After getting both kids to bed (before 8pm mind you!) I have finally had time to sit down and decompress.
My morning started out with Emilee stirring in her crib around 4am. I quickly grabbed her and put her in our bed to fall back asleep as she normally does. She started stirring around again at 6am which was my cue to get out of bed and get dressed and ready to leave for her eye appointment. I woke up with that "this should be an interesting day" feeling and low and behold, it was.
It was 6:55 when I realized that our wonderful sitter hadn't arrived yet. She is never late, even the one time she thought she was going to be late she was still five minutes early. So when she wasn't here at 7, my mind went crazy. Was she in an accident, had something happened with her family... the list went on with the craziness of Philly news. I sent a text at 7:05 and nothing. I finally switched from worried mom mode to get-in-the-damn-car mode to make the appointment on time. (I did finally get a text back at 7:15 and she is safe and sound and very embarrassed about not showing). We then hit a construction zone where we sat thru 4, FOUR, FOUR, green lights. My patience was dwindling, my blood pressure was rising and I did my best to not lose my mind when I pulled into the appointment 5 minutes late.
But, you know what? It didn't matter. The doctor there is amazing and said he didn't mind Connor being there at all. Connor actually was very well behaved during the exam and we kind of forgot he was there for a bit. Emilee's eye appointment went fabulous though. The glasses, even though she doesn't wear them that often, are still helping. Dr. Nelson doesn't feel that they will be required for too much longer, just until it clicks that her eyes don't need to cross. I did inquire about the real purpose of the glasses, to help her vision OR to correct her crossed eye OR to do both. Dr. Nelson said that her vision is perfectly fine at this time and the glasses are solely to train her eye to not cross. She has a follow up in 4 months.
After a trip to Target for a reward for Connor's behavior at the doctor's office, a breakfast trip to McDonald's because I was becoming hangry and caffeine deficient we arrived at home to clean up before therapy.
Emily's therapy has been kind of rocky this past month. She has been intolerant of being moved or made to do anything she doesn't want to do. It was a half hour of screaming, crying and making her body stiff. When the therapist isn't here I am constantly working with her and "forcing" her to do the work. Finally, this week she came around and the OT and PT couldn't help but exclaim how proud they are of her growth!
It's not uncommon for babies with Down Syndrome to become stubborn with therapy. It also is very common for them to have delayed verbal skills to tell us that they are unhappy, so screaming and other non-verbal cues are the way they prefer to tell us that it's too much for them. Our goal is, not only to work on verbal communication but also to break that stubbornness.
So, yes, this is a book. I will just end with a quick update on everyone:
Kyle: I believe I posted about his promotion. (I truly can't remember). Their busy season is slowly winding down in time for the transfer season. Then getting his board and next qualification before we get the list of open duty stations and putting in our dream sheet. That will be quite an experience thanks to new protocol in the special needs program. **more on that in another post**
Steph: I'm here. Busy trying to keep up with therapy and keeping Connor happy. Getting things into a routine that works-- I swear this is in every post because it's such a challenge for me. I am also prepping for the road trip in June for Holly's graduation. Prepping for two birthday parties this summer and then our big Anniversary trip in August!
Connor: My baby is growing up. He holds these long sentences and verbalizes exactly what he wants. It's very rare now to not understand what he is saying to me. He is such a comedian and loves to make people laugh. He also is very much into attention seeking. I worry he doesn't get the socialization he needs and the attention that he wants. His favorite thing to do right now is play with his trains, watch cartoons, play outside at the park or patio and SWIM!
Emilee: She is just becoming such an expressive, silly girl. She laughs so much and smiles all the time. No teeth have broken through yet, but we all know it will be really really soon! She can sit on her own for a while, hold crawling position for over two minutes and LOVES food!
Things have just been crazy for us and the next three months aren't showing any signs of letting up. But, I know it will be full of memories (hopefully good ones that don't begin with "this should be an interesting month"!).
Until next time <3
My morning started out with Emilee stirring in her crib around 4am. I quickly grabbed her and put her in our bed to fall back asleep as she normally does. She started stirring around again at 6am which was my cue to get out of bed and get dressed and ready to leave for her eye appointment. I woke up with that "this should be an interesting day" feeling and low and behold, it was.
It was 6:55 when I realized that our wonderful sitter hadn't arrived yet. She is never late, even the one time she thought she was going to be late she was still five minutes early. So when she wasn't here at 7, my mind went crazy. Was she in an accident, had something happened with her family... the list went on with the craziness of Philly news. I sent a text at 7:05 and nothing. I finally switched from worried mom mode to get-in-the-damn-car mode to make the appointment on time. (I did finally get a text back at 7:15 and she is safe and sound and very embarrassed about not showing). We then hit a construction zone where we sat thru 4, FOUR, FOUR, green lights. My patience was dwindling, my blood pressure was rising and I did my best to not lose my mind when I pulled into the appointment 5 minutes late.
But, you know what? It didn't matter. The doctor there is amazing and said he didn't mind Connor being there at all. Connor actually was very well behaved during the exam and we kind of forgot he was there for a bit. Emilee's eye appointment went fabulous though. The glasses, even though she doesn't wear them that often, are still helping. Dr. Nelson doesn't feel that they will be required for too much longer, just until it clicks that her eyes don't need to cross. I did inquire about the real purpose of the glasses, to help her vision OR to correct her crossed eye OR to do both. Dr. Nelson said that her vision is perfectly fine at this time and the glasses are solely to train her eye to not cross. She has a follow up in 4 months.
After a trip to Target for a reward for Connor's behavior at the doctor's office, a breakfast trip to McDonald's because I was becoming hangry and caffeine deficient we arrived at home to clean up before therapy.
Emily's therapy has been kind of rocky this past month. She has been intolerant of being moved or made to do anything she doesn't want to do. It was a half hour of screaming, crying and making her body stiff. When the therapist isn't here I am constantly working with her and "forcing" her to do the work. Finally, this week she came around and the OT and PT couldn't help but exclaim how proud they are of her growth!
It's not uncommon for babies with Down Syndrome to become stubborn with therapy. It also is very common for them to have delayed verbal skills to tell us that they are unhappy, so screaming and other non-verbal cues are the way they prefer to tell us that it's too much for them. Our goal is, not only to work on verbal communication but also to break that stubbornness.
So, yes, this is a book. I will just end with a quick update on everyone:
Kyle: I believe I posted about his promotion. (I truly can't remember). Their busy season is slowly winding down in time for the transfer season. Then getting his board and next qualification before we get the list of open duty stations and putting in our dream sheet. That will be quite an experience thanks to new protocol in the special needs program. **more on that in another post**
Steph: I'm here. Busy trying to keep up with therapy and keeping Connor happy. Getting things into a routine that works-- I swear this is in every post because it's such a challenge for me. I am also prepping for the road trip in June for Holly's graduation. Prepping for two birthday parties this summer and then our big Anniversary trip in August!
Connor: My baby is growing up. He holds these long sentences and verbalizes exactly what he wants. It's very rare now to not understand what he is saying to me. He is such a comedian and loves to make people laugh. He also is very much into attention seeking. I worry he doesn't get the socialization he needs and the attention that he wants. His favorite thing to do right now is play with his trains, watch cartoons, play outside at the park or patio and SWIM!
Emilee: She is just becoming such an expressive, silly girl. She laughs so much and smiles all the time. No teeth have broken through yet, but we all know it will be really really soon! She can sit on her own for a while, hold crawling position for over two minutes and LOVES food!
Things have just been crazy for us and the next three months aren't showing any signs of letting up. But, I know it will be full of memories (hopefully good ones that don't begin with "this should be an interesting month"!).
Until next time <3
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