Red Thread to Lucy: One Month Home!

We've been home a month and have finally adjusted to the time change and daylight savings time. we were worried at first because Lucy and Landry were making 3am their new wake-up time. That ended and we are now sleeping through the night. Lucy is a really good sleeper and goes down without a fuss around 7:15pm and we have to wake her up around 7am. Landry, on the other hand, seems to wake up at least one time during the night. He hasn't quite adjusted from sleeping with daddy in the hotel to sleeping by himself in his crib.

Being home has been quite an adventure; it feels like all we do is cook, clean, change diapers, sit kids on the potty, laundry, bathe the kids, feed them again ...and maybe if we are lucky, shower ourselves. We found out that Lucy is somewhat potty trained, which has been amazing to watch. She kept giving us signs that she may be in control of her bladder and bowels. She would wake up with a dry diaper and she would also only poop in it right after we changed her and put a new diaper on. So, one day, we put her on the potty...and she peed and pooped. We are putting her on throughout the day and praising her if she goes. We've also learned the mandarin words to support this training and we are teaching her the sign for potty. Since children in china wear split pants and no diaper at an early age, it wasn't a huge surprise that she would have this skill. When we showed Landry his sister's new trick, he wasn't too impressed. We asked him if he would like to try and he said, "No!" ...after a few days, he is now wanting to sit on the potty. Maybe we will be done with diapers sooner than we think.

Oh, just reading on the potty

In the couple weeks that we've been home, we've been to several doctors appointments. After children are adopted from China, it is recommended that they get a series of blood work done, stool analysis, vaccines and a physical examination. We have been blessed that our pediatrician couldn't hear Lucy's heart murmur anymore and said that her lungs and heart sounded great. Her blood work came back good and we have been giving her an antibiotic for a bacteria found in her stool. Cognitively, our doctor was impressed that she was right on track with everything except language, which will come with time. We have been seeing her practicing with sounds and saying some words "more" "cow" "cat" "up". And, she seems to understand more of what we say as the days go by. She loves books and music just like her brother and we spend a lot of the day reading, singing and dancing

singing and clapping

As we mentioned in China, we were worried about Lucy's limp, so we made sure to mention it to our pediatrician. She couldn't give us an explanation upon initial examination and sent us to get x-rays. As we were driving home from the appointment, our doctor called us to inform us that Lucy's hips were out of socket and that she has developmental dysplasia of the hips. This was very hard news to hear because we had not really researched this and didn't know what it meant for our daughter. We spent the a week looking at possible treatments while waiting for our appointment at Children's Hospital with an Orthopedic Surgeon. After our initial appointment, the surgeon informed us that Lucy will need surgery to repair both hips and that she will need to be in a spica cast for 12 weeks. At her six week post op appointment, she will be taken back into the operating room to get the cast removed and they will assess her healing and make adjustments. At that time, she will be put in a new cast for 6 more weeks. If all goes well, she will only need the spica cast for 12 total weeks and then she will be fitted for a brace that she will wear for 23 hours a day for 3 months after the cast is removed.

We've scheduled her surgery for December 3rd at Children's Hospital in Aurora, CO. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. She is a very busy girl and we are anxious about how she will adjust in this large cast for such a long period of time. Also, please send us strength as we are very nervous about this surgery and the following weeks of healing.

An example of a spica cast - Lucy's will be from her nipples to ankles and have a bar for support in the middle

Bree is back to work, which has been another big adjustment. She is grateful that she has a great team at work - without their support it would have been a more challenging adjustment. Cody will be staying home to take care of Lucy after her surgery. We are so lucky to also have the support of Cody's mom and dad, who will be driving out after thanksgiving to help with the kids during and after Lucy's operation. Bree also started teaching her classes at Qi again and feels so lucky to have the support of her Qi Family. They will be having a benefit dinner to raise money to help with the unexpected cost of Lucy's medical bills. if you would like to learn more about the dinner, you can click on the link below:

Click here to sign up for our Fundraiser Dinner

If you cannot make the dinner and would like to donate, here is the link:
Click here to link to Lucy's Fundraiser Page

Here are some more pictures of what the kids have been doing