Hi 2010

Well, I'm hanging my head in shame as I type this post. I cannot believe how long its been since we posted an update! Its been way too long. I have an excuse...really. Julianne's CD player broke and she sleeps with music playing. So, we used our laptop to replace her cd player for the last couple of months until we picked out a cd player. The only time I have to post is when Julianne is sleeping and she had the laptop while sleeping...so, yeah...that's my excuse. :) Anyway, I didn't say it was a good one!

Things have been going really well. Julianne has had a lot of follow-up appointments in the last two months and they've all gone well. The best news we've gotten was from the Ophthalmologist. If you remember, Julianne was diagnosed with a severe astigmatism of 3 diopters. By June it had gone to 2 diopters, still a moderate astigmatism. This December was the "last chance" appointment. If it hadn't improved we were going ahead with glasses. Well, the doctor called it a "remarkable improvement"! Julianne's astigmatism had gone down to 1/2 diopter, so little that it doesn't even require correction!! God even healed our baby's eyes. We are so thankful. Although she would have been really cute in glasses, we are relieved to not have to add one more thing for her to deal with.

The Cardiology appointment went well. Everything looked good. Julianne's next appointment is in March. After that scheduling for the Fontan will begin.

Julianne's G.I. appointment went as expected. The doctor wanted to try a gastric emptying study and I told her Julianne has already had 2 of those and they both showed normal gastric emptying. She had the results of one of them in her files and agreed that a gastric emptying study wouldn't give us any new information. The reasoning for wanting a gastric emptying study was the gagging. Yes, the gagging. Its back. Its definitely not as bad as it has been in the past, but still worse than it was over the Summer. She has had what has seemed like back to back to back colds over the last couple of months and that always causes gagging problems. Right now, its really just gagging and sometimes retching during oral feedings and in the hour or so after her breakfast.

The Endocrinologist appointment was fine, as well. He ordered labs to test Julianne's thyroid since she's being treated for Hypothyroidism now (due to a side effect of Amiodarone. Labs did not go well. It was no surprise that they couldn't find a vein. So, finger-stick it was. After two different finger-sticks, drop by drop blood collection for nearly an hour, dropping an entire tube of blood on the floor and collecting 5 small tubes of blood, Julianne was worn out and we were so happy to get out of there. Thirty minutes later I got a phone call that they couldn't use any of the blood they collected!! (WHAT!!!) I'm sure you can imagine how frustrated I was. I know we need those labs, but I hate to put Julianne through all that again. I called back and spoke with the doctor about my concerns and we agreed that I should take Julianne to her usual Our Lady of the Lake lab and just have the results faxed to him (he's not in the OLOL network of doctors so they use a different lab). Julianne will have those labs drawn later this week. Ugh...

Julianne has a Neurology follow-up coming up soon and other than that, no planned appointments.

We're continuing with Physical and Occupational therapy. Both are going well. Julianne is scooping and pouring and beginning to mash play-doh and will even try to spoon feed herself small amounts of pureed food if I convince her its going to be fun. Julianne did bite off the end of a "'Lil Crunchie" (like a baby cheeto). I was so excited!! She had started munching "Veggie Straws". Then she quit after a bad cold. Now three-ish months later she's started to "chomp" crunchy stuff. She doesn't usually bite off anything, but its a start!

November and December were great. We had a lot fun with our baby boo and traveled quite a bit. Here's what we did:

We went to friend, Ava's birthday party!

We spent Thanksgiving in Lafayette with Uncle Drew and Aunt Kristy, Julianne's Caperton cousins, Cousin Craig and Mimi and Papa in Lafayette, LA!

We also had Christmas #1 at Thanksgiving with Kent's family. Unfortunately, I didn't take a single picture! I don't know where I left my mind that day, but I guess it found its way back eventually. No pictures...what kind of mom....

We went to "A Very Monkey Christmas" at the Christmas Forest with friend, Myles!

Julianne was out in the snow for the first time!!

We went to Aunt Sarah and Uncle Frank's wedding in Memphis, TN! Here's Julianne clapping along to the music.

This, however, is how she spent most of the reception!

Conked out!

We went to my brother's college graduation in Jackson, MS!

Yay!

Julianne practiced being cute and looking way too grown up!

Christmas Eve, we went to church, then came home!

Maw Maw and Paw Paw came over!

Julianne decorated her first cookie! (You may be wondering why I don't have a bib on her so she doesn't mess up her dress. I just couldn't resist the cute pictures a "gingerbread man dress" and decorating actual gingerbread men would make! That's what washing machines are for, right?)

"Santa Claus" made a special visit to Julianne on Christmas Eve! Its funny, because we didn't really talk about Santa Claus, so I don't think she thought the person dressed as Santa was supposed to be anyone but himself...just dressed a little weird, ha ha! When asked, "Who is that?" Julianne first guessed Paw Paw (my grandpa), which was incorrect. She got it right on the second guess though! Do you know who this is?

Christmas morning we read the Christmas Story and then read the Christmas Story again from Julianne's bible. :)

She opened her stocking!

More cookie decorating!

I had to get a lot of pictures in this outfit. I made Julianne this jumper last year and it still fit! I doubt that it will fit next year, so I had to document it well. :)

What a ham!

Hopping like a frog!

Getting ready to go to Christmas at my Grandparents' house!

Go ahead, Julianne! Eat those cookies!!

It's been a wonderful two months. Each day is a gift. :)

We are excited to report that we will, more than likely, move into our house next weekend! We've (We as in, us, our parents, other family members, friends, and a few strangers) been working on it for 3 months and its almost ready!

I hope to update more frequently now that I have the laptop back. We have some great videos that I hope to post sometime soon, so be on the lookout!

Thanks for checking in on us! We are thanking God for a wonderful year past and for giving us a great start to a wonderful new year!