Helmet FREE is the way for ME!!

GUESS WHAT?!  Tatem is helmet FREE!!!  That's right, look at my baby and her beautiful, symmetrical head!

Oh, I just love her!

"Silly, stinky helmet, I don't need you anymore!"

"You see, at first my head measurements were not symmetrical.  They were 6.3mm off.  It's called plagiocephaly.  Our goal was to get the difference down to 3.1mm.  After 8 weeks, it was only down to 6.1mm."

"But 3 SHORT WEEKS later, and after LOTS of prayers, it's down to 1.8mm difference!  I blew right past that goal they set for me!"

My head looked just like this.  They carved out the inside of the helmet to hold the parts that stuck out too far and let the flat parts grow.  It worked!

Here's Tatem just a few days earlier.  Never again!  :)  Of course she's SO cute with or without the helmet, but it changed her face so much!

"Whew!  These pictures wear me out.  I think I'm going to play with my hair (yay!) and suck my thumb.  Ahhh...this is the life."  :)

I cannot even begin to tell y'all how GREAT it is to be able to snuggle without plastic in my way, to be able to touch and kiss my baby's head, and to be able to see her precious face without the helmet. :)

PS- We are already 1.5 weeks into Tatem's hip dysplaysia treatment!  At 6 weeks, we will start weaning off of it, and at 12 weeks we should be through!

Jump for JOY- It's your birthday!

At the beginning of March, we got to go to Brynn's birthday party!

What a cute one!  I love how Landrie stopped for a picture, but didn't release her death grip on that DumDum sucker!  

Brynn had her party at a JUMP house place.  Landrie had a ball!

She even convinced her daddy and mommy to go down the slides a few times. :)

The birthday girl and her sweet momma!

(If you're new to the blog, Brianna is Landrie's amazing birth mom, and Brynn is Landrie's bio half-sister!)

Landrie was a bit wide eyed from all the excitement and sugar at this point!

We had such a great time, and Landrie was out like a light just a few minutes into our trip home.  That's the true measure of a great party, right?  :)

2.5 years old!

This month our precious Landrie Grace had her 1/2 birthday!  She continues to be such a JOY to us!

Goodness, I just love everything about you.  Where to begin??

You have such a VIVID imagination!  Lately you love to play "Monster's coming!"  We've never talked about monsters, and you started it out of the blue one day!  We have to hide under a blanket or clap our hands to make a loud noise so they'll go away.  Sometimes they are blue, sometimes purple!  

You talk nonstop, and your sentences are starting to be so adult-like!

Oh, yes, you still LOVE to read!  If you are really quiet, I can usually find you holed up in your toy room, "reading" a stack of books.  It makes this book-lover's heart happy!  You sleep with a stack of books each night and lay in bed reading them each morning.  :)

If I had to sum you up in one word, it would be "SWEET."  While we are playing or driving or cooking, sometimes you'll just look at me and say, "Ma, I love you!"  or you'll give me a big hug or blow me a bunch of kisses.  My heart just melts!  That is the kind of stuff I dreamed about when waiting for you!  

Oh, you are a crafty girl!  You love watercolors, finger painting, coloring, play doh, stringing beads, you name it!

You color every single day.  I hear, "Ma, color with me!" a lot. :)  Your little sister loves to scoot to your coloring books and eat them.  You do NOT like this!  

I could say you love your sister, but that would be the understatement of the YEAR.  Look at these cute pictures of y'all. :)

When I was a kid, I was a realllly picky eater.  You will eat almost ANYTHING we give you, including my lame attempt at a really cute snowman banana pop I saw on Pinterest. :)   It would have been much cuter if I had everything I needed!  Some of your not-so-typical 2 year old favorites are spinach salad, black beans, onions and all things spicy.  Of course you also love typical 2 year old foods like candy, cookies, Chick fil A, CHEESE, fruit and any type of cracker.

You crack me up with your creativity!  I never know what's going to come out of your mouth next.  Yesterday, you took the bottle of bath soap, told me it was your baby, rocked it and sang "Rock a Bye Baby."  If you take a bite out of a cracker, it turns into a roaring dinosaur!  You like to suggest off the wall things (or put the wrong words in songs) then say, "Ma, I just kidding!!  So silly!"  

If there's a preschooler in your life, then you need to get her this!  Landrie got it for Christmas, and by the end of January she knew all her letters and sounds!  So many of our friends told us about it, and they were right!  You are pretty good with colors, can count to 10 and kind of to 20. :) 

You only weigh 27.5 pounds, which is about the 25th%.  If your shorts and pants don't have those adjustable waistbands in them, they fall right off of you!  I had to sew some extra elastic in them to keep them up.  

You love to lead us in praying before we eat and at bedtime.  If one of us tries to start, we usually hear "Landrie's turn!!"  They usually go something like this, "Gahhhhhd, thank you Mommy, Daddy, TayTay, Landrie...(and anyone else she thinks of!).  We... love... YOU!! AMEN!!" 

Oh, we just love you SO, SO MUCH!!!

(I've been working on this post for ages!  I keep thinking of more things I want to add so I don't forget!  It's time to just declare this done and publish. :) )

Harness Day!

Tatem got fitted for her Pavlik Harness today!

What a happy girl!!

If you're counting, that's...

-23 hours a day in a helmet

-23 hours a day in a harness

-one baby having a hard time getting comfortable to sleep in a harness that pulls her legs up and out :(

-only a few months (hopefully weeks!) until one head is round and two hips are perfectly formed!

-3 sleep sacks that will get lots of use, since sleepers are a thing of the past!

-10 little piggies that won't need to be painted for awhile!

-A closet full of cute dresses that are going to get lots of wear!  No shorts, leggings, socks or shoes around here for a few weeks!

-ZERO full body casts on my baby girl  

Wordless Wednesday

(Okay, I realize it's actually Tuesday, but I think these pictures speak for themselves!)  :)

It's a miracle!

WOW!  Thank you so much for your prayers and kind words to us after we found out that Tatem has hip dysplaysia and will need to wear a FULL BODY CAST for 3 months!

We still had lots of questions for her pediatric orthopedic surgeon, but we were waiting for our pre-op appointment.  Guess what?

Before they scheduled our pre-op, we got a phone call from Dr. Vara himself!  He said he just kept thinking about Tatem's case.  Her case was so unusual.  That explains why I had such a hard time finding info on 6 month olds getting diagnosed with hip dysplaysia!  He asked us if we would go to the children's hospital and get an ultrasound done on Tatem.  He had to get special clearance to be able to do this, because it's just not done.  We did the ultrasound on Wednesday.  The woman doing the ultrasound let us know several times that this is just not done.  It's harder to do because the ultrasound doesn't go through bone well.  (Younger babies are mostly cartilage in their hips.)

There are 3 main treatments for hip dysplasia.
1.  Pavlik Harness- This is usually for newborns and is completely non-invasive.
2.  Hip Abduction Brace (hard, plastic brace)- This is used if the harness doesn't work.  It's also removable and non-invasive.
3.  Spica Cast (full body cast)- This cast requires anesthesia 2 times and either an injection of dye into the hips or surgery to go in and fix the joint.

Tatem's doctor called today and was SO happy to tell us that as unorthodox as it is, he is going to put Tatem in a Pavlik Harness!

 

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That means this...

 

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instead of this!

That means 6-8 weeks in a harness...

instead of 12 weeks in full body cast!

That means a "fitting"...

instead of going under anesthesia for 1.5 hours two times!

That means my baby can SWIM this spring/summer...

not melt in our typical 100+ degree weather!

That means relatively normal diaper changes...

instead of THIS!  

(Yes, it does say "just dab a bit of perfume on the cast"!)

Oh, thank you, God for this new report!  

I love how God works.  If the doctor would have originally told us that she had to have a harness (we were hoping to find that no treatment at all was needed), you betcha you all would have gotten an earful about how we might have to sponge bathe her around the harness, how I would have another weekly appointment to go to to get it adjusted, how...well, the list could go on and on.  But NOW, because of God's perfect plan and timing, I am grinning ear to ear at the prospect of a Pavlik Harness.  Can't wait!!!

Full Body BABY cast!

Well, we went to the Pediatric Orthopedic surgeon today.  I certainly wasn't expecting what he told us we need to do to correct Tatem's newly diagnosed hip dysplasia.  Maybe if I could have gotten a few more minutes with my friend Google before Mark banned me I would have known more. :)

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Yup, as unbelievable as it sounds, our sweet 6 month old is about to be the proud owner of a full body cast, right down to her tiny ankles!  

She will go to the hospital, be put under anesthesia and get injected with dye so the doctor can better see her bones (a big portion of a 6 month-old's hip joint is still cartilage and it doesn't show up on x-ray).  Then he will carefully line up her bones correctly and cast them.  

3 months later we will get the cast off.

What?!   Yes, 3 months of being in a Spica cast!  

We are so thankful that this problem is 100% fixable, and that it is not causing Tatem any pain.  BUT, this is a lot to digest and will change our day to day living quite a bit.  Her legs are spread apart too wide to fit in a regular car seat or high chair.  She's going to be even harder to snuggle!  I'll just snuggle her cheeks and arms!  Mark said one good thing is that since nearly every inch of her will be covered, it will be next to impossible for Landrie to hurt her!  haha!

Oh, sweet baby girl, we love you so much and wish that you didn't have to go through any of this!  

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Did I mention we can't bathe her for 3 months??  Will y'all still hang out with me even if my baby is a bit stinky?  :)

We know that God has great plans for our precious daughter!  We are trusting in Him through all of this and know that he can use this for His good!

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God"

Romans 8:28

I'm 6 months, Y'all!

Hey, y'all!  I turned 6 months old last week!

My mommy tells me I'm SUCH a happy baby!  I get SO excited when I see someone I love I just can't help but grin from ear to ear. :)  When I realize that I can't see a friend, sometimes I have to cry so they will come running back.  It works every time. :)

Guess what?  Last week I started scooting on my belly across the floor.  It is amazing!  I've been trying to figure out how to get those toys for ages, and I am SO proud of myself!  I wonder if other babies know about this...  My mommy has me practice sitting up each day, and I'm getting really good at that too.  My helmet protects me when I fall over.  There's even a scuff on it!

I have the most hilarious big sister!  She loves to blow raspberries on my belly and is constantly bringing me toys.  I just love her so much!

I still don't have any teeth, and I still LOVE to eat!  I drink milk every 3 hours with my mommy, and after I'm awake for about an hour, I start sucking my thumb.  Then Mommy grabs my swaddle, and I'm happily off to bed for a 2 hour nap.  I really, really love eating and I really, really love my mommy.  I love them SO much that rarely make it all night without seeing Mommy and eating!  

Our cousins had a birthday party at an indoor swimming place, and I looked too cute in my baby bikini!  I'm still wearing that pink helmet 23 hours a day.  It's been 6 weeks now and I got another scan to see if it's working!  My mom was pretty sad to hear what that lady said.  I'll just let her explain!

They take 2 measurements of Tatem's head.  They measure how wide her head is from one temple diagonally to the back of her head.  They do the same from the other temple.  If they are a match, her head is symmetrical!  Her head started at a 6.3mm difference, and we'd love for it to be a 3.1mm difference.  Well...after 6 weeks she's only down to a 6.1mm difference!  Some of the other measurements were much better, but I was hoping that she would have faster results.  

I wear a size 3 diaper and I've started wearing some cute 6-12 month clothes!  My doctor said I weigh 15 pounds and 4 ounces.  I've only gained a few ounces since my 4 month check up.  I guess all my rolling and scooting around has slowed down my weight gain!  

My doctor also said I have RSV. :(  It's my first official time to get sick.  Daddy and Mommy do breathing treatments for me and Mommy slept in my room for a week.  I haven't been able to go to church or any friends' houses in ages!  I think I'm getting better though!  

My doctor shocked my parents with some other news.  I got some special x-rays, and they show that I have hip dysplasia!  We have a trip planned to see a Pediatric Orthopedic Specialist this week to see what he says.  My mommy says I may have to wear a brace on my hips for awhile since my leg doesn't stay in my hip socket very well.  My favorite physical therapist said we may have to work on my hips and my neck now.  Will you please pray for me?   I'm not so sure about wearing another thing that makes me all sweaty!

Tatem Rose, we LOVE YOU SO MUCH!  You light up the room with your huge grin and sweet kisses!!  The past 1/2 year has been so precious!