September Update!
Here's Tricia with our latest update. -- Troy
We are way overdue on our blog update…Post-surgery restrictions have drastically slowed our daily pace, and yet, somehow, the days seem to pass more quickly than ever! We are so very proud of Madelyn and how she has adapted to all of the changes necessitated by surgery. She is now eating baby food without complaint, although some credit is certainly due to our three secret weapons:
- Letting her push the buttons on the blender so that she gets to help prepare her meal
- Disney/Pixar movies (helps distract from the constant spoonfuls of liquefied meals)
- Half-and-Half (cream makes almost anything taste better!).
Each meal takes almost 30 minutes, and Troy and I are eating our meals separately out of Madelyn’s sight. It just seems mean to eat solid food in front of her!
Much to our chagrin, we have also had to use the movies at bed time to help her relax. No amount of cuddling and rocking seems to help at night when she is wearing the bigger casts, but Pixar’s Monster’s Inc. somehow works magic! Madelyn’s favorite character seems to be Boo (the little girl with pigtails who does have some resemblance to Madelyn). After a week of Monster’s Inc., however, Madelyn started watching the movie rather than going to sleep – she would laugh, twirl, and dance with all the funny parts. So we bought a nature scenery DVD with Mozart music and that seems to be doing the trick now.
We are really looking forward to the day when we can have regular family meals together again (without a cartoon playing in the background), and when Madelyn can comfort herself to sleep again. It won’t be long! We saw the surgeon for a post-op appointment on Monday and she was very pleased with Madelyn’s healing progress. The casts have to stay on for just another three weeks (maybe a little longer for night time only) and, starting next Monday, we can reintroduce soft breads and pastas into her diet. She will be so excited!
At the post-op, we were also encouraged to see that Madelyn’s latest hearing tests are much improved over the initial ones done. The tubes seem to be doing the trick! The speech therapist will also be doing an evaluation, but she will not be meeting with Madelyn until 2-3 months from now.
Madelyn has added a few more animal sounds and movements (i.e. an octopus waggle and a lobster snap) to her repertoire in the last few weeks and she loves to go find stuffed animals that match animals she identifies in books. She is working on “Daddy” as her fourth word (after "Mama," "Hi," and "Yeah"). She can also now point out eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hair, fingers, toes, cheeks, and chin. And she is starting to exhibit a very active imagination with pretend play – she likes to wear her stethoscope and listen to people’s breathing, cook in her play kitchen, and cuddle with her stuffed animals while telling them jokes (we aren’t sure what she is saying, but she definitely thinks she is funny with lots of giggles).
Last weekend, we had the opportunity to spend some time with the Olson Family at SunRiver. (Madelyn met Uncle Andrew for the first time!) The weather wasn’t very cooperative, so most of the time was spent indoors – but it was very relaxing! We were able to get Madelyn to Fort Rock Park once where she had the opportunity to experience the merry-go-round with bike helmet and arm casts (and good thing for the helmet, as she bonked her head on it while it went around). Madelyn also got to experience her first televised Duck game - and proved to be quite a football fan already, much to Daddy's excitement :)
Thank you so much to everyone who has had Madelyn in their thoughts and prayers – we appreciate it more than we can ever say.
