Her Face

Thought I should post some pictures of her face since the last post was of the back of her head! LOL These pics were taken by my four year old. Pretty good, huh?

Naptime

How Chloe routinely falls asleep! OUCH.

Pale Feet

Do any of your kids with Ds (or without) get REALLY pale feet? Like NO color at all pale? Chloe will occasionally get these white feet and it's very weird looking. I'm going to email our pedi, but I thought I'd check with my blog friends first. :)

Taking a Stand

Not me, Chloe! She pulled herself to stand ALL BY HERSELF today at the couch. Of course I wasn't there to see it! But she did it for her Nana (my mom) so that's good. Nana was so excited she could hardly contain herself! I'm sure I'll get to see it soon enough and probably over and over and over again ;) LOL

Sleep Study #5

Pre-sleep study - the calm before the storm.


During sleep study, but ALMOST done.


All done and ready to go home!!! :)

Chloe had her 5th sleep study last night/this morning. She was a REAL trooper. She hated getting the stuff all stuck to her and cried as she lay between my legs in the crib (yes, I was in her crib with her!). It took her a good 2 hours to get settled into a comfortable sleep, but once she was good and asleep she pretty much stayed that way! YAY for Chloe. Last sleep study was NOT so pleasant! She was happy to get it all off this morning and get back to her home, her family and her friends! It'll be 2-3 weeks before we get the results, but this was basically a baseline so we don't expect anything startling. We know she has OSA (obstructive sleep apnea), it's just a matter of the degree now that she's older and bigger (18 lbs, by the way!!!!!). She definitely SEEMS better to us and hasn't been on the CPAP since this summer. Fingers crossed that it stays that way!

In Over My Head?

I think I'm in over my head. Not in having a child with special needs, but in having THREE children! I swear, give me two, and it doesn't matter which two, and I do great. I can work them together nicely. But throw in a third and it all goes to hell! I'm hoping it's just the current ages. 9, 4 1/2 and 17 months. If my attention is on the little one and the two big kids are together it's sure to lead to a breakdown (evenutally a breakdown of MY mental status)! So what's the answer? Get rid of one??? But which one??? I'm awfully fond of each of them individually. So I guess that's not the right option. Keep them separate? Man, I TRY, but there always seems to be that time in the day when they're all three together. I just keep trying to tell myself "this too shall pass" and we'll get into to rhythm that keeps me from killing them (just kidding - ummm. . . , yeah, no, I was kidding) Spring will undoubtably help, but that's too far away to count on that. Any advice anyone?????

Baby Steps

Yup, that's what Chloe took today. Literally. She took baby steps. You know those ones that babies take when you hold them up and they "stand" and take those sort-of "fake steps"? The ones where they don't really support their weight, but they bear SOME weight and those little legs move in a walking pattern. That's what she did. She had her leg braces or AFO's on and her big clunky sneakers and I held her up as she "walked" across the room. Now you have to understand, usually when I hold Chloe up she holds her legs up. In fact she does whatever she can NOT to put them down. She usually holds them up at a nice 90 degree angle. But today, after working with her new OT Tammy yesterday on some new weight-bearing exercises, her legs seemed to be "woken up" to this new skill. "NOW we know what to do", they seem to say. I'm excited. You can probably tell. They were the most beautiful baby steps I've ever seen.

First Born

Happy Birthday to my first born, Xander, now 9 years old! It's hard to believe how quickly 9 years can just whiz by. I find myself at a loss for words on this meaningful anniversary of the birth of my first child. Maybe when my head is clearer I can post a little something more about this special young boy. Until then, enjoy a picture of my handsome young man.