A Baby!

I have been thinking of all the things I want to tell you as I sit feeding O. Then she is down to sleep and I sleep at night and do housework during the day! Busy Busy! Happy Happy! The house is clean! We are well fed! O is happy! The cats are brushed! The litterboxes are clean! I am up to date on Thank you notes! Life is good!

O has passed out of the "feels like a preemie" stage!!! Now she feels so much like a newborn baby!!! She still is probably more low tone and floppy than a typical newborn, but she is so much stronger! And a determined little lady! She now weighs about 7 lbs 5 oz. (weighed her on the scale from Grandma and Grandpa B the other day. She mostly sleeps at night and eats. She will sometimes go to bed early and sometimes late. We find that sometimes she is ready for a bath at 5 pm, but other days doing it at 7 seems to settle her down for sleep much better. We are following Montessori's advice (and Grandma Kate's wisdom!) and following the child! At this early point in her life every day is different. We just try to keep her rested, active during alert time, well fed and dry diapered! We are using Tushies diapers which are gel free. They are the closest to cloth. They are recommended by our doctor. We hope that the fact that she feels wetness and doesn't like it will help her potty train at an earlier age. We have dear friends raising a sweet little almost 2 year old with Ds who is in cloth. God Bless this amazing mother!!!!!

I am reading Road Map to Holland when ever I can squeeze in a few moments. I am addicted to reading, and so am always trying to sneak in a page or two out of the various books laying around the house! O will grow up in a house with much reading and many books littered around the house! Anyway, this book was written by a woman who had twins. One with Down syndrome. She writes about her experience in the NICU which is so healing to me! I had felt that what I was experiencing was just because I was an adoptive parent. But as I read her wonderful words, I realize that every parent feels this way! I also learned that we were brave to have spent the endless hours there. It was all worth it! By the time we came home with O we really knew her and she knew us!

Life with O is wonderful! Yes! I do understand the full impact of sleep deprivation! God bless all of you who raised multiple babies! Especially my brother and sister in law with 5 in 9 years! Amazing people! God bless you!!!!! O brings joy at every hour of the day! She is such a huge blessing and so amazing! We are so lucky to have been chosen to raise her! I pray that we will be worthy of this great privilege! God bless the birth mom! She called Daddy O to wish him a Happy Father's Day! O has so much of her birth mom in her! Sweetness and strength!

Best of O photos

I have created a little Shutterfly site for the Best of Baby O photos.

This is different than our other family site. So if you are a friend or family who wants more photos of O and of other family members, please email us and we will get you on our other Shutterfly site that is private.

Father's Day at the Lake

We were blessed to spend Father's Day with both of our extended families! It was a great day!!! I have so many photos. For all of you on Shutterfly, they are there. For family and friends not on our Shutterfly site, send me an email and I will make you a member.

Here are just a few photos from the day!

Aunt Jen, son and Daddy O

O with cousins!

O with her Great Aunt Margaret and Great Uncle Bob

Mama O and O with her Great Uncle Dick, Great Aunt June and Grandpa

Mama O and O and Great Uncle Jim

Great Aunt June, Mama O and O and (Great Aunt) Sister Veronica

Cousins and Daddy O and O

Down Syndrome Video

Thought you would enjoy this educational video about Down Syndrome.

The Journey Ahead from Christian Appleby on Vimeo.

Finally an update

I have to apologize for the delay in posting. O has been keeping us very busy.

She is definitely thriving and getting really strong (sometimes I wonder if she is going to be stronger than me pretty soon! In fact, we were told by the child psychologist that she is right on track for a typical baby her chronological age. Therefore she is doing GREAT for a 4 week early premature baby with Down Syndrome. Daddy O was just at a new families party at Logan Center. (O could not go since she is still grounded from crowds :-( ) He said that the kids with DS who have heart defects are the ones who show the greatest delays. The kids without heart defects do pretty well. O is so blessed as to have a really healthy heart! We know that our little J has had so many health issues and developmental issues due to his heart defects. He is to have surgery. We have indicated a desire to adopt him. Now they just need to see if we are still a match for J since we now have O. (confusing huh!)

O now weighs 7 lbs 1.5 oz. She is about 20 1/2 inches long. She really looks lean and has baby muscle tone. Due to the DS, she has a short neck and so appears heavy in the face and neck. She also has extra skin at the back of the neck. She doesn't wear collars very well. Something to consider when clothes shopping. I have to buy more clothes in the next size up. She will be in them soon. Her torso is really long!!! Her arms and legs are normal, but she has to roll up her sleeves and her pants.

Sleeping. We are still trying to balance out activity and sleep so as to give her enough play therapy time, yet not over tire her. It is tricky. We discovered that sleeping in her infant chair doesn't count for sleep time. It results in a fussy over tired baby. No more of that!!!!! Luckily she likes her crib. But today she did not like the thunderstorm and day time darkness. Who does!

We are blessed! And we are tired! Typical new parents I hear! And we are over protective and over zealous and over conscientious! For those of you who have known us forever you are not too surprised!!

I hear my little angel now! Time for a snack then back to sleep... I think!!! :-)

Rollover Day

Today during tummy time, O rolled over from tummy to back!!!

When she rolled from back to tummy a few weeks ago, she had no clothes on as it was dressing time. This time she was fully clothed, big diaper and all!

I guess the Early On interview yesterday motivated her! From their brief look at her developmentally, O is doing really well, and is accomplishing some 2 month old milestones.

O seems to understand "day time" a bit better, and has been awake much more during the day. She still needs a lot of sleep, and sometimes has a time getting herself to pull away from socializing and go take a nap. Mommy and Daddy have resolve though, and she is staying well rested. It is nice to have her awake more and be able to spend more time with her.
See how strong she is in the neck, arms and chest. She is doing better at getting her arms under herself by herself, and is taking far fewer "nose dives" and is better at rescuing herself when she does. She is also getting better at getting her feet and legs tucked under herself during tummy time. Yesterday, she was very alert and had 3 long tummy times. Today two. She is now taking a bath immediately before bedtime bottle (about 7 or 8 p.m.) Then it is off to dream land and then the night begins. She still feeds about every 3 to 4 hours during the night. But it is strictly business in the nursery and then back to bed. Mommy is a real party pooper at night!

Both sets of Grandparents have been so wonderful to us! Without the various ways that both sets of Grandparents have helped us, we would not be able to be helping O get off to as great of a start as she has now.

Thanks Grandparents!!!!!!
Today my Mom was here helping out: feeding, holding, changing, dusting, mopping!!!!!

Thanks Mom!!!!

Side note: The evaluator from Early On, was very good friends with a prior resident of our house. You may have heard our stories about Lady Isabella from England "Old Money" whose mother paid to have the sunporch added to the house. Lady Isabella is in England now. Olivia's new nickname is Lady Olivia. No more calling her Miss Olivia. She is now taking over as royalty in the house! We needed some class around here!

A BUNCH OF PHOTOS :-)

SUNDAY AT THE LAKE

...WITH FRED AND CAROL

...WITH GRANDMA KATE

...WITH CAROL

SOME PLAYTIME THERAPY PHOTOS

VICTORY!

Statistics Update

We went to the doctor yesterday.

O is doing GREAT!!!!!

6 lbs 8 oz

20 inches long

She is truly growing like the sweet sunflower that she is!

Movie and Soy Formula

O was having some digestive issues so this week she was switched to a soy based formula. This is not too surprising as her birth siblings also had dairy issues.  With the switch she seems to feel much better.

We learned that we may be finalizing the adoption of O by November or December! 

 Happy Thanksgiving! Merry Christmas!

The little boy, J,  we were to adopt last year is once again available for adoption.  They admitted that they should have placed him with us.  We feel so sad for J.  We pray that the perfect forever family is found for him soon. And if we are to be that family, that God would give us wisdom to know that we can be parents to both O and J.

I hope you like the movie of O having side lying therapy play time!  She loves this!

Happy Lorelai Day!

Today,  Lorelai is the featured cat in the 2009 Cat Calendar!  

 Congratulations Lorelai!

Lorelai is 7 years old and still such a big kitten!