Happy Halloween!

This week has been a whirlwind.  Packing for 3 high maintenance females is no joke, while trying to wrap up business matters at the same time.  We had a fun Halloween though and worked in both sets of costumes.  The marathon has started.  Can't believe it. #sadiestands

Impending Doom

8 days and counting until the surgery!  It's a very anxious feeling and Jimmy and I can barely sleep.  I spend my life being calm and controlling everything on major wedding days as a wedding planner, but the days leading up to and the day of the actual surgery are out of my control, which I am not sure how well I do with.  I think I will handle all of this much better once the surgery is actually over with and I have more control over things and Sadie is healing.

I'm trying to focus on the long term purpose of this surgery.  It will make her life so much better.  We are so lucky to have Dr. Paley.  He's a godsend doctor!  However, being a parent is an emotional roller coaster and my entire heart is so fragile right now waiting for this major operation.

I've been asking on my PFFD and Dr. Paley support Facebook groups what parents who have gone through this surgery recommend to help their child be comfortable after surgery.  By far the most popular answer was an ipad.  Then, today on facebook I see someone posted this article:
http://www.themirrorpost.com/2014/10/heres-why-steve-jobs-didnt-let-his-kids.html
(Why Steve Jobs didn't let his kids use an ipad) ---
Well isn't that a nice article to notified about right before I'm trying to be the best mom possible and bring anything I can think of to help her recover and keep her happy.  I'm going to ignore it and use the ipad anyway in the hospital while we are there for 3 days while Sadie has her epidural and basically can't move.

Poor Sienna has to have fillings in her front 2 teeth this afternoon!  As if things weren't crazy enough.  I am going to be a mess sitting in that room watching her cry while they have her strapped in doing the procedure.

On top of all of that, I am having recurring dreams of my best friend Bernie, who had a major stroke on Sept. 10 and has been in the hospital/nursing home ever since.  I am going to visit him one more time tomorrow before I leave just to hold his hand and talk to him even though he can't really talk back to me yet.  All of my dreams about him are that he is all better, back to normal, and we talk about how sick he was but that he's better now.  I hope these dreams come true!  I miss him so much.  I know how much he cares about Sadie and Sienna, and mostly me - and let's be honest, who doesn't feel good having someone who cares about them unconditionally the way my friendship with Bernie was/is?!

Halloween is this Friday so I'll post pics of the girls adorable costumes!

2 weeks to go!

Today is the girls last day at daycare!  I can't believe it!  I was feeling bad about the fact that I drop them off at the morning and don't see them until late at night because of evening meetings, but then I remembered that I am going to be with them non-stop for the foreseeable future and felt better.

I sent out letters to our friends and family that our friend, the amazing designer, Maria made for Sadie complete with fancy printed addressed envelopes too!  I have bought tons of antibacterial hand sanitizer, disinfectant spray, antibac wipes, airplane seat covers and toilet seat covers for our trip down to Florida.  Sadie cannot get sick, so I'm going to quarantine the girls until we leave.

It's been a long time!

It's been so long since I posted and the reason for that is because we really haven't had many updates in Sadie's medical situation.  We've been enjoying life with very little happening in regards to her legs and hip.  It's been really nice!

Sadie is a big sister!!!!  Sienna Reese was born on 7/14/13 at 11:52pm and is a beautiful, happy, angel baby.  We love her so much and she is the perfect addition to our family!

We are going to Disneyworld!  Sadie loves all things Disney so we decided to go so she can experience the "magic" before her hip surgery.
 

Sadie will be having “Superhip 2” surgery this fall by Dr. Paley in West Palm Beach, Florida.  The purpose of this surgery is to reconstruct her hip in order to prevent future issues as she grows as well as stabilize it so she can have limb lengthening done in the future (about 1.5 years after this surgery). 

More regular updates to come!  Pictures from Disneyworld,  surgery updates, etc.  If you want to get frequent updates on all things Sadie, follow vnicolek1 on Instagram! 

Fall Photoshoot

Fall photo session by my friend Nathan at Imagen Photography

Love these photos!!! 

October 2012

A Long Overdue Update!

It has been an absolute whirlwind since my last post and a LOT has happened!

First of all, we met with Dr. Paley in November at his facility.  We coincidentally met our facebook friends whose daughter Hayden is undergoing limb lengthening as well, in the waiting room, while we were there!  That was so helpful and nice to talk with people just like us who are going through what we will be in the next few years.

Dr. Paley had a few doctors with him observing all of his appointments since he is the pioneer in his field and everything he is doing for people.  After looking at Sadie's MRI results on disc that we brought with us, he told us that she does not have any bone or cartilage connection between her hip socket and femur bone head.  Everyone previously thought there was, from the x-rays, so this was news.  He said this requires a more "intense" Superhip surgery, which he calls "Superhip 2".  He said that there are a handful of doctors around the world who do Superhip 1 surgery (which is what we were previously planning on), but he is the only doctor who does the Superhip 2 surgery.  He has performed this particular surgery 40-50 times.  Since it is such an intensive surgery, he requires the child be at least 3-4 years of age in order to develop more before the surgery.  The recovery time is the same though (about 10 days, pending no complications).  We will plan on doing this around November or December 2014. 

Dr. Paley said he would recommend Sadie get another MRI this fall and to bring in the results for another yearly checkup with him after that.  So we kind of have a break from all of this for a while now which is helpful because there is other big news!

Sadie is going to have a little sister in July!!!!!  We are so excited!  Here is a video of Sadie's reaction when we told her it was a girl, on February 11, 2013:

We also moved into a new house, a LOT bigger than our old house!  It is so nice to have room and we have been getting Sadie's and her new sister's rooms ready.

Sadie updates:

• She will be 2 years old on April 23.
• She says a LOT of words now.
• She is a very intense personality - demanding and bossy, but also very affectionate and just so lovable.
• We think she is ultra intelligent.
• She remembers everything - she even knows the hood ornaments for Mazdas (mama's car) and Hondas (Dada's car) and when she sees any car of these brands says Mama's Car!  Dada's Car!
• Sadie and I go to a swim and gym class at the Y every Monday and she loves it! 
• We go to storytime at the library most Wednesdays and she loves that almost as much (Tick, Tock, I'm a little cuckoo clock -- is her fave song we sing there)
• She knows all of her colors.
• She knows about 5 letters, and also the first letter of her name.
• She is in Toddler 3 class at daycare now and goes 3 days per week.
• Favorite foods are pizza and macaroni and cheese.
• Sadie just got fitted for her 3rd leg brace and we'll get it soon.  She is getting so big!

Here are some recent pics over the past few months:

Sadie looking out the window for Mama to arrive at school with her friends!

A Test Run

Today, we spent all day at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital for Sadie to undergo a MRI, prescribed by Dr. Paley in Florida.  This is a procedure he needs to gain a detailed view of her hip formation as related to the cartilage, femur bone, pelvis, etc.  This all relates to her superhip surgery that he will be performing for us in November 2013.

Sadie had to go under general anesthesia to have this done.  We were not allowed back with her as they administered the gas and IV.  She is getting to be very observant and knew something was up.  She also was not allowed to eat or drink anything all day, so that made my job as toddler entertainment a bit more difficult as well, while waiting for over an hour for the doctor to take her back.  I know that people, babies and animals all undergo anesthesia every day all over the world, but when it is your baby, that is the only one that matters.

I could tell that, as I requested, all of our friends and family were thinking and praying for Sadie.  I have always believed in signs and a few of them leading up to the surgery I feel were in our favor....they called us the day before and moved the time up to the morning instead of afternoon (remember -- no food/drink for toddler until after procedure), my favorite Dave Matthews Band song and version (acoustic version of #41) came on the radio JUST as we were pulling into the parking garage, we ran into Dr. Liu (our orthopedic doctor at Rainbow) just as we were entering the elevator and got to say chat with him, one of the nurses in the pre-surgery waiting room asked if we were related to Ann Falvey (which Jimmy thinks was his grandpa's sister), AND right after we left Sadie with the doctor as she was crying, we went into the gift shop and found the one and only Dora balloon.  Sadie LOVES balloons (at the stores we call her the balloon detective because she will point out all of the balloons for you) and she also LOVES Dora.  It was a 3 foot tall Dora Halloween balloon too, just like her book and DVD she currently loves.  It was perfect, and the ONLY one they had left.  Totally meant for Sadie!

Everything went well.  The procedure only lasted a little over an hour and we were back with our girl, waiting for her to wake up.  As soon as she woke up, she saw the balloon and almost hyperventilated she was so excited.  She drank some apple juice, devoured an entire banana and we were on our way home! 

It was a test drive for our big hip surgery in one year.  We are so thankful for how perfectly everything went.  We even managed to laugh a little and have some fun during the day too.  We are a lucky family!  I hope her other procedures go this well!