Melanies' 18 Months Old

(this picture is from about a month ago....she has WAAAY more teeth now)!
Little Miss Melanie is 18 months old now (15 months corrected age-her developmental dr. would be upset if she knew I said she was 18 months old). Last week she had a developmental appointment. This is a run through the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital where they only work with preemies. They check their progress and compare that with other preemies of their gestation. I was very anxious for this appointment as Melanie is still having some issues with her little feet.

This particular appointment was very in-depth and to top that they had just started a new computer software and we were the first patients to experience it :) Her appointment ended up lasting almost 3 hours, she did GREAT :) However, she does have a very bad cold now (I broke down and let her play with the waiting room toys). NEVER AGAIN!!!

The good news first ....they are no longer concerned with her weight!!!! Yaaaay!!! She weighs a whooping 20lbs 11oz (still within limits of her infant seat), this puts her in the 6th percentile. They still want us to add as much fat to her diet as we can, but we can stop giving her formula and switch her to whole milk. I am sooooo excited about this. She also is testing at 20 months with her fine-motor skills which is great.

The areas she is testing lower then they'd like is her gross motor (walking) and her speech. I'm not concerned with her speech at all~ Jayden didn't start talking until after Melanie was born which was around 18 months; her one word was 'enh' for many, many, months. She has to compete for time to talk in this house of girls and I'm confident she'll get there very soon.

I am a little concerned about her gross motor though. I wasn't concerned until about a month ago when I noticed her two big toes ALWAYS curled up under the rest of her toes. It looks like her big toe is at a 90 degree angle. We tried some things through physical therapy, but it didn't seem to effect anything. I showed her Primary Dr. and he is a little concerned as well and said to talk to the docs at Developmental Clinic. So we had a couple Dr.s look at them there and they think it MAY be that her ankles are soo weak she's tense and always clenching her toes. They suggested AFO's (???). I was told these are a plastic support that they will mold to fit her legs and feet perfectly and she will wear them in her shoes to help give her support so she can build-up more strength in her lower body. She gets fitted for them on Wednesday.

My prayer is that she will tolerate them and that they will not only increase her leg/ankle strength, but it will help those little toes to straighten out. If this doesn't help, they think it could be a structural thing and she would then be referred to a podiatrist. I'm not sure how they would fix an 18month olds two big toes and I really don't want to find out.

I've been doing some thinking lately and even though Melanie has a little obstacle with her feet; we are blessed beyond measure. I never would have dreamed that she'd be doing what she IS doing every day. God has blessed her every step of the way through these first 18 months of her life. We are so thankful His plan is not always our plan and that He gives us the grace to make it through. So even though I'm a little concerned about her feet, I know that this too is all in the hands of God and that His will will be done; and that plan will be the most PERFECT plan for Melanie.