Bad news is the prunes worked…
After about one month of minor skirmishes in Natalie’s ongoing battle of constipation, we were back at war this past week. She started spoon feeding one month ago and was fine for the first 3 weeks. Everyone told me the constipation would get much worse when she added other foods into her diet and it eventually did. Thankfully, it has not yet been as bad as a few months ago but we did have a time this weekend that she started screaming when drinking her bottle that reminded me a little of her worst bouts. So, naturally, I’ve been trying to solve it quick. I’ve been feeding her prunes for breakfast for almost a week now. In the beginning, she was actually smacking her lips while eating them. Now, she’s screwing up her face a bit. Today, I was at school for a meeting about Zach’s first grade year. The meeting was over and I could have stayed for lunch with him when I noticed Natalie had exploded. Zach was disappointed but I had to bolt and get her cleaned up. Later, after I had picked up Julia, I realized it happened again. That turned out to be it but I was on eggshells all day thinking I had created a monster! We are getting an appointment with a gastroenterologist hopefully in the next week or so. I feel like I’m exhausting all possibilities.
In other news, we had a speech evaluation last week. Natalie came out as in her age group and in some cases ahead! Her spoon feeding as really improved and the tongue thrusting is almost gone. I can hardly tell any difference in her learning to eat from her brother and sister. Her physical therapist also did an evaluation just to see how her development is rating. She is now officially behind normally developing children. We are still working on rolling and she seems to be a ways off from sitting up. I’m trying to be very rigid about scheduling time to work with her every day in hopes that it will help. We know have a Zach, Julia, and Natalie homework time to every day!
I also have officially ordered my first T21 supplement. It’s in the mail so hopefully I’ll have something to report on it the next time I get around to blogging. I’m trying very hard to work only when the big kids are in school so if I get behind, I have to make it up at night. Which means, blog gets put on the back burner. Except when I have appointments, its been getting better so, hopefully, one day I’ll be organized again and have time for extra activities!
Amy
Freedom Park, albeit a little late in the game. Lots of people came up with cute names so I had to go with the alliteration route too. We decided to go with Natalie's [N---]. We are still new at figuring things out but thought this would be a great way to meet some other families and help raise a little money for Down’s Syndrome. If you are in Charlotte and would like to walk with us, we’d be glad to have you on our team. The walk is October 1st in Freedom Park. There will be kid-friendly events starting at 2. The walk starts at 4:30 and there is a hot dog supper at 5:30. 
