Sunday, January 18, 2009

Sadie's hand update and developmental milestones!

Sadie is doing great with her fixator, though I can tell it's starting to get a little harder. Amazing really. She's outlasted what her dr. said she would. I've been turning the thing 3 degrees a day. I was told in the beginning about the 2nd week I'd have to start breaking it up and doing half in the morning and half at night and might even have to move to 1 degree three times a day if that got to be too much. Well, we are into week 4 now and I just this weekend started doing half in the morning and half at night. She has just tolerated everything so well and not seemed to be in any discomfort or pain at all. But, the last couple of days she has started to fuss a bit so I've started breaking it up and that's gone really well. At her last appointment (this past Thursday), her surgeon said we probably only have about 2 more weeks of this and then we'll be done. Yeah! :-) Then the fixator will stay on a while to hold everything in place before her next surgery. Not sure when that'll be yet. Here's some before and "in progress" pictures if you're curious. I can tell a big difference when I look at these that I don't necessarily see day to day since it moves just a small amount each day.


Pre-surgery:







Beginning of week 2 of adjusting fixator:



Beginning of week 4 of adjusting fixator
By the way - the last two pics do have Sadie in the same shirt. Trust me - she didn't wear it for two weeks straight. (now, two days straight..well..maybe). It's a favorite now because it has big sleeves and is easy to get on over the fixator. Speaking of clothes, I need to get a pic of her coat. Sherry, her babysitter, picked up a coat just a little too big at the thrift store and cut up the left side all the way up including the arm and sewed bra hooks on it. That was, I can get it on and off her arm. It was perfect and much needed in these last few cold days.


In other news, Sadie is now wearing her "big girl panties"! Yeah! She was not potty trained when I got her in May. I decided not to push it and just let her be. She had enough adjustments and medical stuff and all. Well, over Christmas break I gave it a try. The first two weeks were well, interesting. She could care less about staying dry. But then something clicked and the third week she got it! She's had a handful of accidents, but that was it. Today marks day 7 accident free! (Well, except at nap and at night..but I don't count that!). I have to give a big thanks to her wonderful babysitter who really followed through and helped get her to this point! Sadie not only stays dry, but asks to go and if we're home will just take herself when needed. I consider her officially potty trained! Ah..the little things, but in our world, they're BIG! yeah Sadie!



Sadie has also entered the typical stage for her age of saying "no". A lot. Not temper tantrum no. She's very calm about it. Just a simple "no". It's kind of funny, but was starting to frustrate Hannah. Hannah would say something that was clearly true and Sadie would look at her and simply say "no". Hannah couldn't stand it. I finally had a chat with Hannah and told her that she was old enough to know a special secret. The secret was "3 year olds just like the word no" and the best thing for us to do was to just shrug and say "oh well". Well, Hannah took to that advice and it has made things much more pleasant around here. The other day though, Hannah informed me that she thought a 5 year old's favorite word was yes. (I'm thinking..um..I don't think so..but I could use a few more YES's from you, so sure, I'll encourage this!). Then she said, want to know what a grown-up's favorite word is? (This could be good, I'm thinking). She said "A grown up's favorite word is "We'll see"! Ha! too funny. The girl's got me down pat! I'm a little suprised she didn't say a grown up's favorite words are "we'll see and if you ask me again, the answer is no". :-)

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