Claire's First Christmas

It has been a little while since we updated, we have been fully enjoying all of our family, appointment-free time!  The only appointments that we had over break were Claire's therapies.

She celebrated her first Christmas at HOME with lots of family. Many of our incredible friends showered us with unexpected gifts and we are so thankful to all who loved on our kids! You truly blew us away.

Claire has been doing well! She is still breastfeeding and appears to be growing, we have her next weight check on the 8th and will know for sure. She has been fighting some pretty bad congestion which could be due to reflux and/or aspiration but we are doing okay with saline/suctioning at home for now. Claire's nasal passages and airway are very small so we have to keep an extra close eye on her. We are still doing rectal dilations but we haven't had to irrigate in a couple of weeks!

In therapy we are working on building Claire's back muscles so that she can have the strength to sit up. She got a reclining high chair for Christmas that will help her to learn to sit up with her back straight, we will adjust it so that it's more upright as she builds the strength. We are also working on getting her to put weight through her arms so that she can use them to push up. After we master those skills, we will work on sitting.  She should be able to start solid foods sometime this month or next. We have a special Hirschsprung's list for the order that we will try them in, certain foods to avoid, etc. but it sounds like everyone expects her to do just fine!

In 2015, our appointments will shift from more of a medical-focus to more of a therapy-focus. Claire will participate in weekly PT, OT and Speech [to include feeding] therapies. She will still be seeing all of her medical specialists but as she continues to do better with weight gain, stooling, etc., those appointments have and will continue to become more spaced out!

Here are some pictures of her Christmas/New Year adventures:

Cousins on Christmas Eve
Quincy 2mo, Claire 6mo, Aiden 4mo

Officially a 6-stocking family!

Christmas Morning, Claire's first! 

She loves sitting up in her new reclining
high chair!

Claire snoozing on Christmas morning, she
didn't quite make it through all of the presents.

Bundled up with Auntie while the big kids
ride their new car from Grandma & Grandpa

Extended family dinner on Christmas Day

Claire and her Auntie and Great-Aunt

Checking out her new toys with big sister, Anna

Big Brother likes Claire's new toys too!

They played hard! 

Oh how I love these eyes!

Anna and Nana

Claire visited the American Girl Doll store with
her big sister, she's barely bigger than the dolls.

The girl cousins - Amira & Claire, Anna, and Falysha
Claire is about the same size as the dolls! 

We ran into some very special people,
Hilary and Charlie

Claire loves looking at the pictures of our friends
and their kiddos! 

Claire didn't take any breaks from hard work
over Christmas!

New Year's Eve - she didn't quite make
it to midnight

First time in the swimming pool on
New Year's Day!

We hope that all of our friends had a blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year! Claire plans to fully enjoy our last days at home before we get back into big sister's school routine which mean interrupted naps and early mornings - plus, she is loving all of the extra attention of having her home with us!

Thank you for cheering for our princess <3.