On to Stage 2....

So we are finally on to stage 2 of Kamri's feet fixing procedures. We are out of casts after 7 weeks and on to a very fashionable brace. The first week was a little rough to say the least on getting adjusted to such a device, but we both survived. Poor little thing. Her skin was so fragile from being in casts for 7 weeks that the leather shoes rubbed blisters/sores on her feet. I can't have her out of the brace for more than 5 minutes at a time besides bathtime. So mostly I would just take it off to doctor her sores. She lived on Tylenol for quite a few days, but is finally off the drugs. It was so hard having to put those shoes back as she screams in pain, but WE made it through and I'm finally getting my happy Kamri girl back. She wears the brace about 23 hours a day for 3 months then she will just wear it at night until she is 2 or 3 years old. The brace is just to hold her feet in position as she grows, so they won't naturally turn back in.

She loves to cuddle any soft blanket now days to fall asleep. This cracked me up, one day she was playing with her toys and decided she would attempt to roll over with the brace (notice the outside leg straight in the air) she can roll over with it, but she ran into the arch. The whole thing just wore her out so she fell asleep twisted around the arch with one leg straight in the air.

The fashionable purple bar....you just wait, it will be in style next season.

TA-DA! Kamri's feet are straight!

We have to do physical therapy to teach her to stand up. She has never had to use those muscles because of her casts.

Ready for church in her white church shoes with the fashionable purple bar. =)

"Brothers"

I have been helping an accounting firm here in Pinedale out 20 hours a week during tax season. My friend Tamara watches Kamri for me 3 mornings a week. It makes me feel good that she is in good hands. Tamara has 3 little boys, 2 of which are still at home, and boy do they LOVE Kamri. It is so cute to watch. She gets all the attention in the world when she is there and eats it all up. They lay on the floor to talk and play with her. Since I have 4 older brothers it is so fun to watch these little boys adopt her into the family. They get very protective just like my brothers did, so I tell Tamara these are her adoptive brothers. (Photo credit of Tamara's blog where I stole them... THANKS!)

Mason and Tyler playing Kamri.

Is that not the cutest thing ever!

Mason giving Kam snuggles

Update

It's hard to believe it is the 2nd week in february already. Where has the time gone? Kamri had her achillies cut on January 28th to finish positioning her feet. It took them a whole 7 minutes to snip the tendons on both feet. Doctors are amazing and I'm sure glad to live in this day and age where they can fix her feet rather than just making her deal with it. She was one sad little girl for awhile but as you can see from the pictures she has bounced back to her happy self once again. The doctor says her feet are looking great and exactly where he wants them to be. She only has ONE more week in casts then we move on our journey to braces to keep her feet in position as she grows. I'm hoping she adjusts to the braces as fast as she did to her casts. She sure is a little trooper and has stayed a very happy and smiley baby through this.


She loves when her Daddy holds her up and sings the "superman" song. She just giggles and giggles as you can see by her cheesy smile.

"SUPER GIRL"

Her feet are now WAY turned out and up in this last cast so she can have full range of motion. I described to my dad in cowboy terms. "Dad, she looks like she is sitting in the shoots waiting to ride a bucking bronc...her heals are in and toes up ready to spur" He knew exactly how she looked with that explanation.

Playing with her toys... another look at how turned out her little feet are.

Club Feet

As I mentioned in the photo shoot post to pay attention to her feet. Well here is the explanation...Our baby girl was born with her feet turned in. It was very noticable as soon as we saw her. The doctors in Jackson weren't sure what the problem was or if it was just the way she was positioned in the womb. We went to a orthopedic in Jackson for 5 weeks and did exercises with her to try and straighten them out. At 5 weeks she was referred to Primary Childrens so a Pediatric Orthopedic good take a look at her. We went down to our first appointment New Years Eve to find out our baby girl has club feet. Treatment: casting for 5 weeks, cut the achilles tendon to finish straightening it out, wear a brace for 3 months, then finally just to a brace at night until she is 2 or 3. We are now in our 3rd week of casting!! I drive to SLC every Thursday to switch out her casts. They do a new cast every week to slowly straighten her feet back out. She has adjusted really well to the casts. She has gotten stronger and now is able to kick them around and clank them together. Soon she will be out of them and we will be adjusting to the brace. The good thing is that she won't remember any of this and should be just to a brace at night before she starts crawling!

Her cute little turned in feet at 4 weeks.

Another view of how bad her feet were turned in

Week 3 of casting!

Nothing can keep this girl down. She is still full of smiles!

Hanging out in the Bumbo chair...her casts almost don't fit. She loves to sit up and think she is big stuff!

December

Our events in December....

One of our favorite past times....nap time!!

Being "Santa's Favorite" in her X-mas p.j.s

Macie and Kamri getting to know eachother over X-mas vacation

Playing with the camera...mostly waiting for Dad to get home from work

Being Dad's #1 Fan!

Photo Shoot

SO... I realize I'm behind on posting so there may be a few in a row catching up. My sister-in-law Heather was kind enough to take some pictures of our sweet baby girl. We did these the week before Thanksgiving when she was 4 weeks old. Now to give you some background of these photo sessions... first Kamri is not like a lot of newborns, ya know the ones you can undress and put in all the cute poses you want. Nope, she would not have any of that at all. She has been very alert since she was born and was never in the deep sleep that you could move without her noticing. Second, she HATES I mean HATES to be naked... very modest at a young age. =) We tried doing the naked new born pictures and well as you can see we didn't get any. All had to be done with her clothes on or she would SCREAM at us. Heather thought that Kamri would grow up with a complex and hate her for trying to torture her....but she was over it after a snooze and loved her Aunt Heather once again. Here are a few of my favorites but there were too many to choose from.... thanks Aunt Heather.

Her eyes really are this bright blue color. Heather only enhanced the whole picture color and didn't mess with her eyes.

She looks like she is trying to play innocent in this one.

Take note to her feet...I'll explain in the next post.

Happy Thanksgiving and More...

We have had a busy past 2 weekends seeing family and friends. The weekend before thanksgiving my brother Eric and family came to visit from Wisconsin so we drove up to SV so Kamri could meet them. Matt and Heather also came up to join in the fun. We then came back to Pinedale for a few days since Bri had school and practice. After practice on Wednesday we headed for a quick trip to Mt. View before Bri's family dispersed for their Thanksgiving vacations. Kamri got to meet many more Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins. Thanksgiving day we drove back to SV. This time Uncle Cliff, Aunt Ker, Bode, and Ryder were there. Joe and Liz live their so we got to see them on both of our visits. It was so fun to see so much family in those two weeks. We are grateful to have such wonderful families and don't know what we would do without them. Here are some pics from our travels.

Kamri started smiling while we were on vacation. She is still a bit stingy with them, but she sure is cute when you convince her to do it.

Uncle Matt was rocking with Olivia (Eric's little girl) when she held out her arms to hold Kamri, so they rocked together.

What would we do with out our awesome aunts Heather and Liz

Kamri and Olivia posing for with their Great Grandma Linford.

The girl cousins (on the Linford side) bonding. =) About 2 seconds later Olivia was done and tried to push Kamri off. It looks like Kamri may have to get a bit tougher.

The 3 siblings and their 3 cute girls born this year. From left to right Jenny and Macie Jo (4 months), Bri and Kamri (1 month), Lori and Megan (6 months). I'm sure they will be the best of friends.

The older kiddos decided they wanted to join in the fun too.

Megan, Kamri, and Macie

Ryder (Cliff's boy) is 7 weeks older than Kamri. Its so fun to have so many cousins born this year for Kamri to play with.

Kamri got to meet Great Grandma Hyde too!

Grandma Linda sure did love all the grandkid snuggles she got over the holidays

And of course they even spent some time with Uncle Joe