TBI

What’s New!

November 16, 2012

Our little Laney is changing so much.  It has been wonderful having her off her medications.  We’ve noticed such a difference in her.  She was on them for so long, it became our normal.  Without them, it’s obvious to see the effect they had on her.

We’ve officially entered the world of having a toddler…with full blow temper tantrums.  They seem to center around nap time and bed time.  The minute we reach the top of the stairs, she clings to us and starts to whimper.  By the time we lay her down, she’s lost it.  This is such a deviation from how she’s always been.  We would easily lay her down and she’d put herself to sleep.  We haven’t quite figured out exactly how to handle these new meltdowns!  As annoying as they’ve been, we secretly burst with joy, knowing that these kind of reactions are a great sign cognitively.  It’s our little gal’s way of communicating to us that she really prefers hanging with her Mommy and Daddy to lounging in her crib.   Hopefully, we can come up with some compromise so it doesn’t take her 45 minutes to get to sleep!

Besides the exercise her lungs have been receiving, she’s been working hard at her head/trunk control.  Her therapists keep pushing her and she keeps responding.  We’ve been working on sitting, tummy time and rolling.  We’re so anxious for her to master these skills, as the rest of her development depend on these critical pieces.  She’s been spending some time in her “stander”.  It’s a Frankenstein looking contraption that we strap her in to, then raise her up and she stands fully supported.  She looks pretty funny in it!

We’re finally moving forward with her feeding too!  She’s now eating 2 T. or 1oz. of baby food, twice daily! Yay!  We just introduced a “Honey Bear Cup” for “drinks”.  We call it her “Honey BooBoo”! 🙂  She’s surprisingly done pretty well with it.  It’s felt really good to be able to make a jump in her feeding.  We’ve been taking everything really slow for her safety.  To see her respond well to these increases, makes us really excited!

Our little gal keeps fighting!  We’re so proud of her.  This month has been hard, every day thinking back to what our life was like a year ago that day at Riley.  She has come so far.  We all have.

For our prayer warriors, here is a list of some specific prayer requests”
-Continued strength in her neck, trunk, arms and legs
-Head Growth
-Continued gains in her vision, especially her left field (which is much worse than her right)
-Patience for Mom and Dad in figuring out Elena’s emerging personality 🙂

 Laney in her Stander

 Laney and Pete

 Happy Girl

Modeling her new hat 🙂

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This is Elena. Our Light. You can see all the goodness and joy that shines from those deep blue eyes. She loves sneezes, yawns, industrial toilet flushes, automatic paper towel dispensers and The Star Spangled Banner. Music is her everything, specifically Moana, Frozen (really all Disney), Queen & Taylor Swift. Nothing makes her squeal quite like swimming, fast boat rides and her two brothers in trouble. In addition to her megawatt smile, Elena reminds us to cherish the smallest of victories, to live in the present, and to daily dwell in a posture of gratitude for every breath and every blessing.  

More About Our Story

I’m Emmalee, an ordinary gal born and raised in the Heartland. Wife to Chad, and Mom to Elena, Calvin & Turner, I spend most my days ridin’ dirty (literally so much trash) in my minivan carting kids to and fro. When I’m not being a Momager, I excel at self-care, cooking gourmet meals my kids won’t eat and deep-diving all the feelings. Most days, my attitude is gratitude, just taking life one step at a time.

Emmalee & Elena

Meet The Gals