Finally a very belated update...

It's getting harder and harder to do regular updates, so this is a large one.

With everything that is going on with Bailey we really needed to be in town. We put our house up for sale, expecting it to be a while before we sold it and found something new. God definitely had his hand in it because our house was only on the market for one day before we had a buyer. We ended up swapping houses with a couple that wanted to move to the country. We love our new house and it is SO much easier now that we are in town. We moved in September so I was able to go back to work full time (I was working from home some days) and we were able to find a wonderful lady to keep Bailey at our home. Caden also started a new preschool which he loves. He goes on field trips and everything now.

Caden turned four on December 11th. He is a mini Chism and has Chism's exact personality. I call them Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. He is a sweet little boy but also has his moments where he's a mini devil. Overall he's very sweet with Bailey but I do think he's starting to get a bit jealous when she steals his spotlight. He has started trying to "wrestle" Bailey when he's really just knocking her down. He's got the best laugh and the best kisses. He's really funny and very smart. He knows just about every dinosaur there is and all sorts of details about them. Everyone says how much Bailey looks like Caden but I didn't realize how much till I saw them sleeping side by side like they are in the picture below.

Bailey will turn one on January 11th. I can't believe it's already been almost a year. Her first year has gone by so fast, much faster than I remember w/ Caden. She's had a tough year but she's a strong little girl. Bailey has a busy schedule and even has her own appointment book! She has speech therapy twice a week and physical and occupational therapy once a week. They schedule some of them back to back so thankfully she only has to go twice a week. Physically she's not too far behind. She isn't crawling yet but she is so close. She can manage to get around in her own strange little way. I can really tell a difference in her senses since she has started occupational therapy. Bailey has a low sensory level so touches, textures and things like that don't feel the same to her like they do to us. When she first started you could tickle her and she wouldn't react at all, it was like you weren't even touching her. Now, she will move her body in response and sometimes we even get a little giggle. She also will now cry if she bumps her head. She didn't do that before, her head would fall and either hit the floor or her walker (drop seizures)and she wouldn't make a sound. I never thought I would be excited to hear my child cry from pain, but when she cries I know it means she can feel it. She loves extreme movements so we'll get a good laugh out of her if we throw her up in the air over and over. She loves it. Her speech is where she is delayed the most. She makes noises but not the normal babbling that babies make. I know she'll catch up in her own time.

Her seizure control is a constant battle. Her seizures started back up in August and after months of medicine tweaks we finally got them under control around the first of November. In the past few weeks she's started having strange eye movements which are a new type of seizure. We're again tweaking her medicine to try to control these. Her neurologist wants her to come in in January for an overnight video EEG where they'll monitor her brainwaves and see if there is a certain area triggering the new seizures. Hopefully they'll take her off of one of her seizure medicines if she's not having the abnormal brainwaves related to the infantile spasms. She's currently taking three seizure meds so she's a drugged up little girl. She's a really tall little girl. She's already around 30 or 31" long. She's so pretty and she can be really silly when she wants to be. She still doesn't have any teeth and she's teething like crazy.

I'll try to do another update after her birthday in January but I can't promise anything. There just aren't enough hours in the day!!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and that you have a wonderful New Year.

Love, Becca