Crazy week!

the dreaded key!

Claire and her new hardware

Ok this week has been quite eventful in the Richey household, let me start from the beginning. On Tuesday Claire went to Cleveland to get her arm casts removed. It went pretty good, we learned how to use the key for the bone extenders, but she was not too happy. The extenders are pretty intense looking and they made a cover for us for night time but she has been wearing them all the time. It makes us a little nervous, to not have them on for her and our safety. We will be going up to Cleveland every Monday for at least the next month to check the progress of Claire's fingers. We turn the key four times a day which allows the fingers to grow 1 mm a day. Claire hates when we turn the key, but the Doctor assured us that it doesn't hurt. Which I believe because we asked a 2 1/2 year old at Claire's last surgery and he said it didn't hurt, and we have done it while she is sleeping and doesnt move. The extenders will be on for around 3 months total but we will only use the key for a month. Then in June or July they will do surgery to take off the extenders and separate any webbing. Claire may have a little friend, there was a girl that had surgery the same day she did and will be at all her appointments too, and they are about the same age, so at least we will have a familiar face each visit. She loves playing peek a boo with her hand covers on, and is able to crawl with them on and pull her self up on to objects. Wednesday night Mitch went to the ER or ED with me and we found out he had kidney stones. He stayed home from work today in hopes that it would pass, as of now it hasn't but hopefully it will soon. So last night was complete chaos in our house, my parents were able to come over and watch Claire so we didn't have to take her too. Other than that this weekend will hopefully be low key, we all need to rest. Claire is just blabbing like crazy! She has learned to say Doggie, and oooofff( her version of woof) kittie, I do I do I do, ( we sing a song to her that goes, I love you Claire Bear yes I do, so we think she is trying to sing that.) She sits at the glass door and yells for the doggies our neighbor has, it is so cute, except when she wants to do it at 3 in the morning! We are still trying to get the sleep thing down since surgery, it's getting better but hasn't been perfected yet. We have her pretty much on all milk and very little formula, so far she is doing pretty good. She loves the outside so hopefully the weather will get better, it's snowing right now! I will update how our appointment goes on Monday!

Surgery Success

Claire wearing Daddy's Hat before surgery! Isn't she cute?!

The day after surgery in Grammys toy we thought we wouldn't use anymore! Thank God we have it still!

She loves her Balloons!

When we got home on Monday poor thing!

Claire went in yesterday for her second surgery and it was a success. She was very happy in the waiting room, so we figured she hadn't remembered yet, and when we went back she was still happy. Once they started checking her heart and lungs she got mad and started throwing a fit. She was then given something to even her out(lol) and she was very happy until we went into the operating room, I have a video and picture from Mitch's phone. I took her to the OR like last time she fell asleep very easily. surgery lasted about 3 1/2 hours and he sewed up her left foot, and put bone extendors on both hands for thumbs and a finger. Her leg cast is hard like last time but goes up to almost her hip so we are having a hard time getting her around with it. The arms have soft casts which are nice and will be off this Tuesday. YAY! Then we get to start the key turning process. She was very upset when she woke up from surgery which was expected. We left the hospital around 4, and started our "fun" evening. She wanted to be held by different poeple every 5 minutes. We had Grandma Tracy and Grandpa Richey at the house to help, and the next morning Fredpa came over and Grandma Crystal after school. So we have been blessed to have so much help since last night was hard we didn't get much sleep. She doesn't want to sleep, the pain killer they gave her makes her itch, and she is very mad that she can't move. So we are dealing with what we have and hoping that she will get her cast on her leg cut down a bit on Tuesday and she will be able to improve her mobility. As for now we are all hanging in there and taking it one day at a time. (Mitch and I both have finals this week too ugh). I want to thank everyone who came up to surgery; Aunt Andrea, Uncle Billy, Grandma Crystal and Fredpa, Grammy, Grandpa Richey, and Cousin Carol( the pastries were yummy!). We are hoping and praying that everyday will get better and we will get more of our claire bear back! Although we have been getting laughs out of her today she has not gotten completely back to her old self quite yet.

Claire when they gave her some special drugs to help her relax before surgery.





Claire walking at her Birthday party!

1 year check up!

Claire went to the doctor on Wednesday and she's a healthy girl! She weighed 24 lb 5 0z ( although I think she weighs less because they weighed her with her clothes on and a dirty diaper!) and height was 31 1/2 inches long and head 18 inches. Height is still off the charts, and weight is 70% and they didn't say anything about her head! haha. She didn't get her shots because they are semi live and since she will be having surgery we are waiting! Which was ok with me, although she had to get her finger pricked so she left unhappy. Our baby is trying to walk around as much as possible! which she may not be able to do in a few days so we let her go! She is talking a mile a minute, I could have sworn she said Hi Grandma today! She is loving her birthday and all her toys! She keeps herself very busy which has been nice this week because I have been trying to finish up most of my classes so I don't have much to do next week. The quarter is almost over and then we will have some time off :o) Claire will be happy and so will I! We find out our time tomorrow I am fingers crossed that it will be 9 or 10.

Happy Birthday Claire!

Claire turned 1 on Saturday and she had a beautiful day and party! She loved all of the attention and really started walking on her birthday! (Cousin Chloe probably helped!) We got to see a lot of family and friends to help celebrate! Claire loved her cake as you can see in the pictures. A good time was had by everyone! Chloe from D.C. came early and her and Claire went to get some pictures taken at Sears. They came out pretty cute and the girls cooperated the best they could for them running 45 minutes behind schedule. We had a great visit with them. Now we are just waiting for the 15th to get here and surgery. We don't find out until Friday what time we have to be there on Monday. I will try to keep updates.

almost 1!

We are less than a week away from Claire's big day! I can't believe it!! She is all over the place these days, and I finally got pictures with her lovely teeth! When I can I get on and check back to what we were doing last year this day, it's fun to remember! She hasn't been doing anymore walking than before, but we did catch her saying a, b, c, the other day. She has a table that says the alphabet along with many other toys, Mitch, my mom, and I were in her room and she was out front and we could hear her reciting it! AHHH are we in trouble or what?! She is a pretty smart cookie which is going to keep us on our toes I am sure. We had a visit from Newhope on Friday and they brought out the Occupational Therapist along with the PT. She was very impressed with claire and what she can do, the only issue we have is her feeding herself with a spoon, but she's not too bad at it! We are looking forward to seeing family and friends and I promise to put up many pictures of the fun event!