This post has been all over Facebook, so you may have seen it already.
But if you haven't read it, please take a minute to do so.
When we found out Claire had Ds, this is what I was worried about. People who would take one look at her, and instantly write her off.
And while things won't change over night, I rejoice each time someone really does learn something about Down syndrome.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Blissfully Uneventful...
Things have been quiet around here. Pretty much just work and home, work and home, with a few PT/OT appointments thrown in to keep things interesting.
The weather is finally warming up a bit and Claire and I have been able to get out for a few walks and to the park. I'm ready for winter to be over though. I'm tired of the dreary days, and I'm tired of taking pictures inside, which explains the lack of photos on this post. I haven't had my camera out at all lately.
Claire is now on round 4 of antibiotics. A few days after finishing round 3 the goopy eyes and green snot came back yet again. This round finishes in a few days and I'm hoping the sinus infection, and the thrush she now has, are finally gone!
Claire is feeling great though, and she is moving all over the place. Her crawling is getting much faster, and she is pulling up on more and more things. For a while she only pulled up on the ottoman by the couch, but now she has branched out to include the gate at the top of the stairs and the bath tub. She is also cruising, taking a few steps in both directions on the furniture. We've been practicing walking while holding onto our hands, and she is doing much better with this too. At first we'd only get a step or two, and now we are easily up to 10-12 steps.
Darren has been busy at the farm, and has been gone most weekends. This time of year we are calving heifers and cows, and with the cows we are getting 10-12 calves a day. With that many new babies in a day it is easy to get behind on tagging and moving them.
I haven't been doing much that is exciting, mainly working on our taxes in the evenings. Which isn't fun, but is necessary. I still haven't found much time to read lately, and I really miss that. But, I did find that the Overdrive system with the library (where I check out ebooks) has an app for my phone! That means that I can always have a book with me and I may get more than one book a month read.
The weather is finally warming up a bit and Claire and I have been able to get out for a few walks and to the park. I'm ready for winter to be over though. I'm tired of the dreary days, and I'm tired of taking pictures inside, which explains the lack of photos on this post. I haven't had my camera out at all lately.
Claire is now on round 4 of antibiotics. A few days after finishing round 3 the goopy eyes and green snot came back yet again. This round finishes in a few days and I'm hoping the sinus infection, and the thrush she now has, are finally gone!
Claire is feeling great though, and she is moving all over the place. Her crawling is getting much faster, and she is pulling up on more and more things. For a while she only pulled up on the ottoman by the couch, but now she has branched out to include the gate at the top of the stairs and the bath tub. She is also cruising, taking a few steps in both directions on the furniture. We've been practicing walking while holding onto our hands, and she is doing much better with this too. At first we'd only get a step or two, and now we are easily up to 10-12 steps.
Darren has been busy at the farm, and has been gone most weekends. This time of year we are calving heifers and cows, and with the cows we are getting 10-12 calves a day. With that many new babies in a day it is easy to get behind on tagging and moving them.
I haven't been doing much that is exciting, mainly working on our taxes in the evenings. Which isn't fun, but is necessary. I still haven't found much time to read lately, and I really miss that. But, I did find that the Overdrive system with the library (where I check out ebooks) has an app for my phone! That means that I can always have a book with me and I may get more than one book a month read.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Love Is In The Air!
Now, I've never been a huge fan of Valentine's Day. It's just always seemed overdone and commercial...but after seeing what Claire was up to with these...
...I'm starting to see things a little differently. How can you help but to fall in love with this handsome man and all of his beautiful ladies!! Thank you Erin and Grady for putting together such an awesome post!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Once upon a time...
...I had a living room floor, instead of an obstacle course of toys.
...I was able to sleep in. This morning, even though Claire was gone and I could sleep in, I woke at 5...and at 6...and at 7.
...I had all my Christmas decorations packed up by New Years. This straggler will be packed up this weekend.
...I never brought work home with me. Now that I work part time, a huge pile of papers follow me home at least once a week.
...our third bedroom was used only for storage. Now it's my favorite room in the house.
...I could stay awake long past midnight. Last night I only made it to 10:30.
...I was able to sleep in. This morning, even though Claire was gone and I could sleep in, I woke at 5...and at 6...and at 7.
...I had all my Christmas decorations packed up by New Years. This straggler will be packed up this weekend.
...I had the time, or took the time, to read. Two years ago, I read 130 books. Last year, 30 books. And this year, if my pace continues, I'll be lucky to read 15.
...our third bedroom was used only for storage. Now it's my favorite room in the house.
...I didn't know what Veggie Straws were. These days I have to keep myself from eating them all so Claire has some for ST.
...I didn't have this girl to keep me on my toes, always busy and on the move.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Sie Center for Down Syndrome Visit
On Tuesday Claire and I braved the snow, cold and icy roads to go to our appointment at the Sie Center for Down syndrome. I'd given myself extra time to get there, but we still ended up just making it to the appointment on time. The trip ending up taking about 40 minutes longer than it usually does.
Prior to the appointment I'd faxed Claire's medical records, and I'd talked to the program coordinator a couple of times also. This was wonderful because we didn't have to spend any time the day of her appointment going over her records or history. The appointment started with the usual dr office things, weight, temp, blood pressure, etc. The overall appointment took 3 hours, one hour each with PT, ST and the Dr.
PT: Claire sees Pat Winders monthly, so this was just our normal appointment with her. Right now the three skills we are focusing on are cruising along furniture, taking supported steps and climbing the stairs. All of them are hard for Claire, so we are only able to practice a time or two before she won't cooperate anymore. Claire cruises decently to the left, but really fights going to the right. Her right leg planted firmly on the floor seems to make her feel safe, and she hates picking it up to take a step. When we practice stepping we usually lean her over a surface (like a rubbermaid tub) that can be scooted along the floor. This gives her something solid for support, but it's still easy to move, so that she has to take a few steps.
I need to find some way for Claire to practice climbing the stairs. We live in a bi-level, so one set of our stairs leads to a tile entryway. Not real comfortable to climb onto, but manageable. The other set of stairs has the gate at the top, so it doesn't work for climbing at all. Pat and I were discussing this and she wondered if pet stairs (to help little dogs get onto the couch or bed) might work...Has anyone ever tried this???
ST: Our usual ST, who we see privately, just had a baby. After skipping appointments over the holidays, it had been quite a few months since Claire had seen an ST. I was very glad to have one available through the clinic, and she knows Talk Tools as well. Since Claire's last ST appointment, she started drinking from the straw, and my main question was to make sure she was doing it correctly. Turns out, she isn't. While her mouth is closed, she is taking too much straw into her mouth and is suckling it with her tongue, instead of using her lips.
Dr: Dr Hickey was very personable and very easy to talk to. We chatted about Claire's general health and specific concerns I had as well. Claire has been struggling with sinus infections all winter. She finished her third round of antibiotics last week, but after about 48 hours, her eyes and nose starting oozing goop again. So, last night we started round 4. Dr Hickey thinks it is just winter and that once we get through the miserable weather, she should get over all this stuff.
We are also transitioning off the bottle slowly, and are down to 2 a day. As we make this change, I wanted to be sure Claire was still eating and drinking enough. Dr Hickey said average milk consumption should be around 16 oz a day. She is easily getting that between her bottles and the cup, with some water as well. For meals, he said about a tablespoon or two of each food, with a couple of options offered. I'd given an example of her dinner the night before (2 beef ravioli with sauce and some green beans) and he said that was a great portion size.
The other nice thing about the Ds Center is that it's great to have someone else help keep me organized on what upcoming appointments Claire needs. We have an audiology screening next month, we will repeat her swallow study this spring, and then she will have her vision tested at 18 months. After all those appointments, in 6 months, we will have another appointment at the Center.
For Co People: I've had some people ask about seeing Pat Winders for PT. Her schedule gets booked FAST (we already have appts through July). If you want to see her for a consult, and are interested in the Center, that may be the best way to see her. Right now, the Center's schedule is fairly open. We scheduled our appt for a little over 2 weeks out because it matched up with other things, but we could have gotten in sooner. If you want to schedule an appt, here is the info.
Prior to the appointment I'd faxed Claire's medical records, and I'd talked to the program coordinator a couple of times also. This was wonderful because we didn't have to spend any time the day of her appointment going over her records or history. The appointment started with the usual dr office things, weight, temp, blood pressure, etc. The overall appointment took 3 hours, one hour each with PT, ST and the Dr.
PT: Claire sees Pat Winders monthly, so this was just our normal appointment with her. Right now the three skills we are focusing on are cruising along furniture, taking supported steps and climbing the stairs. All of them are hard for Claire, so we are only able to practice a time or two before she won't cooperate anymore. Claire cruises decently to the left, but really fights going to the right. Her right leg planted firmly on the floor seems to make her feel safe, and she hates picking it up to take a step. When we practice stepping we usually lean her over a surface (like a rubbermaid tub) that can be scooted along the floor. This gives her something solid for support, but it's still easy to move, so that she has to take a few steps.
I need to find some way for Claire to practice climbing the stairs. We live in a bi-level, so one set of our stairs leads to a tile entryway. Not real comfortable to climb onto, but manageable. The other set of stairs has the gate at the top, so it doesn't work for climbing at all. Pat and I were discussing this and she wondered if pet stairs (to help little dogs get onto the couch or bed) might work...Has anyone ever tried this???
ST: Our usual ST, who we see privately, just had a baby. After skipping appointments over the holidays, it had been quite a few months since Claire had seen an ST. I was very glad to have one available through the clinic, and she knows Talk Tools as well. Since Claire's last ST appointment, she started drinking from the straw, and my main question was to make sure she was doing it correctly. Turns out, she isn't. While her mouth is closed, she is taking too much straw into her mouth and is suckling it with her tongue, instead of using her lips.
Dr: Dr Hickey was very personable and very easy to talk to. We chatted about Claire's general health and specific concerns I had as well. Claire has been struggling with sinus infections all winter. She finished her third round of antibiotics last week, but after about 48 hours, her eyes and nose starting oozing goop again. So, last night we started round 4. Dr Hickey thinks it is just winter and that once we get through the miserable weather, she should get over all this stuff.
We are also transitioning off the bottle slowly, and are down to 2 a day. As we make this change, I wanted to be sure Claire was still eating and drinking enough. Dr Hickey said average milk consumption should be around 16 oz a day. She is easily getting that between her bottles and the cup, with some water as well. For meals, he said about a tablespoon or two of each food, with a couple of options offered. I'd given an example of her dinner the night before (2 beef ravioli with sauce and some green beans) and he said that was a great portion size.
The other nice thing about the Ds Center is that it's great to have someone else help keep me organized on what upcoming appointments Claire needs. We have an audiology screening next month, we will repeat her swallow study this spring, and then she will have her vision tested at 18 months. After all those appointments, in 6 months, we will have another appointment at the Center.
For Co People: I've had some people ask about seeing Pat Winders for PT. Her schedule gets booked FAST (we already have appts through July). If you want to see her for a consult, and are interested in the Center, that may be the best way to see her. Right now, the Center's schedule is fairly open. We scheduled our appt for a little over 2 weeks out because it matched up with other things, but we could have gotten in sooner. If you want to schedule an appt, here is the info.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
My Shadow and Pure Love
Clarie has turned into my shadow. If I am working on dinner in the kitchen, she is happy just to play underfoot. But once I start moving around the house she does her absolute best to keep up with me. She is becoming quite the little crawler, and is wearing a path from the living room to the kitchen, with a few detours every now and them to the bedroom or bathroom. Just the other night I left her in the living room to run her bath, and when I turned around to go get her she was waiting in the bathroom doorway!
There are kids, though, that aren't able to practice their crawling skills by following after mom. In fact, they don't have anyone that answers to mom. Peter is one of those kids. He has spent his whole life in an orphanage. He doesn't have anyone to encourage him, to love on him and kiss him. And unless a family steps forward for him soon, he may not have the chance to know pure love.
He turns 4 later this month. In his orphanage, 4 is the transfer age. Transfer to an adult mental institution.
Andrea, from Reece's Rainbow, had this to say about Peter "I wish I had a suggestion about Peter....I have been advocating for him for YEARS. Nothing short of a full grant is going to do much for him, I'm afraid."
A full grant is $20,000, and that is the amount that Patti has set to raise for him.
And you, yes YOU, can help!
A small donation to Peter (or Olga or Kareen) will enter you to win some AMAZING prizes. And to help Peter know Pure Love!
Please pray for Lois's family. Sweet Lois lost her battle with cancer this morning.
There are kids, though, that aren't able to practice their crawling skills by following after mom. In fact, they don't have anyone that answers to mom. Peter is one of those kids. He has spent his whole life in an orphanage. He doesn't have anyone to encourage him, to love on him and kiss him. And unless a family steps forward for him soon, he may not have the chance to know pure love.
He turns 4 later this month. In his orphanage, 4 is the transfer age. Transfer to an adult mental institution.
Andrea, from Reece's Rainbow, had this to say about Peter "I wish I had a suggestion about Peter....I have been advocating for him for YEARS. Nothing short of a full grant is going to do much for him, I'm afraid."
A full grant is $20,000, and that is the amount that Patti has set to raise for him.
And you, yes YOU, can help!
A small donation to Peter (or Olga or Kareen) will enter you to win some AMAZING prizes. And to help Peter know Pure Love!
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