Hey 2011, where did you come from???

Oh my goodness.  Where did December go and how are we already a full week in January?  We have been home two months now and it has really flown by.  I am so excited to have the next few months with no major school holidays so I can finally get REALLY organized.  This week was supposed to be my first full week in a while to get things done and what happens…SNOW DAY.  Oh well, we will have a fantastic day playing in the snow and watching movies.

Christmas day marked 4 months since the accident and Madie is doing amazing!!  She continues to improve every day and show everyone that God is listening to and answering our prayers.  It has been so long since I updated that I don’t even know where to start.  I promise I won’t go that long again!  Madie’s swallow is getting stronger.  We feed her once or twice a day but only for therapeutic reasons not nutritional.  We have definitely seen improvements though!  Her speech therapist hasn’t mentioned when she will order a follow up swallow study but I am sure she will let us know when she thinks Madie is ready.  I’m not sure if I mentioned this in my last post but we finally found a wonderful dietician.  She has been an absolute blessing to us.  Madie is finally on a regular formula and getting 5 feeds a day.  She is at her goal for volume and now we just need to get the feeds down to an hour with two hours in between.  That will give us more freedom to take Madie places without having to bring her feed pump with us.   

Madie’s occupational therapist is still working on strengthening her arms and head control.  You can see large improvements just when Madie sits in your lap.  She holds her head up much better and uses her arms to try to hold herself up.  Her coordination is also really improving.  If Madie sees something she wants, then she will reach for it…and most of the time she gets it!  She can roll to her tummy and we even found her sleeping on her stomach this morning. 

About a week ago, we got Madie’s standing frame.  She loves it.  She hasn’t been in a stander since we left OCH so it is amazing to see her progress!  She also loves for us to stand her up without it.  She puts pressure on her legs and will even attempt to take steps.  She is still very much like a noodle but the fact that she knows what she is supposed to do speak volumes to all of us.  We went to Dallas to see Madie's physical medicine and rehab doctor last Thursday and she was very impressed with Madie’s progress.  She lowered her dose of baclofen, which is a muscle relaxer.  The doctor wants us to watch her for 2 weeks and then let her know how she is doing and at that point she may lower the dose again.  Other than that, she said everything looked great and that she would see Madie again in three months.  While we were in Dallas we went to have Madie measured for and ordered a stroller.  We also started the process to order a gait trainer, which is a piece of equipment that will help Madie learn to start to walk again.  We put her one in to make sure we had the right fit before ordering and she knew exactly what to do!  I can’t wait until we have one at home so that she can get lots of practice.

I am sure that I am leaving off a long list of accomplishments that Madie has achieved since you heard from me last so you will just have to take my word that she is proving she is a fighter.    

Molly Michael is continuing to show us that she is the world’s greatest big sister.  Although she has her moments when she doesn’t want to share the spotlight, she is usually very willing to help out when asked. We try very hard to make her feel included and she loves to be the therapy helper when she is home…especially for speech therapy because that usually involves candy.  She had a lot of fun playing in the snow today.  I will try my best to get a few pictures of us outside building “snow sand castles”.  I tried to tell her that we could just call them snow castles since they were made of only snow but she was having none of that.  I am sure by tomorrow afternoon as the snow turns to slush we really will be making snow sand castles.

Again, I am so sorry that I haven’t updated in almost a month.  I am going to try to post an update once a week now.  We are still so thankful for each of every one of you who still ask about Madie and let us know that you are still prayer for her and our family.  I wish you could all see her in person so that you could understand that God is listening and answering our prayers.  We hope that everyone is having a wonderful new year.  Keep the prayers coming!  We are so grateful for them all.

With greatest gratitude,

Kristin, Matt, Molly Michael and Miracle Madie

Here are pictures of Madie in a standing frame taken exactly 3 months apart.  I think pictures show just what a HUGE miracle Madie is!