Maddy update

It's been a long time since I updated about my 2nd daughter! Much of this blog in the past few months has been focused on my pregnancy and the potential medical needs of my 3rd daughter. But I did want to update a few things about this gorgeous little one:

Maddy is growing well and still is extremely healthy. It has been nearly two months since we have seen the orthopedic doctors and we are still waiting for a CT appointment for her spine. I think the stress of this pregnancy (which is no where near as bad as the stress of my last pregnancy!) has taken my attention off Maddy's needs in some ways, because I'm sure I'd be more worried about it if I weren't focused on the new little one. I've figured though that the CT scan would at least give us more information about her spine and whether or not the suggested surgery is viable. Even if the suggested surgery is not viable, more information cannot be a bad thing! 

With regard to the DAFOs mentioned in the last orthopedic post (linked above), we have had some made - however they are not the hinged kind that I was expecting. The kind we have are thicker at the ankle and are extremely difficult to buy shoes for. Instead, the orthotist added a sole to them so she can wear them without shoes. Maddy has currently been wearing the new orthotic about half the time and continuing to wear her old orthotic insoles the rest of the time. Here is a picture of her funky new "shoes" (taken before the sole was added onto them) ;)

Since September, Maddy has been going to not one, but two new schools. It has been a hard transition - it took a few weeks for her to stop crying at drop-off time, but now she is mostly good. She prefers her regular school to her special needs school, but her special needs school is helping us so much at this critical age with her self-help skills. She has been working on things like pulling up her pants and putting on socks. Given that her fingers are inflexible and her arms barely come to her belly button, this is a bit like you or me learning to do these tasks with our elbows!! She has been experimenting with a few different methods and a few different tools. All in all, I think these schools are perfect for her current needs so it's worth the busy schedule and the (few) tears that still pop up from time to time. 

The other week, Maddy had an appointment with the cleft team at the dental hospital. She had back to back appointments with the dentist, orthodontist and oral surgeon. She was AMAZINGLY good - opening her mouth wide when asked, following instructions, allowing them to scrape the plaque off her teeth, even allowing them to stretch her lips out to take photos of her teeth. I wasn't expecting her to be so compliant - I know that when we took Lana to the dentist earlier this year, Lana wasn't anywhere near as compliant, and she's usually my easy-going child! We had all the staff at the hospital talking about how good Maddy was and they have never seen a child this young with that much ease. I think a lot of it has to do with the number of doctors appointments and therapy sessions that she has had - it's been her whole life really! I'm so proud of her :) (and her teeth are crowded, but they are healthy strong teeth. We'll start worrying about the spacing issues once she starts getting her adult teeth!)