Yearly Visit

Weight 28 pounds :)
Height 36 1/4 inches :)

ENT chair, she was beginning to fade!
Playing with the beads at the Eye Center. She is finally playing with things!

Last night Scott, Addy and I headed up to St. Louis for her annual whirlwind doctor visits at St. Louis Children's Hospital. I love that place! We had an eventful evening in the hotel. My poor hubby has SEVERE sleep apnea and has not had a sleep study done to confirm this or get put on a CPAP machine. He needs it desperately! I forgot my ear plugs and could not sleep at all! Neither could Addy :( Finally at 4 am I took off in the van with her to let her get some sleep. She did fall asleep and once she was good and out I parked us in the parking lot and decided to just sleep in the van but then I was afraid that the battery would run down so went on back into the room. Fortunately, Addy was able to fall asleep so she go at least a couple hours of sleep last night!

This girl is absolutely amazing, with no sleep she was still an absolute angel at all of her visits! We started at the Down Syndrome clinic and got some great information on new guidelines for things that need to be checked with our chromosomally enhanced kiddos :) Addy showed off as usual and was quite the charmer :) No one could believe that she was just released from the hospital a couple of weeks ago! They were very impressed with her cognitive and language skills :) Motorically is a whole 'nother story :( She was excited to hear about Addy's toilet training progress as well. She has definitely regressed since being in the hospital but we are getting back on track :) Poor girl still has a horrible yeast infection from all of the antibiotics she had in the hospital :(

After the DS Clinic we headed to ENT. She was being very silly waiting for the doctor! He looked in both ears and felt that the tubes really weren't where they needed to be. After holding her down and doing a little digging while looking through the big microscope, both tubes were removed with a pound of wax! He felt that since we don't have any hearing concerns he didn't feel a repeat audiogram was necessary since the one from last year was completely within normal limits. This was fortunate since we were already 20 minutes late for her orthopedic appointment! He discharged her from ENT unless she starts having repeat ear infections again :0

We got to Orthopedics and they were running really behind so it wasn't a huge deal that we were late. Gross motor skills are definitely Addy's biggest weakness. When watching her walk the doctor felt that her ankles were turning in and was anxious to see what the Orthopedic doctor had to say. Addy's gait is still very Frankenstein. She is just beginning to bend her knees when she walks. Addy currently wears JumpStart Cricket inserts which just fit in her shoe and don't support her ankles. Her orthotist in Springfield is hesitant to put her back into Sure Steps since it would make her have to use fewer muscles and when she wore them before she wouldn't even stand in them. The doctor x-rayed Addy's hips again and they are still as good as they are going to be since she was such a late walker and she is one of the "loosest" kids she's seen. Addy's feet can completely bend to her shin, I can't imagine! She watched her walk and completely agreed with our current Orthotist and doesn't want to brace her anymore than she already is :) However, Addy gets 1 hour of PT per week and both doctors agreed that she needs at least double that. I really doubt we'll be able to get it through the school so we are hoping we can get her home health agency to provide PT in the home. If not, we will take her to the same clinic we go for feeding therapy. We go back in 9 months to a year.

We then went onto Ophthalmology. We were sent a letter that her doctor would be out and they were scheduling us with another doctor. I really like her first doctor and he was there so I don't know why we had to see the other guy. He was fine, I just kinda liked the other doc better. Addy did fantastic during her exam even though she had been all over the place and was getting hungry and tired! He wasn't concerned with her eyes crossing they aren't any worse than last time (I guess they take really good notes on that!). He dilated her eyes and we went to the lab for her blood draw. It was so nice having Scott with me so he got to do all of the holding down torture procedures today! She was a trooper and barely shed a tear! We went to have her eyes looked at and she was so tired she was almost asleep! He said that her eyes aren't quite as bad as her current prescription is for! An improvement, yeah! He said that we don't need to change her script unless her glasses break, that the current script isn't going to hurt her any. He does want to follow up in a year.

We spent just 4 1/2 hours there and got so much done! Poor Addy was soooo tired! She was asleep almost instantly in the car :) I let her sleep the entire ride home since I knew she was sooo sleep deprived! I'm hoping that she will go to sleep pretty easily, I am exhausted too! I don't do well with no sleep!

FOR SOME REASON BLOGGER WOULDN'T LET ME MOVE THE PICTURES! SORRY!