Under 2 weeks to go!

So I just looked at the Calendar and realized that there are less than two weeks until our next trip to the IWK!!! I am so nervous this time around! After heading over there in January with our hopes up that she would get more time out of her brace, only to be told that we had to go back to surgery instead! Needless to say, I am REALLY trying not to hope for anything at this point! I just pray that she will not need any more surgeries! We have been having much better luck with this brace, as her feet do not slip as much in them. They are also a lot easier to get on her. . . when she is not fighting to get away from me! :) She is just so busy lately pulling herself standing on everything that she can get her hands on!

 I still can't believe my baby girl is 9 months old either! She's growing up too fast! In honor of her 9 month from last week, here is a photo collage that I made for a mommy group that I'm a member of on Facebook!

So over the next two weeks, I may not have much to post about. . . But please keep my lilybear in your prayers and thoughts. . . Send us some positive vibes, for good news at IWK!

Thanks!
:)

Future Soccer Star in the Making!

Team Canada, Here we come! haha

Busy Busy Busy

It has been very busy around our household as of late! Lilybear has decided that it is her mission to pull herself up standing on anything, and everything around the house, both in and out of her brace! Be still my racing heart! I have had enough of being in another room and hearing a "THUD" followed by Lilybears cry and tears. I attempted to follow her around for a while to try and prevent these incidents, but my efforts were futile. Peanut would call out "mommy, I need help" from the bath room, or I would have to go grab the phone, or make supper, or even just turn my back for a minute, and "THUD" insert Lilybear freak out! I don't believe that most of the falls have hurt, as she is fine after about 3 seconds, but the misleading "THUD" is usually caused by her kicking her legs up, and banging her brace onto our hard surface flooring. So as you all can imagine, my heart stops for a minute each time. I brace myself for when she falls and really does get hurt! I am still brain storming a few ideas that will give her a bit more stability in her brace for standing up when she's not on her play mat, but I have yet to come up with an idea that will not alter any function of the boots and bar system. I will not give up though. Who knows, maybe I can patent the idea and help out all the other parents out there with the same issue with their little ones! I best be off, as DH is waiting for the computer, but I will leave you with a list of Lilybear's accomplishments of the day (ie. What she has pulled herself up standing on today)

1. Toybox
2. Couch
3. Love Seat
4. Dining room table
5. Dining room chairs
6. Baby gate in the front hallway
7. Play house window
8. Play house door
9. Stair
10. Piano Bench
11. Playpen
12. Crib
13. Bathroom Drawer
14. Bottom Drawer of her Dresser
15. Leapfrog Learning Table
16. Her Play Piano
17. Living room Chair
18. Car Seat
19. Dishwasher (while the door was open)
and
20. Eva's Reading Chair

And those are just the ones I can remember. . . sigh. . . I hope she improves her balance soon, or I may have a heart attack!

night all!

Milestone after Milestone, my Lilybear she grows!

My dear Lilybear has started to crawl up on her hands and knees now, rather than the army crawl that she has been sporting for the past few months! We were very excited to see this! Another accomplishment that she has done, is to be able to stand up with out her brace on. She finds this a little bit more difficult as her ankles are weaker when she is not in her boots.

As a result of these new tasks that she has undertaken, we have had to deal with quite a few falls, and bruises! I just hope that she gets a little more stable over the next month before we see our Dr's at the IWK again! If she is able to completely master the standing up with out her boots on technique, we may be more likely to have more time out of the boots before may! Keep our fingers crossed!

Will the Lilybear please stand up? :)

As promised:

Amazing moments!

Sorry again for the lack of postings! I have been very busy with my two beautiful daughters, and DH! I also hurt my shoulder a few days ago, and haven't been able to go on the computer much! BUT I HAVE AMAZING NEWS!

Lilybear decided to walk today. . . with her boots on! I swear this kid is going to give me a heart attack! I feel my hair turning grey every time she does something like this! She walked half ways across the living room today while holding onto Peanut's little princess chair! Such an amazing moment to witness! Seeing other babies do this in boots and bar online is one thing, but let me tell you, when it's your own little one it is so much different! So scary, and emotional, and proud, and happy all at once! I can't wait to catch her doing this on video to share with you all!

Speaking of sharing videos! DH actually managed to catch Lilybear pulling herself standing on the play house today on his phone! So as soon as he gets home from work I will upload the video to share with you all! She has been hard to catch doing this trick since she learned it! Today, however, she was standing up on EVERYTHING! Pulling up on chairs, the couch, the play house, the stairs, the toy box, and an upside down little tin garbage can that Peanut plays with and sometimes stores toys in. She falls down a lot still, but she's working on it! She must hear me typing about her as she just woke up in her bed!

Video to come later! Thanks for reading!

Ingenious Idea!

The past few days Lilybear has figured out how to go from army crawling on her belly, up into a kneeling position by holding onto something, and then pulling herself up standing! I have yet to catch her in the act on video yet, but I will post it once I have her on video! We had one real issue with her doing this. Our whole house has laminate flooring, or vinyl flooring, and her boots and bars slip like crazy on it! The only place she was able to pull herself up standing on was the foam mats that we have for her and Peanut to play on in our living room.

So I put on my thinking cap, and thought "wouldn't it be great if there was some way to put grips on the boots and bar so that she doesn't fall when she tries to stand on the hard surface floors?" And here's what I came up with. We have a ton of Duo Derm left around the house from Lilybear's blisters (which are healing right up btw! They are all scabbed over, and will hopefully be mostly gone by the end of the week!) So I cut out pieces of Duo Derm and stuck them on the bottom of Lilybear\s boots and bar! She can now pull herself up standing by holding onto things in any room in the house! Fantastic? Well. . . I may live to regret it (haha) but She is so proud of herself, and building up these muscles is important work for when she gets more time out of the bar to prevent relapses! I will post a photo of the bottom of her boots tomorrow. She is sleeping now, and I don't want to wake her to take the picture!

Beginning to heal

Lilybear's blisters are starting to heal up, but are still very red and sore looking! Poor little thing! The left one is about half the size, so I think the cream is working. Hope we see even more improvement in the AM!

Still very sore!

Lilybear's feet look like they are starting to heal up a little bit. I took off the DuoDerm this morning, and it was still very raw looking. DH and I decided that with all the moisture getting trapped under the duoderm it wasn't healing. So we left her boots off for her hour after putting her antibiotic cream on, and it started to scab over. So we put her boots back on with out the duo derm. I checked again tonight when I had to put her cream on again. It was still very sore looking, but at least it is scabbing over now! It was bleeding a little from taking off her sock, so I left her out of her boots for about 10 minutes to make sure the blood wouldn't get on her socks or boots, and then put them back on. Hopefully it will look a lot better in the morning. I am supposed to follow up with our Dr if it doesn't look better by then to put her on an oral antibiotic. Wish us luck!

busy busy busy around here!

Sorry to all my followers for the lack of posting this past week. We have had an eventful past few days to say the least! Lilybear has got some more blisters, poor dear! This time we thought that we would be alright, as we already had the duoderm for them, and some moleskin to take the pressure off the blisters, and to help them heal up quick. . . What we weren't counting on, was the one on her left foot getting infected! Here is picture That I took yesterday when I took off her duo derm.  (warning to those with a weak stomach, they are kinda gross!):

The duo derm pretty much liquified in parts so this was after most of the "goo" was cleaned off. She cried so hard when I was trying to get it off, and clean out the blister! Broke my heart into a million pieces!

I sent an email off to our fabulous Nurse at the IWK to see if they had any tips for clearing it up. She emailed me from home, bless her, and recommended that we take her to our GP for him to check her out for infection as she had some symptoms that it was infected. So we called out GP office first thing this morning, and they told us to bring her right in, and they fit us in. He said that the blister looked to be in a very early stage of infection. So he prescribed an anti-fungal cream for her to use, and advised if it isn't starting to look better, or if it is worse on Monday, we are to take her back in to his office, and he will prescribe her an oral antibiotic to make sure we nip the infection in the bud before it gets bad.So far we have put two treatments on, and will be applying the cream three times a day, and putting some new duo derm on each time. Hopefully it clears up quickly!!

To add insult to injury today, we had our appointment for Lilybear's 6 month needles, and her flu shot! Wasn't bad enough that she was blistered,  infected, and picked at by me and our GP. They did her 6 mth assessments, and gave her a needle in each leg as well! But my little girl is a trooper alright! She was all smiles and giggles with us after a nap!

On a side note, Peanut has had some trouble over the past 9 months having multiple UTI's. She was booked for an ultrasound to check out her bladder, kidneys, and Urinary tract later this month, but they had a cancellation, and we will be going in tomorrow morning! Hopefully they won't find anything! If they do, I may be requesting a referral to the IWK as I have some trust issues with some of the dr's on PEI after what happened to Lilybear! To make her night tonight, DH looked after the Lilybear for us, and Peanut and I went to see The Lorax, in 3D! It was so funny, and Peanut had a great time! She was up a little late trying to unwind after the movie, as she had so much fun eating popcorn, and skittles! :) Love my little Peanut! Can't wait to do it again some time!

On a bright note, Lilybear has been sleeping much better lately. I have been putting her on her side, and propping up her legs a little with her blanket, and she has only woken up once around 3 am for a feed the last 2 or 3 nights now! Hopefully we have found a comfy position for her to sleep in, and she gets some well needed rest. I'm not going to lie. . . I need the sleep too!

I am off to bed now, but rest assured I will keep you all posted as to how Lilybear is doing over the weekend, and where we go from there!