Wow, 2009! I can not believe it is already 2009. Last year flew by. Casey has grown so much in the past year. I was looking at some old pictures and she is just so much bigger. I must say 2009 was a really good year. Casey has been growing a lot. She has established relationships with a new team of doctors that I feel good about. She has a team of therapists that have been doing great stuff. She has nurses that she and I really like. And on top of everything else she has really come a long way developmentally too. She has learned how to say yes (in her own way) make choices, she is using her hands and arms more, she is getting a little bend in her legs, and she can say “Ma” really good with out our help at all. All in all Casey has really done a lot in the past year.
Just before the new year Tim’s brother Chuck came to visit for an afternoon. He brought his wife, her mother and her daughter. It was a really nice visit. Casey seemed to enjoy the company and I am pretty sure they were all excited to meet her. It was actually Chuck’s birthday while they were here so we had a little cake and celebration for him too. His wife, Claire, has family in the Houston area. Hopefully we get to see them more.
On New Year’s Eve we had some friends come over for a quiet evening in. Casey has just recently got to a point where we can take her to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 and she will usually (not always) go to sleep with in 20-30 minutes. We hook her up to monitors for her breathing and heart rate, then of course have a baby monitor as well so we can hear what she is up to. We were able to get her to bed on New Year’s and then joined our friends and had some grown-up time. She is really growing up a lot. I think she kind of likes the Independence too.
The ENT appointment went good and bad. The doctor said Casey’s ears look good. Still a little negative pressure in her left ear, but nothing serious. In order to see her ear though she had some wax deep in the drum that he had to remove. That was the bad part. They took us back to a special room where she was able to lay down. She seemed pretty comfortable on the table so it started out okay. The doctor was behind her and his nurse was in front. His nurse held her head steady and had Casey’s nurse hold her arms down. The doctor had to really get in to get her ear clean. Casey was so upset. She was screaming and crying and trying to get away. It was really awful. I was standing behind her by the doctor and tried to help calm her down by rubbing her back and talking to her, but it did not help at all. She was really screaming. She finally started to chill out and doze off just before we got back to the house. But then of course as soon as I stopped the car she went back to crying. It was just heart breaking. She did finally relax and take a little nap. By the time she woke up she seemed to be over it. Luckily we gave her some Tylenol before we left and some Motrin as soon as we got home. I hope we don’t have to do that again. It was no fun for any of us.
Now that we are done with the holidays and getting Casey back on her schedule I am going to look into a few things. I am going to try and up our nursing hours so she can have Thursdays too. Also, on Wednesdays I am going to look into getting Casey into water therapy. She loves to go to the pool and there is a program not far from here with an indoor pool that I am hoping to get her into. I am going to give them a call and see what kind of availability they have and see if she likes it. I will post more on it as I find out more.
I think that is about it. Tim has been busy with work, they have a lot going on right now. Other than that we have just been getting settled in the new place. As always, we hope everyone is doing well.