Thanksgiving was quiet, nice, and just us (which makes quiet a relative term, as there are 11 around our daily table...) We changed things up a little, and kept it simple. Natasha, 17 now, helped prepare the meal, which helped make the morning preparations a lot easier and faster.
The day after our little Butterfly Princess had her third birthday! Normally we decorate the house and put up the Christmas tree on Thanksgiving evening, however, she's had a bit of confusion about her birthday being the same as Jesus' birthday, so we decided to save the tree until AFTER her birthday. Her little party (again, just us) was simple but fun - she danced through much of the day, wearing her pink ballerina butterfly princess wings we found at the dollar store, and had a lovely time of it. I did take a couple of pictures, but will have to try to post them later.
Last week we got a wonder of a snow storm and ended up being snowed in (rather, drifted in... we only got a few inches of actual snow, but with the open spaces around us and the barn placed where it is, we had a great deal of drifting from the high winds, so we were drifted in for 3 days, which was quite nice. It enabled us a few down days and some quiet R&R together. We did finally get back out Wednesday, which was good timing, since we needed to make a trip to Billings Thursday for Ben (4) to see the eye doctor there for a follow up. Not surprising, at his appointment we found that his glasses are not doing the "trick" for his eyes, and he is in need of dual eye surgery. His accommodative reciption is no where near what Rebecca's is, as she probably will not need surgery after all,her glasses helping tremendously. Ben is now scheduled for eye surgery in February, and it is expected that he will not need glasses anymore after the surgery, so that is good. We have every confidence in this eye doctor and know him to be one who will only recommend surgery if it is the least invasive helpful measure. He has been treating Rebecca for her eye condition for just over 3 years now, so we have a bit of history with him, and come to find out, he has also treated several children with Trisomy18 over the course of his career, and said he is quite willing to treat our little Faith, should she make it that far and need eye care (which is typical for t18 children).
Caleb is set up to have a hearing evaluation - I suspect he is fine and is just slow to start talking (although he has taken some forward steps since I requested the authorization from our insurance - go figure!) so we're having his hearing tested just to be sure nothing is holding him back...
We've also had 5 of the kiddos in for dental check ups in the last week, with a couple of follow ups in two weeks for sealants and one of the girls needs to have a couple of baby teeth removed to make room for adult teeth that are already crowding in (but her jaw is too small for all those teeth, and they are starting to go crooked with the crowding, so we're going to take preventative measures by having those baby teeth out.
Anyway, it's been all sorts of busy here, taking care of medical and dental. TJ is healing nicely, though his cast got wet when we went to Billings - who knew that a little bit of snow on the heel (by accident) would be enough to damage a cast and cause it to crack? Well, we learned - so we had his cast changed out on Friday. X-rays show more healing than we expected (yeah!) and he is well on his way to recovery. It is expected that he'll still be in a cast for another 6 weeks before he goes into another walking boot. In the meanwhile, I'll be his driver to and from work, appointments, and errands again.
Retirement is just over the horizon, too, as his last day of work for the military is the very beginning of February, and then retirement on April 1.
Lots of changes on our horizon.
I think those are the highlights for now - we have another ultrasound in another week, but in the meanwhile, I did find an inexpensive ($35.) doppler for at home use, so we can listen to Faith's heartbeat at home. The peace of mind was worth every cent. I'm very thankful for the ability to hear her each day, and even more that it also allows my husband the chance to feel more connected with her while we await whatever it is that her future holds.
We're back above sub-zero temperatures this week, after a week of very cold days here. The kids are excited for the warmer temperatures that will allow them play time outside and in the white stuff!
Anyway, that's all for now... I will update more after our next ultrasound unless we have something before then.
No comments:
Post a Comment