had some sort of shoe that would fit her little foot.  She loves to put her shoe on in the morning, but she usually is barefoot as soon as possible afterwards.  I find socks all over the house.