Poor sweet Audrey :-(

I was up at 5:00 this morning very worried about the big day. Audrey was up at 7:00 and we had a little time alone before Lilli was up. Of course, we had to drag Ben out of bed to get him ready for school. After dropping off Lilli and Ben, Audrey and I headed downtown to the Children's Hospital of Austin to see the Pediatric Orthopedic Specialist. What a WONDERFUL Doctor and Staff! They were all just great and made a big fuss over little Miss Audrey. Little did she know what would come next! Here she sits in the waiting room so unsuspecting. She loved the fish tank!

This part was just hilarious! They stick a post-it note on the kids rear end and hold their feet up for pictures...here we have the hiney of A.G. (hmmmmmmmm...maybe no one will know it's me mom!)
Audrey screamed when they stretched out her foot and casted it. I'm sure it was quite painful! It just broke my heart. It was another one of those days that I gained a new level of respect for my Mom. She had to take me for casts every week for 10 months with Shelley in tow and Trip on the way! WOW Mom...you are truly amazing! And thanks Mom and Dad! Audrey will be in this set of casts for two weeks. Then they will be changed weekly 2 or 3 times. After that she will have a heel cord tenotomy and be recasted for 3 weeks while it heals. Given her age, they will do the procedure under anesthesia so she will be at the hospitalrather than the office. After that heals she will be in a brace for 23 hours a day for 3 months and then will sleep in it at night. I can just imagine taking it off for an hour and then wrestling her back in it! All in all, it is a very short time for the repair. Much shorter than when I was a baby in the 80's! ;-)
Here she is in her new hot pink casts! Her little eyes are swollen from crying. She has not had a good day. She is so used to crawling around and following me and Lilli through the house. Today we were playing in the floor and I got up to answer the phone, she tried to follow me and couldn't manuver her casts the way she wanted and just cried so pittifully. She could not get comfortable for nap. I layed down with her for about an hour rubbing her back, belly, head...WHATEVER I could to soothe her. She slept for about 30 minutes but woke up screaming when she tried to turn over. We worked with her for a while after dinner on how to roll over. At bedtime I tried to position her with pillows but she was very fussy. She has been up crying a few times, but I let her go back to sleep and when we peek in she has rolled over successfully on her own. That's progress! I think she will get used to moving around in them over the next few weeks. She is such a good baby. Of course, once she gets used to the casts she will be out of them and into her brace and will have to adjust to that! Thanks to everyone who prayed for her and to those that e-mailed and called today to check on her. We love all of you! Now I'm going to try to get a little sleep!