As you wish...

I've received a lot of requests for new photos... so here they are (and by "a lot" I mean, all from Brittney... I hope you're happy now!!!)

After work, playing with Daddy. (pre-surgery)

This is my all time favorite photo of Audrey - thus far. She is the sweetest girl in the world!! (pre-surgery)

Sitting up like a big girl! (pre-surgery)

Audrey in her Thanksgiving dress. She had another cute dress for her 2nd Thanksgiving dinner but she vomited all over it... (post-surgery)

Beautiful! (post - surgery)

She got this hat from volunteers at Children's. They kept showing us tiny hats and I kept asking them if they had anything bigger, bigger... I think this one works for her! (post-surgery)

Since her shunt placement surgery, we have seen HUGE, MASSIVE improvements from her. It's wonderful to see her discovering new things and interacting with everything. The decision for the shunt surgery was a hard decision to make because we had "time" to wait to see if it would increase more. But, we made the right decision because of all of the changes we've seen in her. Her surgeon agrees that we made the right decision and she doesn't feel like her vomiting was related to her hydro - it's more than likely due to her cough. Or something else I'm wondering if it could be related to her ear infection... If she has fluid behind/in her ear it could be affecting her equilibrium and making her nauseous when she sits upright in her car seat every morning. Dr. Porter also put her on Pulmicort to help in stopping her cough - he thinks the vomiting will stop. She's been on it for almost 2 weeks - He said after 7 days the vomiting should stop - It hasn't...

She's back in her casts. Dr. Lund is pretty convinced that her atypical clubfeet are a result from her previous doctor's castings... He and his nurse Shelley are wonderful with Audrey. With her first doctor, the removal of the casts were a little more to be desired... they would saw them off and on one occasion they caught Audrey's toe with the blade (this Momma was not happy!). At Dr. Lund's office, Audrey sits in a warm bathtub and then Shelley uses a blade to cut the cast off and she peels it off like a banana. It's pretty relaxing for Audrey, I think.

While Audrey was in her first Dr. Lund's cast, her left foot slipped back into the cast and I couldn't see her big toe. I called them and he wanted to see us asap. After removing the cast, her left foot was a little irritated. She had her 2nd casting on Thursday and I think her left foot has slipped again so I'm calling Dr. Lund today (he gives his patients his cell phone #!!) to see if he wants us to come in early. He also indicated that Audrey's clubfeet case is difficult to correct because a) she has atypical clubfeet and b) that extra big toe is proving to be hindering the "typical" correction process.

We had Clint over to take our Christmas card photos... For some reason, we opted not to send this one out...

Audrey has found my hair...

She has seen Santa Claus twice! He visited her at daycare on Thursday and then we visited him at his village in Richardson Saturday night. We waited almost 2 hours in the chilly wind so she could sit on his lap. Our good friends Clint and Heather joined us in on the fun, they were good company while we waited. We also got to see the hilarity that is BooCoos the Clown - that BooCoos in Coo-Coo...

This was taken at Santa's Village

Santa's Village!

Shawn and I did all of our Christmas shopping in a little over 4 hours Saturday while Audrey spent the day with her Maw-Maw, Nanny and PawPaw.

She wasn't the biggest fan of her Santa hat...

So, here's where we're at with Audrey:

• Shunt is working great and we see wonderful developmental milestones.
• Vomiting continues and we will probably ask to go see an ENT.
• Casts back on - will most likely be more than 2-3 casts because Audrey's case is harder to correct.
• Her first Christmas is almost here, so we're getting excited to see what Santa brings her and to see how she interacts with all of her new toys!!!
• Continuing to watch for signs of infection from surgery.
• We're introducing more solids to her as well - she had sweet potatoes the other night but I don't think she really liked them very much.
  

If I don't post anything before Christmas - we hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!!!