Back on track...what what!
Today I want to make sure that I start bringing about some more attention to this little one growing in my belly! I feel like he/she is getting lost in the shuffle already some times. But I can feel him/her move so so much these days that I actually think about him/her more all the time! I think I'm a little different then most women in how I'm not quite as mushy over my growing baby. Don't get me wrong, I'm super excited, love to feel the baby move and see my tummy move, and to imagine what they'll be like (I say they so I don't have to keep typing he/she, there is only one). But I was thinking about this the other day that the way my mind and heart work is that I love people/my children more the better I know them. I can tell you that I love my son and my husband more and more as time goes on and that is the same truth with this baby. And that's the part that excites me - getting to know this little one and learning who they are and what they like, what makes them smile and laugh, and loving them for who they are. Right now I love them b/c they are mine and I get the privilege of growing them (which if I think too much about can kind of weird me out) And especially not knowing if we're having a boy or girl, it's so fun to think we'll be completely surprised by this little one!
I will be 26 weeks pregnant this week! My belly has definitely popped out but at times depending on the shirt or what I'm doing it's hard to tell, but if you see me holding Tommy, you can definitely tell! I guess it pulls my shirt back who knows?! I have felt all along that we are having a girl but my feelings are kind of starting to shift to maybe a boy?! We're going to stick with our names we'd picked out before - Ella for a girl and Silas for a boy. I kind of would like different names but Kyle likes those and we can't agree on any other ones and I agreed to those names back in the day. And to be honest I don't really care what we name our kid - it's hard to pick out names. I remember when Tommy was born I thought - he doesn't really look like a Tommy and now the name fits him perfectly - once again it comes with learning about them and knowing them and it's not like you can name them when their two, what would you call them for the first two years?
We are so excited to meet this sweet baby! I'm excited to know if they're a boy or a girl! An Ella or a Silas!! A happy baby or a fussy baby? (PLEASE BE HAPPY!) To see Tom Tom be a big brother and get to know and learn to love his precious sibling! (This thrills me) He's becoming more and more interested in little ones and doesn't seem to get jealous, just wants to be held with the baby sometimes. It's going to be an adventure!
Monday, February 20, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Mushy Monday/Wednesday
So I'm way behind on my mushy monday posts. What else is new? I was doing good for a little while, even writing them Sunday night to have them published Monday morning - what what?! Oh well I've gotten behind, time to catch up!
We went on our first plane ride as a family to visit my bff Critter and meet her new little boy. It was a wonderful trip! Tommy did great on the flights - all he did was watch our reaction when it got loud and shaky, and once Kyle smiled at him letting him know everything was okay, he was just fine. Tommy was a lot more work on the trip then he is at home though. He was fussier, he missed his toys, and he missed his freedom of being able to roam around the house the same way he does at home. He learned how to climb steps at Aunt Rah Rah's house! So proud of him for that and Nana Jan gets a big shout out for that one, she's been teaching him how to do that at her house. We have no good steps to practice that on here at home, so thanks Nana!! We do have to stand behind him as he climbs though, b/c he likes to stand up once he gets on a step and sometimes that results in losing balance and falling backwards. Also, sometimes he just decides he's tired and he's going to sit down and fall off the step. We learned that it takes Tommy about 3 days to get well acclimated to a new environment for sleeping and being interested in new babies who are smaller than him, a great thing to know for when we bring our new baby home in May! Most of all the trip was really for me to visit with Critter, to see where she lives, and to love on that sweet baby boy of hers. It was a huge sacrifice for Kyle and he was so sweet and selfless to do that for me! He didn't complain, he was nice and social, and he helped out a ton with Tommy! And while we had a great time, it was nice to come home at the end of our trip, especially bringing Tommy back home. You could just tell he was more laid back & more himself when he got back to his familiar surroundings and ultimately his toys! ;)
Lately Tommy has really been taking off in so many ways! His sign language is growing immensely (compared to what it was) I think he knows 13 or more signs now and about 10 of them he learned in a months time! Woo hoo! Smarty Pants! He also took his very first independent steps yesterday - February 14, 2012!!! Can I get a HALLELUJAH! It seriously filled my heart with IMMENSE JOY! And God is so good in His timing! I am not feeling overwhelmed by the surgery (yet! or again?!) but it still was such an encouragement and joy to my heart to get to see Tommy take his first steps and to have him do it before his surgery. I don't even know if that makes sense to anyone else but let me just tell you it means so much to me to know he's beginning to learn to walk and take steps before the possibility of having a set back or slow down to progress b/c of surgery. I absolutely love it and I thank God for being so sweet to me to allow me to experience and see that! Oh it does my heart good!
What else is new...we're trying to be stricter with Tommy these days. It's a lot harder than I ever anticipated. I always thought I would be so good at being strict and disciplining my kids but let me tell you...it is a C.O.N.S.T.A.N.T job! You have to be consistent and I don't like being tough on my baby. And I'm not even that tough (yet). I kind of feel like I will be better at being tough when he's older and he's being blatantly defiant and disrespectful, but who knows - that's probably harder than I think too! But I will continue to be consistent and teach my son to obey me b/c I know I will not hurt his feelings now, he's only almost 2, and if I do "hurt" his feelings or make him mad, he won't remember it! And that's why you start now - so it becomes more of his nature to follow my instructions and to be well behaved. At least that's what I'm hoping! And don't get me wrong I'm not super strict - we're talking about teaching him to eat the food that we give him at a meal, food that we know he likes and eats, he just thinks he gets to choose to eat it sometimes and then if he doesn't want it we'll give him something else. Obviously I started this bad habit but he's learning very quickly and so far it's been an easier learning experience for him than we anticipated. And without sounding cocky I think being laid back (on our part) and not stressing if he doesn't eat it helps a lot. I completely understand that Tommy is a little human being and cannot being controlled at all times. But there are certain things I can control, such as what his options are at lunch time. Tommy's also been getting away with some old baby habits that we are now trying to teach him to stop. Throwing his toys, taking off his socks in the car and throwing them, occasionally hitting/pinching to get your attention (we've always worked on stopping this one, we're just buckling down), and now some whining is creeping in. It can definitely feel overwhelming to try and take on so many things to correct at once but I try to be consistent and stern with him but not to get upset or take it overly serious in my mind, b/c I know with time he'll get it.
Ok last funny story to tell before I end this rambling post. So it has become abundantly apparent that the majority of the outside world can now see by looking at Tommy that he has DS. When we're at the grocery store and a ton at the airport or on flights people say, "Oh you have such a special little child." or "Oh you have a special angel. He will bless you so much!" These comments do NOT offend me, but I think they are HILARIOUS! First of all people are basically saying, "Oh I can tell you have a cute kid with Down Syndrome!" haha obviously they would never say this directly but they are letting us know they recognize the DS. And I think it's so sweet that people are being intentional to talk to him and love on him to show they care for him and us. And the comment - he will bless you so much - well duh, what child doesn't bless their parents?! All children are a blessing, and trust me I know what they mean, and their intention is to be encouraging but it's funny to hear the same responses from strangers in completely different enviroments. Anyway the funny part is that Kyle finally got to see people saying things like this when we were flying for our trip. Well once we got back from the trip, one day Kyle and I were out to lunch with Tommy and I said, "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, another man at the grocery store stopped to say HI to Tommy and said, 'oh he's a special little angel! he'll bring you so many blessings!' and Kyle laughed and looked across the table to Tommy and said in a higher pitched voice, "Are you an angel Tommy? If you are then you should start acting like one." haha I laughed so hard! Don't get me wrong Tommy is a sweet and precious and good little boy, but none of us are angels or perfect. I love Kyle's sense of humor and I will be thinking about that the next time I hear that nice comment from a stranger at Walmart.
We went on our first plane ride as a family to visit my bff Critter and meet her new little boy. It was a wonderful trip! Tommy did great on the flights - all he did was watch our reaction when it got loud and shaky, and once Kyle smiled at him letting him know everything was okay, he was just fine. Tommy was a lot more work on the trip then he is at home though. He was fussier, he missed his toys, and he missed his freedom of being able to roam around the house the same way he does at home. He learned how to climb steps at Aunt Rah Rah's house! So proud of him for that and Nana Jan gets a big shout out for that one, she's been teaching him how to do that at her house. We have no good steps to practice that on here at home, so thanks Nana!! We do have to stand behind him as he climbs though, b/c he likes to stand up once he gets on a step and sometimes that results in losing balance and falling backwards. Also, sometimes he just decides he's tired and he's going to sit down and fall off the step. We learned that it takes Tommy about 3 days to get well acclimated to a new environment for sleeping and being interested in new babies who are smaller than him, a great thing to know for when we bring our new baby home in May! Most of all the trip was really for me to visit with Critter, to see where she lives, and to love on that sweet baby boy of hers. It was a huge sacrifice for Kyle and he was so sweet and selfless to do that for me! He didn't complain, he was nice and social, and he helped out a ton with Tommy! And while we had a great time, it was nice to come home at the end of our trip, especially bringing Tommy back home. You could just tell he was more laid back & more himself when he got back to his familiar surroundings and ultimately his toys! ;)
Lately Tommy has really been taking off in so many ways! His sign language is growing immensely (compared to what it was) I think he knows 13 or more signs now and about 10 of them he learned in a months time! Woo hoo! Smarty Pants! He also took his very first independent steps yesterday - February 14, 2012!!! Can I get a HALLELUJAH! It seriously filled my heart with IMMENSE JOY! And God is so good in His timing! I am not feeling overwhelmed by the surgery (yet! or again?!) but it still was such an encouragement and joy to my heart to get to see Tommy take his first steps and to have him do it before his surgery. I don't even know if that makes sense to anyone else but let me just tell you it means so much to me to know he's beginning to learn to walk and take steps before the possibility of having a set back or slow down to progress b/c of surgery. I absolutely love it and I thank God for being so sweet to me to allow me to experience and see that! Oh it does my heart good!
What else is new...we're trying to be stricter with Tommy these days. It's a lot harder than I ever anticipated. I always thought I would be so good at being strict and disciplining my kids but let me tell you...it is a C.O.N.S.T.A.N.T job! You have to be consistent and I don't like being tough on my baby. And I'm not even that tough (yet). I kind of feel like I will be better at being tough when he's older and he's being blatantly defiant and disrespectful, but who knows - that's probably harder than I think too! But I will continue to be consistent and teach my son to obey me b/c I know I will not hurt his feelings now, he's only almost 2, and if I do "hurt" his feelings or make him mad, he won't remember it! And that's why you start now - so it becomes more of his nature to follow my instructions and to be well behaved. At least that's what I'm hoping! And don't get me wrong I'm not super strict - we're talking about teaching him to eat the food that we give him at a meal, food that we know he likes and eats, he just thinks he gets to choose to eat it sometimes and then if he doesn't want it we'll give him something else. Obviously I started this bad habit but he's learning very quickly and so far it's been an easier learning experience for him than we anticipated. And without sounding cocky I think being laid back (on our part) and not stressing if he doesn't eat it helps a lot. I completely understand that Tommy is a little human being and cannot being controlled at all times. But there are certain things I can control, such as what his options are at lunch time. Tommy's also been getting away with some old baby habits that we are now trying to teach him to stop. Throwing his toys, taking off his socks in the car and throwing them, occasionally hitting/pinching to get your attention (we've always worked on stopping this one, we're just buckling down), and now some whining is creeping in. It can definitely feel overwhelming to try and take on so many things to correct at once but I try to be consistent and stern with him but not to get upset or take it overly serious in my mind, b/c I know with time he'll get it.
Ok last funny story to tell before I end this rambling post. So it has become abundantly apparent that the majority of the outside world can now see by looking at Tommy that he has DS. When we're at the grocery store and a ton at the airport or on flights people say, "Oh you have such a special little child." or "Oh you have a special angel. He will bless you so much!" These comments do NOT offend me, but I think they are HILARIOUS! First of all people are basically saying, "Oh I can tell you have a cute kid with Down Syndrome!" haha obviously they would never say this directly but they are letting us know they recognize the DS. And I think it's so sweet that people are being intentional to talk to him and love on him to show they care for him and us. And the comment - he will bless you so much - well duh, what child doesn't bless their parents?! All children are a blessing, and trust me I know what they mean, and their intention is to be encouraging but it's funny to hear the same responses from strangers in completely different enviroments. Anyway the funny part is that Kyle finally got to see people saying things like this when we were flying for our trip. Well once we got back from the trip, one day Kyle and I were out to lunch with Tommy and I said, "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, another man at the grocery store stopped to say HI to Tommy and said, 'oh he's a special little angel! he'll bring you so many blessings!' and Kyle laughed and looked across the table to Tommy and said in a higher pitched voice, "Are you an angel Tommy? If you are then you should start acting like one." haha I laughed so hard! Don't get me wrong Tommy is a sweet and precious and good little boy, but none of us are angels or perfect. I love Kyle's sense of humor and I will be thinking about that the next time I hear that nice comment from a stranger at Walmart.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Details about the surgery
Tommy's heart surgery will be February 22nd at 7:30 in the morning. He will go see his cardiologist the morning before and then go have tests run at the hospital to make sure he is good and healthy for surgery. We met with the surgeon today and got all of our questions answered, and he said if we think of more we'll meet several people the day before surgery who will be able to answer them as well.
Basically what they will do is go in and take out a little piece of the sack that holds the heart and set it aside to use to patch up the hole in Tommy's heart. They'll sew it in there to fit perfectly, just like you'd patch a hole in your jeans. The patch itself will fuse to the heart but will not grow or stretch, the heart will grow around it and keep it from detaching in the future. The cardiologist will be there during the surgery and will do an echo before surgery and right afterwards to make sure that it is successful and there is no leakage. The surgery will be over around 11:30 AM or 12:00 PM. Tommy is expected to be on the vent and sedated for a few hours after surgery (give or take). They will keep his pain controlled and keep him comfortable. He will be in the ICU immediately after and should be there for 1-2 days. Overall his hospital stay should be 4-5 days. The stitches in his chest will be absorbed, but he'll have a stitch or two that need to be removed from the drainage tube. Tommy should hopefully be in pretty good condition when we take him home - he can have regular baths or showers - we just can't completely submerse the incision (like if he were to go swimming in a pool). We cannot pick him up under his arms for 6 weeks, we have to kind of cradle-like pick him up, to prevent putting stress on his healing breast bone. But he can pull up and do anything he wants - we don't have to limit his activity b/c he won't do anything that causes himself pain.
The surgeon was very nice and we feel very comfortable after our visit with him. I know I've said it before but we appreciate everyone's encouragement and prayers. I've been asked a lot how I'm feeling about this and handling and at this point I'm feeling a lot better and a lot less overwhelmed than I was before, and I attribute that to all those praying for us and ultimately to God's goodness. I'm sure I will get scared and nervous as it gets closer and closer, but for now I will enjoy not worrying about it! Thanks for loving our family and keeping up with our sweet boy!
Basically what they will do is go in and take out a little piece of the sack that holds the heart and set it aside to use to patch up the hole in Tommy's heart. They'll sew it in there to fit perfectly, just like you'd patch a hole in your jeans. The patch itself will fuse to the heart but will not grow or stretch, the heart will grow around it and keep it from detaching in the future. The cardiologist will be there during the surgery and will do an echo before surgery and right afterwards to make sure that it is successful and there is no leakage. The surgery will be over around 11:30 AM or 12:00 PM. Tommy is expected to be on the vent and sedated for a few hours after surgery (give or take). They will keep his pain controlled and keep him comfortable. He will be in the ICU immediately after and should be there for 1-2 days. Overall his hospital stay should be 4-5 days. The stitches in his chest will be absorbed, but he'll have a stitch or two that need to be removed from the drainage tube. Tommy should hopefully be in pretty good condition when we take him home - he can have regular baths or showers - we just can't completely submerse the incision (like if he were to go swimming in a pool). We cannot pick him up under his arms for 6 weeks, we have to kind of cradle-like pick him up, to prevent putting stress on his healing breast bone. But he can pull up and do anything he wants - we don't have to limit his activity b/c he won't do anything that causes himself pain.
The surgeon was very nice and we feel very comfortable after our visit with him. I know I've said it before but we appreciate everyone's encouragement and prayers. I've been asked a lot how I'm feeling about this and handling and at this point I'm feeling a lot better and a lot less overwhelmed than I was before, and I attribute that to all those praying for us and ultimately to God's goodness. I'm sure I will get scared and nervous as it gets closer and closer, but for now I will enjoy not worrying about it! Thanks for loving our family and keeping up with our sweet boy!
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Not so exciting news...
So Tommy went to his cardiologist appointment last Monday only for us to get completely different news from the last visit. He is still as healthy as can be but the cardiologist has changed his mind and sees no benefit in waiting for Tommy to have his surgery. He wanted to schedule it for April but Kyle mentioned we're expecting baby # 2 (who is still nameless) at the end of May and wanted to make sure Tommy would be fully recovered by then. And the doc said that if he had surgery in March he would be confident that he would be fully recovered before the baby, but April would be cutting it close. So from there he said that the next step would be for him to talk with the surgeons and get there opinions and he'd call us the following week (now this week) to let us know their thoughts. When we left I was very emotionally overwhelmed, keeping in mind I'm pregnant = hormonal, I had a cold and was feeling really worn down from it, and we're talking about operating on my precious baby's vital life organ! But I've learned it's better to cry when I feel like it and to not hold it back b/c that just makes me feel about 10X more overwhelmed than I already am. So I cried in the car on the way home. And for a lot after that through out the next couple of days and many conversations when updating immediate family. (Oh and side note, was not too happy about the doctor completely changing things up again but we've pretty much come to expect it and I felt peace knowing that the surgeons would help pinpoint a time.)
Anyway he called this morning and let us know that they discussed Tommy's situation at length and all agree that it would be best to go ahead and do the surgery. He said usually he avoids the hospital during this season if at all possible b/c of RSV but it's been incredibly light this year so he feels much more comfortable with doing the surgery at this time. The next step is for the surgeons' office to call us and set up a time for questions and surgery. He said that they will do it around our schedule and that he, the cardiologist, will be present for the surgery as well.
There is a part of me that felt unhappy with this news but also relieved to just have an answer and to get this over with. The anticipation is tough. There are definitely parts about this that emotionally overwhelm me but I am also very thankful that we have great surgeons and that they know how to fix his precious heart. We appreciate your prayers. Some specific ways you can pray is for a successful surgery, a swift recovery with no infections, strength - physically for Tommy and emotionally for me, Tommy to be healthy before and after surgery, and for the Lord's will to be done. We're thinking we'd like to aim for the beginning part of March, just in case Tommy does get sick, if he has any kind of infection they'll have to reschedule so we want to allow a buffer for that.
In case you too are struggling with the thought of the Lord not healing Tommy's heart or even just allowing the wall to grow up to where he could have a heart cath instead of open heart surgery, let me tell you it's been a tough pill for me to swallow as well. I did not feel angry with the Lord about this news, but I felt unhappy with His decision. And while I understand that that's not trusting in His sovereignty and goodness, that is how I felt. But the encouraging part, those are my emotions and feelings, they are not truth. Therefore I took the advice of a very wise woman that shared her testimony about struggling with fear when she knew her children had a disease that was fatal. She said she spoke truth to her feelings, b/c our feelings are not truth. She used the Word and reminding herself of God's character and it eventually helped to change her feelings. It is hard for me to understand why the Lord wouldn't choose to heal Tommy's heart, b/c I fully believe He is more than able, but I will trust in His goodness and in His sovereignty that He knows what is best. And honestly with time, even just a week, I can feel that my heart is softening. God is good. There is A LOT to be thankful for - doctors who discovered his heart problem, doctors who can monitor it, surgeons who can fix it, doctors who care about fixing it and prolonging Tommy's life expectancy even though he has DS (back in the day they wouldn't have performed this surgery b/c they wouldn't have seen it as necessary to prolong the life of a person with DS), getting the surgery done before Tommy will remember, having this done before the new baby comes - most likely making me feel torn and guilty for having more concern and care for one child over another, and MOST importantly a great God who is watching over my son's life and has allowed all of the things listed before this to occur.
If you have any questions feel free to ask. We'll keep you updated as to when we have a date scheduled. Also for anyone who goes to church with us or is related to us, we ask that you please do not mention this to my Granny Jane. She has no idea about Tommy's visit last week and we don't plan to tell her anything until we have the surgery scheduled. When we thought Tommy was having surgery this past fall it really caused her to worry and even effected her health. Since she spends the vast majority of her time at home it's really all she will think about once she knows so we are trying to handle it with care. We appreciate your prayers and love and care for our family!
I'll leave you with a picture that will surely brighten up this post!
Anyway he called this morning and let us know that they discussed Tommy's situation at length and all agree that it would be best to go ahead and do the surgery. He said usually he avoids the hospital during this season if at all possible b/c of RSV but it's been incredibly light this year so he feels much more comfortable with doing the surgery at this time. The next step is for the surgeons' office to call us and set up a time for questions and surgery. He said that they will do it around our schedule and that he, the cardiologist, will be present for the surgery as well.
There is a part of me that felt unhappy with this news but also relieved to just have an answer and to get this over with. The anticipation is tough. There are definitely parts about this that emotionally overwhelm me but I am also very thankful that we have great surgeons and that they know how to fix his precious heart. We appreciate your prayers. Some specific ways you can pray is for a successful surgery, a swift recovery with no infections, strength - physically for Tommy and emotionally for me, Tommy to be healthy before and after surgery, and for the Lord's will to be done. We're thinking we'd like to aim for the beginning part of March, just in case Tommy does get sick, if he has any kind of infection they'll have to reschedule so we want to allow a buffer for that.
In case you too are struggling with the thought of the Lord not healing Tommy's heart or even just allowing the wall to grow up to where he could have a heart cath instead of open heart surgery, let me tell you it's been a tough pill for me to swallow as well. I did not feel angry with the Lord about this news, but I felt unhappy with His decision. And while I understand that that's not trusting in His sovereignty and goodness, that is how I felt. But the encouraging part, those are my emotions and feelings, they are not truth. Therefore I took the advice of a very wise woman that shared her testimony about struggling with fear when she knew her children had a disease that was fatal. She said she spoke truth to her feelings, b/c our feelings are not truth. She used the Word and reminding herself of God's character and it eventually helped to change her feelings. It is hard for me to understand why the Lord wouldn't choose to heal Tommy's heart, b/c I fully believe He is more than able, but I will trust in His goodness and in His sovereignty that He knows what is best. And honestly with time, even just a week, I can feel that my heart is softening. God is good. There is A LOT to be thankful for - doctors who discovered his heart problem, doctors who can monitor it, surgeons who can fix it, doctors who care about fixing it and prolonging Tommy's life expectancy even though he has DS (back in the day they wouldn't have performed this surgery b/c they wouldn't have seen it as necessary to prolong the life of a person with DS), getting the surgery done before Tommy will remember, having this done before the new baby comes - most likely making me feel torn and guilty for having more concern and care for one child over another, and MOST importantly a great God who is watching over my son's life and has allowed all of the things listed before this to occur.
If you have any questions feel free to ask. We'll keep you updated as to when we have a date scheduled. Also for anyone who goes to church with us or is related to us, we ask that you please do not mention this to my Granny Jane. She has no idea about Tommy's visit last week and we don't plan to tell her anything until we have the surgery scheduled. When we thought Tommy was having surgery this past fall it really caused her to worry and even effected her health. Since she spends the vast majority of her time at home it's really all she will think about once she knows so we are trying to handle it with care. We appreciate your prayers and love and care for our family!
I'll leave you with a picture that will surely brighten up this post!
Monday, January 23, 2012
Mushy Monday
Here he comes...
And there he goes...
And there he goes...
(We did this for a good 15 minutes, if not more! Back and forth! He LOVED it! So proud of our little man!)
Monday, January 16, 2012
Mushy Monday
Very very early Sunday morning my precious new nephew was born! Since it was so early in the morning and we still needed to travel an hour and a half back home, I just held him briefly before we left, and now I just wish I could hold him sooooo much more! Selfishly, it's kind of exciting b/c I can tell I'm getting back into liking little babies! That sounds mean but when you have one of your own, it's not as exciting to hold a little bitty one b/c you do it all the time. And then it's a little sad b/c that means Tommy is growing out of that baby stage (that being said I love the stage he is in now and watching him grow) but he is my first little baby! Anyway back to my nephew, he is beautiful and very healthy! 9lbs 12.5 oz 23 inches! SHEEWWY! Thank the Lord for a healthy baby but I would not want to endure that delivery! Tonight was the first night I've gotten to say Tommy's nightly prayer with him and Eli is actually out of the womb! We pray for all of his cousins by name and it was so fun to have a precious face to put with that name tonight!
Another thing I realized tonight as Tommy and I were doing his nightly routine is how when I first start singing the first of three songs we sing, God is so Good, my mind goes through the many voices I've heard sing that with/to Tommy before he's gone to bed. One of the first I think of is my Papaw Frank, Tommy's great grandpa, when they visited in the past and Tommy was there to go to sleep my papaw joined in in his songs and prayer. And both my parents sing and pray with him, my mother in law, Kyle, Aunt Jennifer...and I'm sure there are many more! But it just made me smile and so thankful for a great deal of family who not only love Tommy so sweetly to sing and pray with him but also to believe the words we're singing. God really is so good!
Another thing I realized tonight as Tommy and I were doing his nightly routine is how when I first start singing the first of three songs we sing, God is so Good, my mind goes through the many voices I've heard sing that with/to Tommy before he's gone to bed. One of the first I think of is my Papaw Frank, Tommy's great grandpa, when they visited in the past and Tommy was there to go to sleep my papaw joined in in his songs and prayer. And both my parents sing and pray with him, my mother in law, Kyle, Aunt Jennifer...and I'm sure there are many more! But it just made me smile and so thankful for a great deal of family who not only love Tommy so sweetly to sing and pray with him but also to believe the words we're singing. God really is so good!
Monday, January 9, 2012
Mushy Monday
So I realized the other day that I made Tommy a whole month older than what he actually is, he will be 21 months, this month. I changed the past blog to read 20 months, that way if I read it in the future it will be the real time line. I've been telling all kinds of people he's 21 months but he's actually 20. Oh well. I'm glad he's a month younger than I thought!
My pregnancy so far is going really really smoothly. Praise the Lord! I will be 20 weeks on Tuesday, so I'm halfway there! I can't believe it! We had an ultrasound this past Thursday morning, we did not find out the sex of the baby. And I'm glad we aren't finding out, it is fun this way. But I still kind of want to know. I want to know more with this baby than I did with Tommy! The baby looked beautiful! He/she has really long fingers. They did find one small thing during the ultrasound, it's called a choroid plexus cyst. It's a cyst on the brain, which sounds really bad but it's of no consequence to the brain or the baby's thinking. The cyst is located where the spinal fluid is held and in most babies the cyst disappears but even if it doesn't it will not harm the baby. However, this used to be considered a marker for Down Syndrome and with our history of Tommy having Down Syndrome we will do a special ultrasound to check for any other signs. Our OB does not think that the baby has DS, that's actually one of the reasons they looked at the hands and fingers, to see if they looked shorter (we found that out later). The doctor said she would be shocked if we had another baby with DS and is not concerned about the cyst but it's her job to have it looked into further considering our history. And we actually had planned to have the exact same special ultrasound done for the baby to check out his/her heart b/c of our history and our family history of heart defects. We had the special ultrasound done with Tommy too, and his heart problems didn't show up there. I read a statistic that only 1% of the babies with the cyst end up having DS. So we'll go have the ultrasound done on the 19th of this month, to see if the cyst is still there, and to check out our baby's heart. We are not worried, obviously it is something to think about but we know the Lord is in control and that there's no need to think too much into it until we find out more information.
So this week Tommy's vocabulary has more than doubled, in sign language that is. He now knows 8 signs (and I'm pretty sure this is the order he learned them in) more, daddy, all done, please, dog, eat, mommy, thank you. He also participates in the song, "If you're happy and you know it..." now and he claps his hands, stomps his feet, and pats his head! Tommy is just flourishing and it is such a joy to watch! He has just amazed us with how quickly he is picking up on things and learning to mimic us now. For the longest time he had NO, ZERO, NADA desire to repeat what we were doing, but now he LOVES it, b/c he gets praised when it happens! And he has also developed a little bit of an attitude/temper. When he doesn't get what he wants, especially when eating, he will start to whine/scream/cry. But so far he is responding really well and obeying when I sternly and loudly say, "STOP" and then he stops screaming and I look at him and praisingly say, "GOOD LISTENING!" and he starts smiling and is so proud of himself! I hope he continues to respond well to discipline, as well as responding well to praise! I'd much rather teach him how to behave properly by getting excited over him doing good then having to reprimand him, but I know it's good for him to know boundaries, etc. I do sound like a crazy person though when these times happen - b/c I have to change my tone and sound intentionally stern and then seconds later - smile big and happily say good job! Haha it's pretty funny, but hey it works...for now at least! And when this doesn't work I try to remove him from the situation to distract him, but if either of those don't work we've decided to do time out in his room, but so far we haven't had to do that.
In other news, we are still waiting on cousin Eli to be born! He could be here any day now, and we're all anxiously awaiting for Jeanne's phone call or text to let us know we need to be on our way! We've been able to skype a lot with Aunt Jeanne lately and Tommy loves to stand at the couch and listen and laugh at his aunt! He's been showing off his new signs and song skills!
That's all for now!
My pregnancy so far is going really really smoothly. Praise the Lord! I will be 20 weeks on Tuesday, so I'm halfway there! I can't believe it! We had an ultrasound this past Thursday morning, we did not find out the sex of the baby. And I'm glad we aren't finding out, it is fun this way. But I still kind of want to know. I want to know more with this baby than I did with Tommy! The baby looked beautiful! He/she has really long fingers. They did find one small thing during the ultrasound, it's called a choroid plexus cyst. It's a cyst on the brain, which sounds really bad but it's of no consequence to the brain or the baby's thinking. The cyst is located where the spinal fluid is held and in most babies the cyst disappears but even if it doesn't it will not harm the baby. However, this used to be considered a marker for Down Syndrome and with our history of Tommy having Down Syndrome we will do a special ultrasound to check for any other signs. Our OB does not think that the baby has DS, that's actually one of the reasons they looked at the hands and fingers, to see if they looked shorter (we found that out later). The doctor said she would be shocked if we had another baby with DS and is not concerned about the cyst but it's her job to have it looked into further considering our history. And we actually had planned to have the exact same special ultrasound done for the baby to check out his/her heart b/c of our history and our family history of heart defects. We had the special ultrasound done with Tommy too, and his heart problems didn't show up there. I read a statistic that only 1% of the babies with the cyst end up having DS. So we'll go have the ultrasound done on the 19th of this month, to see if the cyst is still there, and to check out our baby's heart. We are not worried, obviously it is something to think about but we know the Lord is in control and that there's no need to think too much into it until we find out more information.
So this week Tommy's vocabulary has more than doubled, in sign language that is. He now knows 8 signs (and I'm pretty sure this is the order he learned them in) more, daddy, all done, please, dog, eat, mommy, thank you. He also participates in the song, "If you're happy and you know it..." now and he claps his hands, stomps his feet, and pats his head! Tommy is just flourishing and it is such a joy to watch! He has just amazed us with how quickly he is picking up on things and learning to mimic us now. For the longest time he had NO, ZERO, NADA desire to repeat what we were doing, but now he LOVES it, b/c he gets praised when it happens! And he has also developed a little bit of an attitude/temper. When he doesn't get what he wants, especially when eating, he will start to whine/scream/cry. But so far he is responding really well and obeying when I sternly and loudly say, "STOP" and then he stops screaming and I look at him and praisingly say, "GOOD LISTENING!" and he starts smiling and is so proud of himself! I hope he continues to respond well to discipline, as well as responding well to praise! I'd much rather teach him how to behave properly by getting excited over him doing good then having to reprimand him, but I know it's good for him to know boundaries, etc. I do sound like a crazy person though when these times happen - b/c I have to change my tone and sound intentionally stern and then seconds later - smile big and happily say good job! Haha it's pretty funny, but hey it works...for now at least! And when this doesn't work I try to remove him from the situation to distract him, but if either of those don't work we've decided to do time out in his room, but so far we haven't had to do that.
In other news, we are still waiting on cousin Eli to be born! He could be here any day now, and we're all anxiously awaiting for Jeanne's phone call or text to let us know we need to be on our way! We've been able to skype a lot with Aunt Jeanne lately and Tommy loves to stand at the couch and listen and laugh at his aunt! He's been showing off his new signs and song skills!
That's all for now!
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