New gadgets

Happy Monday, everyone!

Since my last post, your huge hearts have brought in over $750 for our Maddie Fund. Every donation blows us away, I don't think you understand. I just keep telling everyone, "It's crazy. It's just crazy..." and then I fade off because I don't know what else to say. Loss of words is not something I'm accustomed to :)

I ordered Maddie's Spica Chair today! Here is an example of what it will look like, but the girl loves turtles so we got a turtle cutout on the bottom. We also picked out one that rocks because she is a rockin' fool! SO SO SO thankful for Ivy Rose Spica chairs for this creation. Now Maddie will be able to play and eat and sit up like normal. The tray pops out so we can sit her in there, then we lock her into place with the top. The top is also reversible and Ivy Rose creator will paint the other side with chalkboard paint so it will also double as an art station. Miss Aubrey may sneak in there a lot to play with that feature :) The turtle cutout allows room for growth and positioning if need be. It's also coming in unfinished so M's Aunt Jamie is going to finish it up for us. We can paint it and use wallpaper decals on it, easy to switch out, or anything we want to do really. But we will "Maddie it up" for sure.
I also ordered the high chair today, not as fun but still super exciting and really cute. It is actually just a travel high chair that slips on the back of any chair and we will use pillows or blankets to prop her bum up to allow for the bend in her cast. Maybe she won't notice the body cast with all of her new gadgets to play with???? Eh??

Now some non-Maddie/Fund/surgical updates:
We went to Huber Farms for Father's Day with Mimi and Poppy and the girls had so much fun! 

But not before destroying some push-ups for Tyler's Father's Day pictures. My inner photographer was crazy over them. Thank goodness these didn't turn out to be one of those Pinterest "NAILED IT" things...

And with that I will close out today's update, short and sweet. We should be receiving a call next week to get Maddie's surgery time scheduled. Right now we just know it's July 1st. They call about 2-3 days ahead of time to let us know what time her surgery is. I really hope it's first thing in the morning. Although small, Maddie is our little oinker. I would rather not withhold food from this little thing or she may claw my eyes out. 

Til next time!
Meg

http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/miss-maddie-s-walk/185124

www.thirtyonegifts.com click on events and Maddie's Fundraiser

This is going on until the end of June!

Taking a step back...and a step forward

Welcome back, friends! 

I wanted to take some to time to answer a question we get frequently: Why wasn't this caught sooner? 
First of all, I COMPLETELY trust my pediatrician...I have recommended her to several families and I will continue to do so. I think the world of her and always have. I think that you have to be this comfortable with your ped if you want a successful relationship. I mean, you're trusting them with your child's well-being. 
So, our ped is very upset over this, obviously. I know that she feels guilty and is probably questioning herself. But I'm not. Before we could even ask, both surgeons we have met have told us this type of dislocation is very easy to miss. Typically when there is a dislocation of the hips, there is an audible cue and range of motion just isn't there. Maddie's hip is so far dislocated that the ball and socket can't rub together to make the tell-tale "clunk". And she typically had normal range of motion. If she was tense, we attributed it to her being anxious at her well-baby visits. Although she crawled late, she did crawl. She had what we called "navigational rolling"....the girl could roll her way around this house like none other. She never acted like she was in any pain, until Mother's Day. I set her on my hip and she screeeeaaaamed and clawed the heck out of my collarbone. That's when mom insisted we take her in. (Thanks, Mom) Made an appointment Wednesday, Thursday we saw a specialist and Monday already we were at Riley. Which brings us to today. So, I am not upset with our ped at all, and I understand it's easy to blame her. But my only hope now is that she is hyper aware when she is checking her patient's hips now, maybe we can help another family with early detection. Plus, I mean what good will come out of being upset with her? Onward and upward my friends. 

I received an email from my fellow DDH mom this weekend, what a blessing she is to us right now. We plan on meeting soon and getting all of our kids together. I'm ready to meet her little one and see her progression!

Sunday, momma, Aubs, Maddie and I put some donations to good use! When Maddie is in the Spica cast, she will be very limited clothing wise and will be in dresses 99% of the time. Now those who know Princess Aubrey knows she loves her dresses. However, it seems that she didn't hit that stage until she was 3 or so because she doesn't have too many size 2 dresses. Enter Old Navy. Literally. The girl got hooked up for sure:) We also snagged a bean bag chair--it made an appearance on nearly every list of essentials that I have run into when caring for a babe in a Spica cast. So happy to get our girl all set up!!!

On top of even doing the 31 Gifts Fundraiser, Stephanie also made each of the girls goodie bags for 31 with their initial on the front. They loved them! Let's just say Aubrey comes by her obsession with bags and purses honest:) Anyway, HUGE thank you to Stephanie for just doing so much and for thinking of Aubrey too. Aubs is a super strong and smart girl for her age but taking time to make her feel special when most of the attention is on Maddie now just makes this mommy's day:)))

I plan on taking 2 weeks off--the whole week of her surgery and then the week after just to be home with her and cater to her. Tyler will be off the week of the surgery, going back the following Monday. With all of these donations, we won't have to worry about it being unpaid. 
Over the weekend we also got another very generous donation from someone I have never met....people are awesome. Seriously. What you are giving to our family is more than money. You're allowing us to focus where we NEED to focus right now: our girls.
**Update, I typed this out last night and since then, we've had another $230 in donations. Words escape me...

Now, I will leave you with this gem from the pool Saturday. You're welcome. 

All love, 
Megan


http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/miss-maddie-s-walk/185124

www.thirtyonegifts.com click on events and Maddie's Fundraiser

This is going on until the end of June!

Hello....But where are we now??

Hi all!!! Tyler and I have been wanting to start a blog with our thoughts, feelings, progressions on this journey. Friends, family, acquaintances, co-workers, COMPLETE STRANGERS have been SO supportive already so I want to make sure everyone has a way to stay updated. I post updates via Facebook, but I think this is going to be my outlet--Tyler will also be a frequent poster:) So, please subscribe to the updates for this page to stay updated.

***Heads up, I can get long-winded. Once I start typing, I just don't stop. Ask Tyler.***

So, where are we today? Penny (MIL) is currently handling fundraisers, getting us signed up for things, submitting applications for programs, etc and my momma (Jennifer) booked us 2 hotel rooms for families to stay at while we are up there--it will only be 2 nights post-op, so a short stay. Ty, Aubs, Maddie and I will be going up Monday (surgery is on Tuesday) so we aren't rushed the day of. I had called the Ronald McDonald House regarding housing, and after speaking with another DDH mom last night, what they are saying makes more sense. They have 6 units in the hospital for parents, and they are typically for critical care patients. They are assigned once you arrive at the hospital, so it's not something we can reserve. There is also a separate building that is the RMH, still on Riley campus, and it is typically for long term patients. I will be calling them today. The other DDH mom I spoke with last night said the RMH never reserves rooms, but once you get up there, availability typically is not a problem. Penny and my momma will be up there with us, so if Riley isn't an option, we'll just have to figure it out. Aubrey will be bouncing between us, Mimi and Memaw, so she'll be a happy camper :) The girl is so super protective of her sister that my heart will probably melt a hundred times watching her care for Maddie.
Thank God for our mothers, seriously, treat yours right. I can't tell them thank you enough for what they are doing.

A grade school friend of mine, Kendra, put me in touch with another DDH mom here in Evansville. We spoke yesterday and I think her and I will become good friends through this. Her daughter was about a year older than Maddie when she was diagnosed, so hers was a little harder to treat. I think we caught Maddie's JUST IN TIME. Any earlier and they would have tried braces which ultimately would have failed because of the severity of her hip condition, and any later and we would likely be facing more surgeries. So I'll sit here and thank my lucky stars that we followed our gut when we did.

Here is a link to DDH. Maddie is the dislocated one, and it effects both of her hips. Her left is more severely dislocated than her right, so that is the one they will treat first. Her surgery will be open, not a closed reduction, and they will have to remove a portion of her femur to twist the bone back in it's place without too much stress on her joint.
Man, after reading this site knowing what we know now, Maddie is ALL OF THESE THINGS. Hindsight is 20/20. http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00347

The 31 Gifts Fundraiser was a complete success! You all had over $700 in sales which brought in over $170 for our family! Seriously so awesome. I will be putting any open fundraisers at the bottom of each post for easy finding. I have inquiries about them often so I thought this was a good way to keep everything together. 
We are beyond blessed to have such supportive people in our lives. We already have 2 other fundraisers in the works for upcoming months, so keep your eyes peeled :) People have been stepping up and donating on our fundraiser site, sending us checks, and offering to do a "party" with their home-based businesses and donating the profits to us and it's such a humbling experience. I hope you all receive back 10 fold of what you have given to us.

I think that's all for now. Don't want to scare you off too soon with my can't-stop-won't-stop updates :)

Love--
Megan


http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/miss-maddie-s-walk/185124

www.thirtyonegifts.com click on events and Maddie's Fundraiser