An Update!

Well, obviously we were WAY overdue for an update. Halloween pictures definitely should not be the last pics up here. :)

There hasn't been too much new going on around here. Last I updated though Gwendolyn was set to start her serial casting, put on one cast and it came off. Well, we took her back to see what they said. They were a little worried that the same thing would happen just because her feet are so small. But, they thought they would try to put on another one, only this time not put so much padding into it. He was concerned with Gwendolyn and her lack of sensation and possible skin breakdown but went ahead and tried again. It worked! All in all she ended up with 3 weeks of casting and 3 different casts. (4 if you count the one she took off) ;) But the PT was very satisfied with the results so we stopped at 3 weeks. She has much more range of motion because of the stretching that the casts did, so for now we have no plans of any surgery in the near future. Yay!!

At SB clinic a while back they also told that she was in need of bigger carbon fiber braces since she had almost outgrown the ones she had. These are the pink braces that come up to her knees. They are meant to react with her step and help to kind of "push her off" as she steps. Her old ones were not hitting her right below the knee anymore so they were not doing everything that they could do. They also wanted a little bit more support from her SMO's, which are the small ankle braces that she wears. I was actually happy to hear that they were recommending this. I felt that she was in need of newer braces for awhile now. We got very lucky with the doctor that we spoke with at clinic. She really took a long time with Gwendolyn, watched her walk, and listened to our concerns. They were able to see that she was crouching quite a bit while she stood and walked.

We finally got the new braces the day before Thanksgiving. However we had to wait a few weeks to use them because we also needed to order her new shoes as she obviously did not fit into her old ones any more. And besides that they were really getting beat up. Gwenner is pretty hard on shoes. She prefers to crawl places which really wears out the toe of her shoes, and squeezing all of the brace apparatis into a shoe is pretty hard on shoes too. We usually have to spend a bit more on her shoes than we do Braelyn's so that they hold up longer. The orthotics guy recommended a certain type of shoe that was really meant to fit around braces. There were two problems I saw with these shoes. They are very expensive, and I was not in love with the way they look. So I did a bit of research and found her some NB Extra Wide shoes that have worked wonderfully! Extra wide is definitely the way to go. She loves her new braces and shoes and has asked to walk more than ever! She usually prefers to crawl around the house, but all day Saturday she insisted on walking with her walker everywhere. I could really tell how much straighter she was standing. Now if only we could get her to use her crutches more! THAT is my next mission.

Braelyn has been holding her own as usual. She has really been impressing us with some of the sings she says  and asks about. She also is really in to drawing people lately. Drawing Daddy is her usual favorite, but she takes a turn drawing each family member, or "her people" as she likes to say. Then she tells us how much she  loves "her people". She has really latched on to this new baby in the family thing also. She will tell us how she will have a baby in her belly tomorrow. Really anytime in the future is her "tomorrow" so it cracks us up.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are looking forward to the Christmas season. The girls are starting to get excited. Gwendolyn is still pretty unsure about the Santa guy. She went from yes, she will sit on his lap, to I will see him as long as he doesn't touch me, to I don't want him to look at me. Yep, she's all over the board. So we will see how it goes. Braelyn seems ok with things for now. She's ready to talk to the big guy. We will probably go visit him in the next couple weeks and then again at Daddy's work party closer to Christmas.

She loves to grocery shop. 

She doesn't get to enjoy too many bubble baths. But when she had her first "real bath" after 3 weeks in a cast we lived it up!! 

Our girl has quite the fashion sense!

This was Gwendolyn waiting for her braces at the doctor. 

We got Gwen's school pictures back! Her teacher must have pulled some sort of miracle to get her to smile that big for a picture. 

Braelyn ended up with a bit of food on her nose one night while eating dinner. Daddy wasn't home yet, but she wanted to leave it there until he did get home so that she could show him. I told her I would take a picture instead. :)

The girls helped me decorate for the holiday. (sort of) ;)