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Thursday, May 25, 2006

Sigh of relief

Well, my aunt & sister have arrived in town, so I've given my body permission to go into labor whenever. I have the carseat/stroller, we have a bed for her to sleep in, clothes for her to wear, and people to watch our kids. We're all set.
We seriously thought I might be starting labor last night, but it was just the baby poking at my cervix, nice feeling. But, we're going to be walking a lot & I'm no longer trying to "take it easy". I'm not over-doing it, but I'm also not walking on eggshells. Plus, if I go into labor while doing dishes, I think that's probably a card I could use for awhile.
Sarah's having fun with my sister, as is Emma. Jeff, unfortunately, has to work until the baby actually arrives, so he's missing out on the fun during the day, but he'll be off this weekend.
Emma has a birthday party to attend this Saturday. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. There's supposed to be a thunderstorm tonight (typical summer Michigan weather). But, it's warm, which only means one thing: humidity. Joy. I will be so glad when this baby is out & I can have my normal temperature range back.

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Preggy pics

So, after much questioning by my friends as to when I was going to post some pregnant pictures of myself, we went out today to try & take some decent ones. It was really windy, but the first real nice day in about 2 weeks. It's been raining on & off for what seems like forever, but today was beautiful, if not blustery.


Here's me & my Sarah-bug. She was just too enthralled with the grass, and would barely sit still on my lap. Our friend Amanda made the girls matching shirts/onsies that say "Big Sister", "Middle Sister", and "Little Sister".

This is Emma with her new haircut. Since chopping a bunch off her hair this week, she needed it a bit evened out. We ended up taking about 2 1/2 inches off the ends.

Here are my two beauties! Sarah wouldn't keep her glasses on, and again, just wanted to play on the grass.

I think we may try again another day to go out & take a few more pictures. When it's not so windy and the ground isn't saturated with rain water.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Fun with scissors

I'm sure you're probably thinking, wait a minute, that title doesn't sound very good. You're right, there is really no fun to be had with scissors in the hands of a 6 year who has time to kill. After Emma got home from school yesterday, I told her she needed to clean her room. She went upstairs and proceeded to slowly clean her room. After Jeff got home about an hour later, I was talking to her & noticed her bangs where a little uneven. The I saw that the hair by the side of her face was, too. So, I asked her if she had cut her hair. She feigned ignorance (a favorite past time of hers lately) and said, I don't remember. I'd already not had a happy afternoon, due to issues completely unrelated, so I was not in the mood to play games. I asked her again, and told her if she wanted to still go to her friend's birthday party, she would tell me the truth. She said yes, she cut her hair. I tried very hard not to get angry, and in fact, Jeff & I just had to laugh to ourselves, because the timing could not have been more perfect, in order to help get us out of our funk. So, she can still go to her friend's party, but she's grounded from TV until this weekend.
As for her hair, it's not completely messed up, so I suppose it'll have to wait until this weekend to be fixed as well. She basically just took the top layer of her bangs & cut them about an inch or so shorter than the rest. The sides do look a little funny, so she'll be having her hair up for the rest of the week. I'd take a picture, but my digital camera battery is dead, and I think we left the charger in Detroit. So, I had to order a new one & it hasn't come in yet. I love my children, they keep my life interesting.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Emma's first party

Emma got invited to her first school age birthday party!! She's very excited about it, insisting this morning that she needed to make her friend a birthday card right now! That party is NEXT Saturday, lol. So I told her we had a little time, and that if she did it this morning, the bus might come while she was working on it, and that would interrupt her. I told her she would have plenty of time to do it this weekend.
With it being May and all, I'm really surprised this is the first party she's been invited to. I know her other little friends have had birthdays (they're on our snack calendar) but no invites. I'm not foolish enough to think that my kid should be invited to every party that occurs, but some of these kids were her friend, or so I thought. Oh well, she's going to this one, by hook or by crook! And if I go into labor, SOMEONE will take her. By that time, Judy & Tracey will be here, or I could get one of our friends who are going to watch the girls take her. She is going to this party if it kills me.
Speaking of the baby, I'm 1cm dilated, but that's nothing to get excited about. I was 1-2cm dilated for the last 3 weeks of my pregnancy with Sarah, and I had her the day after her due date. Things are still going on as usual: Sarah has therapy, Emma has school, Jeff has work, and I have housecleaning, fun fun. :)

Friday, May 12, 2006

IEP's, and other acronyms

I have so many acronyms running around in my head every day, you'd think I was trying to communicate in some abbreviated form of English. IEP, PT, OT, ST, DT, DS, ugh. It just doesn't end.
Sarah had her annual IEP today. That's basically where all her therapists get together, discuss with me how she did this year, whether or not she's met her goals that they set last year, and determine if she still qualifies for services. They also tend to throw out age ranges that describe, to what extent, her delays are. For example, her Infant Teacher (the DT in the list above) said her cognitive skills were roughly in the 12-15 month range. That's actually not that bad, but it's still such a solid number, on paper, in triplicate. That goes in her permanent record. At 2 years of age, Sarah has the cognitive abilities of a 1 year old. It's hard for me to grasp this, as I just see her as Sarah, not a number or a description. But, for all the pencil pushers in the Special Ed sector, they need these numbers in order to determine who qualifies for what services.
The good thing is that she's finally going to get Speech Therapy. I've been pushing for this for almost a year. But, was told that Early On in this area didn't offer ST until age 2. I probably could have gone through a private ST, but I don't know if it would have been covered by insurance. She, of course, still qualifies for all her services, and will receive summer services from the Infant Teacher & PT. So, next fall, she'll have 4 therapists working with her. In addition to going to playgroup once a week. We're also planning on her going to preschool (!) next January. There are a couple different classrooms she could go to, but I'm going to push for the one at CMU. They have full time ST, PT, & OT, plus students who are working on getting their degrees in these areas. It's 5 days a week, 2 1/2 hours a day. I'm sure it'll be an adjustment, not just for her :( , but it'll definitely be something to look forward to.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Don't mess with a special needs momma

Someone on one of my Ds boards got arrested this past week. Not for drugs or alcohol or shoplifting. Not for child abuse or domestic violence. She was arrested, booked, strip searched, and had to post bail to get out, over Down syndrome.
She was dining with her family at a restaurant (with the initials IHOP) and there were 3 teenagers sitting behind her. They started making imitations of mentally retarded people and generally making a$$es of themselves. Yelling things like,"I isss hungyyyyy" and pounding their fists on their chests like monkeys. One of the boys said to the other,"Your mom should have aborted you, re*%^d." The woman and her husband, who are embarrassed & angry, tried to go on with their meal, but the kids just didn't stop. She doesn't think they saw her son with Ds sitting there, so at least it wasn't a personal thing. She turned around & politely asked them to stop, that she had a son with Ds, and she thought that was the end of it. Well, then they started singing a "new" version of "The Addams Family", called "The Re*&#ded Family". The woman got up to do speak to the manager, and the boys kept right on going with the imitations & derogatory speech. Well, that was it for the woman, and she slapped one of the boys on the forehead with her open palm, knocking him out of the booth he was sitting in.
The manager put the restaurant in lockdown, like she'd threatened the whole place, and the cops were there within minutes. She was arrested and because she has a blackbelt in karate, she was treated like common criminal. Her family had to post $500 bail, after she was told she might not even be allowed to get out.
Well, after being told to contact the media (because basically what these kids did constituted hate speech) things are starting to heat up a bit. The boys ended up being 17 & 18 (she slapped the 18 yr. old), and the girl who was with them said that they were intoxicated. They were also regulars of the restaurant, and that it seems like the manager was showing preferential treatment by not stopping the harassment sooner. The whole restaurant could hear them, but no one said a thing. The 18 yr old is pressing charges, but the 17 yr old's parents were appalled at their child's behavior, sent an apology, and aren't doing anything.
So, the moral of this story, as of right now, is, don't mess with a special needs momma. I'm very fortunate not to have been put into a situation like this before. If someone says the "R" word around me, I gently try to explain why I don't like it & ask that they choose a different word. I don't advocate violence in any form but, if I were to have been put in this same scenario, I can't guarantee that I wouldn't have done the same, or worse. Nobody messes with my kids. If you do, you risk unleashing the momma bear.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Where do they pick up this stuff???

Ok, about a week & a half ago, Sarah had a huge blow out in her diaper. Actually, she then proceeded to take OFF her diaper & spread the lovliness all over her crib & self. Not fun, for either of us. Two days later, Emma started throwing up, no other symptoms, just projectile vomiting every once in awhile. Four days go by, nothing out of the ordinary. Then, BOTH of them started throwing up. Tuesday night alone, I think I changed about 4 sets of sheets. So, I kept Emma home from school the next day (to her utter distraughtness) and took them to the Pedi's. Sarah had already been scheduled for her 2 year well baby, so it was easy to just add Emma to the agenda. The pedi didn't know what was up, but suggested that they be put on the BRAT (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) diet after 24 hours of clear liquids (jello, gatorade). That lasted all of 36 hours, due to the fact that it's hard to keep kids happy on that diet. So, on Friday, Sarah had an AWFUL diaper. Poor kid was miserable. That night, more puking, 3 times in about 30 minutes. I decided that was enough, and took her to the ER. Someone had mentioned to me, after telling them her symptoms, that she might have rotavirus. Ugh, the one thing I hadn't thought of. So, off we go (it was after midnight, so Jeff stayed home with a sleeping Emma) and after examining her, and hearing what she'd been through in the past week, the PA on call said it was most likely rotavirus. And that Emma probably had it, too, but was able to fight it off easier than Sarah. So, after getting poked in the finger for blood (which, surprisingly she didn't even flinch at), and getting x-rays taken (to make sure she hadn't punctured her bowels), and then getting an IV in her foot (cause her arm wouldn't cooperate) to get some fluids, we were finally allowed to go home (with instructions to do the BRAT diet again, only NO applesauce or bananas) at 5:30am. So, poor Sarah's been having very boring & bland foods since Saturday. No juice, no milk, only Pedialyte, which is EXPENSIVE! And pretty much nothing else but toast, bread, dry cereal, and cooked veggies. I took a chance & gave her some cut up hotdog last night, but she wasn't interested. She only wanted to dip her bun in Emma's ketchup, lol.
So, I've got 5 more weeks left of this pregnancy, if she holds out that long. My aunt & sister are coming out on the 24th of May for 3 weeks!! I'm very excited, and so is Emma. Something tells me Tracey will be sick of being an aunt by the time she leaves; Emma will probably attach herself to Tracey's hip as soon as she gets here. My sister's 20 & goes to school in San Diego at Point Loma Nazarene college. She's never seen a baby born before, so it should be interesting for her, to say the least. She may never want children after this trip, lol.