Well Jamie (yes - we changed the spelling back to JAMIE from JAIME, just to confuse the life out of everyone!)....anyway, she's 3 months now. Can't believe it!
Ashling is lovin being a sister! She's really lovely with jamie, always wanting to include her in everything we do. We really have been so blessed with a healthy little girl who is so easy and placid, and her older sister shows no jealousy towards her whatsoever!
Jamie is a breeze so far, she just falls in with whatever we're doing and she's such a happy little girl. She's a huge feeder though and is already in the same nappy size as Ash! Wish Ash would drink my breastmilk, it might fatten her up like her sister.
We really feel incredibly happy and complete, having our 2 girls. Of course, Ciara will never be replaced or forgotten and she will always be part of our family. However, it's really nice for Ash to have someone else to boss around, besides us!
Speaking of Ash, she's doing really well with her eating, speaking and socialising. She's all chat now, tells me what she wants to do, wear, see, eat.....the lot! She's a very good little kid though and doesn't seem to be experiencing the terrible twos...so far anyway. She's still quite restricted physically, but it doesn't seem to bother her much. She's turned into such a happy little kid since her gastrostomy and casts were removed before Christmas.
The plan for Ash at the moment is to work on strength and hopefully in time, she'll be strong enough to stand unsupported and then start walking. There's been a lot of debate about whether Ash should have more botox, casting, surgery or nothing at this point. We ended up getting three opinions from 3 different orthopedic surgeons as we weren't happy with decisions being made about her treatment. The offshot of it is that we should do nothing for now, (which we are thrilled about), except plenty of physio and stretching (night splints). There's still about a 15-20 degree bend on both of her knees and if she starts walking soon, she may well pull most of this contracture out herself. If that doesn't happen, we will move onto the next course of treatment, which is more casting, and then if this doesn't work, she'll have to have surgery, releasing the back of her knees. However, this is major surgery so if it can be avoided, it will. All of the surgeons agreed on this point.
Despite her restrictions though, she's well able to get on with play, the same as all the other kids at the play groups we go to. She goes to PlayCentre twice a week and loves the sand pit, the water play, the swing, the music area etc. In fact, she loves music so much that we go to a music class once a week too, which she then talks about for the rest of the week! Finally I have to mention her favourite toys....Despite the fact that she loves hair accessories, bags, mobile phones etc......her favourite toys by far are cars and balls!!! I'm thinking of getting her a Bob the Builder or Thomas The Tank Engine DVD one of these days!
Lots of love xxx
