Spring Break Project

Ok, it’s spring break so naturally, I decided to bite off more than I can chew and grade the backyard with a shovel and the labor of two young children.  A neighborhood child taunted Zach and Julia last week with ‘your backyard is boring’.  So, I’m ashamed to say, that it lit a fire under me to defend my children’s worth in the eyes of the other 6 and 7 year olds on our street.  When our house was built 15+ years ago, the builder decided against hauling all the trees they cut down away and instead buried them in our backyard.  So, we have this huge hill that is death to all blades of grass.  That, with the fact that we were otherwise occupied when seeding was optimal means our backyard looks like tumbleweeds should be blowing down the barren wasteland and a shoot out between cowboys will occur at any moment.

So, I came up with the idea of building a small retaining wall into the hill and leveling the ground out a little bit so hopefully a new swing set can be put up and eventually a shed be built both on flat land.  Problem is, I’m cheap and don’t want to rent a CAT to grade the area so the kids and I started digging on Monday.  Strangely, they are enjoying the work.  I feel like we are getting nowhere fast especially since I can only work about 1 1/2 hour a day and still fit in everything else.  Hopefully, at the end of the week we’ll have a trench dug that still will not impress the neighborhood kids but at least it’s a start.  Also, if anyone out there has a playset in good shape that they want to get rid of, let us know.  Seems like that keeps getting put on hold more and more. 

Yes, we put our kiddie pool up (actually, it’s been up for a few weeks). And, yes, I put Natalie’s feet in it.  She actually did seem to enjoy it but we made sure she didn’t get too wet because it is cold water.  Zach and Julia have been in the pool a lot lately making up stories for all their Playmobil people in boats.  For some reason, today’s story involved all the pop beads in the house.  I woke up to the sound of the screen porch door slamming, little feet running across the deck and then voices discussing whether the beads sunk or floated.  Ahhh, the things that kids can entertain themselves with!

Also, Natalie is smiling A LOT.  What a huge blessing!  Awful how much I depend on even the smallest person’s opinion of me.  :)

Amy

Back to Work

Someone thinks her new dress is pretty funny!

I started back to work on Monday just 10-15 hours but it’s a start.  So far so good but having a little trouble fitting everything in.  Natalie is very close to sleeping all night but not quite there yet.  Some nights she goes 6 hours some nights she sleeps 8.  She’s 12 weeks today but only 8 weeks if you count from her due date.  Zach and Julia both slept 8 hours consistently at 9 weeks so I’m hoping she’ll be able to do it any day now.  Been having to finish work at night when I need to take a nap to catch up during the day.

Natalie had her first physical therapy session last Thursday.  Debbie will come once a week unless we decide every other week works out ok with Natalie being so young.  We talked about things Natalie is currently doing and Debbie left me with 4 tasks to work on this week.  We need to try getting her to lie on her side, look left as much as possible (she favors her right), practice touching her hands to her toes so she’s aware of her feet being there and tummy time.  Natalie did great with Debbie.  Not sure I have been putting enough ‘play’ time in with Natalie this week but we keep trying.  At least I’ve gotten consistent with massaging her every night before bed so she’s getting something of a routine there.

Today we saw an ENT to check on her left ear hearing loss.  The audiologist had told us it was conductive hearing loss but possibly sensory neural as well.  Dr. Silver explained to me today that conductive is in the ear canal up to the bones and sensory neural pertains to nerve damage that can not be repaired.  He said that Natalie’s hearing loss is very mild and still seems like it’s unclear as to how much.  If she had complete hearing loss in one ear, she would only have a 6% overall hearing loss.  Since the last hearing test showed that she was not hearing the higher ranges only, he said that she could be hearing about 95% out of that ear.  He checked her ears today and she does have some fluid in one of them.  He had more equipment to be able to see inside her ears so he said it was possible that during the test we did with the audiologist, she had fluid or that even the probe wasn’t’ able to get completely inside her ear to get an accurate test.  Since she is so young, the hearing loss is very mild, and her ears are very small (another attribute of Down’s syndrome), he suggested we just keep checking her instead of fitting her with a hearing aide now.  We will come back in 6 weeks to see him.

Just had to post this picture.  Julia consented to letting David take her picture- a major accomplishment!  Since we haven’t gotten a birthday portrait yet, I was thrilled that she seemed to enjoy her photo session.  She’s really becoming a Daddy’s girl since Natalie has arrived.

Time to feed the baby so signing off.

Amy

Nana Visits

My mom LOVES babies and Natalie has been no exception.  I can’t describe how with Natalie I’ve coveted friendly comments about her so much more.  One of the first things that got me on a crying rampage in the beginning was wondering if anyone but David and I were ever going to love her.  It’s been wonderful have my sweet mother here this week loving my baby.  Nana has practically fed Natalie every bottle since she’s been here and I’ve often caught her with Natalie sleeping on her lap saying “I could just hold her forever.”  Natalie has been rewarding with Nana with just starting to smile.  I got a bad cold Sunday evening so Mom ended up staying a few extra days to help.  I’ve been scared to touch Natalie for fear she’d get sick and end up back in the hospital.  I think I’m finally starting to feel better so Mom’s all set to leave tomorrow.  So far, Natalie’s just snorting as usual but please pray for her to stay healthy. 

Our 10th anniversary was last week so Nana and Aunt Jill let David and I spend the night out.  We went out to a nice dinner and then stayed at the hotel we had our reception at in Southpark.  We were gone for about 18 hours!!!!  It was a great break and wonderful to just be by ourselves for a short time.  Thank you SO MUCH Nana and Aunt Jill.

I finally got Natalie’s dress done to match Julia’s.  We took quick pictures before going to small group (yes, another contributor to us being so late).  Zach really wanted to get in and we had to convince Julia it would be ok even though he didn’t match.

Amy

Hearing Screen No. 3

We just got back from Natalie’s 3rd hearing screen.  Her right ear was again confirmed to be fine.  The left ear has mild hearing loss in the higher pitch ranges. 

Our next step is to see an ENT to see if there is anything they can do.  The audiologist wasn’t sure what the ENT would do but told me it’s possible they would do an MRI on Natalie to look at the ear structure better.  Natalie would need to be sedated to have an MRI so she might need to wait to be older.  It’s also possible they could do surgery to correct a problem.  If the ENT can do nothing for her or if she needs to wait to have and MRI, Natalie will be getting a hearing aid.  The audiologist said her main concern at this age was Natalie missing out on the brain’s development of language that she hears and learns from those around her talking.  Right now, Natalie’s probably hearing a good deal of our speech since we carry her around in our arms close to our mouths as we speak.  When she becomes mobile and is crawling on the floor, she won’t be able to hear us talk as well.

So, we’d ask for continued prayer for her hearing and that the ENT or the hearing aids would help.  Also, for prayer that our sweet girl will be able to talk without difficulty someday.

Amy