Looking at my last post I was talking about Annabelle's first birthday party, it was great and she had a good time! She LOVED smashing into her red velvet cake that I made for her too, she was too funny.
Then residency finished (after a shitty time in the PICU, probably the main reason I went away) then I was done, Jim was off to Europe and it was just Annabelle and I for 15 days, then another month off home with her after Jim came back... it was MARVELOUS! And even better with her being with us all the time and not in daycare her development just took off, and continues to amaze us! After a few lil trips Jim went back to school and I started my new job just 2 blocks away from the house and right next to Annabelle's new daycare. My hours are obviously sooooo much better than residency so I've been able to hang out with Annabelle a lot more and get the gym so I've also dropped 20lbs.... So many reasons to be in a happy place!
As for development and therapy and all that good stuff... Annabelle started on some Baclofen over the summer which has helped with her daily stretches but she's still tight and still does not like to use her left arm much. When we restrain her and force her to use lefty she doesn't really extend from her elbow, so we may be looking at some Botox injections in December, also to help with her calf and hamstring (although she doesn't toe walk so her leg is not as bad as her arm). I'm hesitant about the botox because she's so young and needs to be sedated and if it's not going to help the arm (she gets a "reactive" type of tightness) it's a lot of money, although if it helps to get that arm out more money is absolutely no object! We'll see, it's still in discussion.
Things we have seen? We got new braces- a leapfrog for the right and a kangaroo for the left, right after that her stability was like night and day and now she's WALKING!!!! She still gets nervous and likes to hold on to things (not the most stable kid on her feet) but she's doing it. I know I wasn't suppose to but I had a mental goal of walking well by Christmas and here she exceeded my expectations once again, she's amazing! Verbal vise she's also putting some signs together (more please, eat please that kind of stuff) and says around 15 words! Right on target for an 18mos old.
We're very excited for the holidays again this year since she's going to "get it" more, and she had a blast last year! We are going to be having so much fun in the next couple of weeks!!!!
