Wonderful Weekend!

We had such a great weekend! First of all, our little vacation was exactly what we needed. Poor Patrick, he didn't want to go back to work today. Friday, we went to Mystic Aqaurium and to the Seaport. Of corse Joey slept through the first half of the aquarium. Then Saturday we went to our friend's wedding in Providence, Rhode Island. It was such a beautiful wedding! Joey was the hit of the day! All the women we're crazy about him! He's such a lady's man! On our way home on Sunday, we stopped back in Mystic and walked through some stores.

Friday night in the hotel, Joey had a HUGE breakthrough. He not only discovered that he has a voice and knows how to use it, but also that he can smile! Now he's babbling away! I'm so happy! He's such a little comic! Of corse, everytime he's smiling and I go to take his picture and stops smiling... I'll catch him one day soon! He also discovered mirrors a couple days before our trip and now he loves to watch himself!

Yesterday, we took Joey to the beach for the first time! Of corse the water was too cold to put him in yet, but the look on his face when I put his feet in the sand was priceless!

Sunday was our one year wedding anniversary. I can't believe I've been married for a year. That also means, I've been away from home and my parents for a year. It still doesn't feel like it's been that long. Where does the time go?

Focus of the positives!!

As I was reading an article that RNP's posted in her blog today, I decided to post how this article especially hits a personal note for me and Patrick. As most of you know, Joey too had a pre-natal diagnosis of Down Syndrome. The doctors told me that I had to option of terminating my pregnancy. Just like Harrison in the article, Joey already had his name. Looking at him now (even though he's only 2 1/2 months old), I could never imagine him not being here. Doctors need to focus on the positive, not the negative! There was only 2 doctors during my whole pregnancy that focused on the postitives of T-21. It was usually "you're child will be delayed in learning to walk, talk, ect..." and "your child many have many other birth defects". We were prepared for whatever God decided to throw our way. Fortunately for us, Joey was born perfectly healthy and got to come home from the hospital the same day as me.

I just don't understand how a woman could chose to end an innocent baby's life just because it has down syndrome. There are so many families that are willing to adopt a child with T-21. If you feel you cannot care for a child like this, there is a family that would be willing to. I just don't get it....

?!?!?!?!

It's people like this that truely piss me off...

Why would you steal from an organization that is out to do good?! Grr...

Making up for lost time

This article is such a tear jerker... it just shows how times have changed and society has improved (although it still has much more improvement to go...). Although the person in the article doesn't have T-21, this happened to many T-21 children years ago and it's so sad.

Learning as I go...

Wow, sorry for the lack of updates! Joey is doing pretty good. His acid reflux is slowly starting to get better. Everytime I would lay him down for a nap he would start crying then it hit me... "gee, when my acid reflux kicks in, it kills me to lay down, maybe if I sit him up, he'll feel better!" Sure enough... I sit him on my lap and he goes right to sleep! For naps, now I've been putting him in his baby swing and he loves it. I had his swing reclinded as far back as it would go and he hated it so I adjusted it to a more sitting position and he's fine. He also loves sitting in his high chair watching me in the kitchen too! I love learning new ways to keep him happy!!

The next couple weeks are going to be so busy! My brother in law is graduating from college in Long Island and my sister in law is graduating from college in Rhode Island both on Sunday! It's going to be such a confusing weekend! Half the family is going to one, the other half is going to the other. Then the following weekend, we have a wedding (which is also our first anniversary!) in Rhode Island. So we're going to stay a couple nights for our first family vacation! THEN THE FOLLOWING WEEKEND my other brother in law graduates from high school! BUSY BUSY BUSY!!!

Anyways back to Joey... he's been getting so strong! His therapists are amazed at his strength!!!! He can already hold his head up for about 10 seconds on his own! He's also trying to reach for his feet! His speech therapist wants to start baby signing next week with him. She says he's alert enough to start!

A mad Joey!!!

Me and Joey

Nap Time!!!

Yesterday I took Joey to his 2 month check up and he's up to 9 lbs, 1 oz!! My little guy is growing so fast!!!! He's almost doubled his weight! He's also grown 1/2 inch taller since he was born. The doctor also gave him his vaccinations... poor little guy had a small reaction to them. He had a 101 fever and would barely wake up, scared me to death! So I paged his doctor and he called back and was like, "oh, that's normal, give him tylenol and call back if it doesn't go down". Gee, nice of him to warn us in advance of this! It's so difficult being a first time parent!

Yesterday was Joey's ENT appointment. The doctor didn't want to put him through the stress of looking in his ears and nose. He said his ear canals are still too small and it would hurt him too much. He also said he's not too worried about his hearing until he's around 6 months old. So I have to take him back in November to have everything looked at then. He did say that the noise we've been hearing from Joey that we thought was coming from his sinus is not from there that it's actully acid reflux due to him swallowing too much air when he's eating so now he's on medication for that. And it's actully working! He had been crying a lot and having a lot of gas, today he's already shown improvement! No crying today! Well, at least no gas pain crying, just hunger and poopy diaper crying.

Speaking of the little guy... I hear him waking up so time for a diaper change and bottle!

Our trip to Ohio went wonderful! My family and friends got to see Joey for the first time. My parents had an open house for anyone to come over and see us and it was so nice to see my people I haven't seen since the holidays. Everyone loved Joey to death! Especially my couins Carrie and Sara, and my brother. Here's a picture of Carrie with Joey... He did so good on the plane rides too! He slept almost the whole time and wasn't one of those crying babies that everyone hates to on the plane with. I actully had people commenting me on how good of a baby he is!! I just wish our trip could of lasted longer.

Tomorrow I take Joey to the ENT to see if there's fluid in it. His pediatrician doens't have the equipment to see in his little ear canals. Hopefully we'll get an answer as to why he keeps failing his hearing tests in that ear. He's also been congested since the day he was born so maybe he can help to fix that. I've always had ear/sinus issues myself so it wouldn't suprise me if Joey does too along with the fact that T-21 chldren usually have problems with their ears and sinus too.