Snowed In!

Well, yesterday morning I woke up feeling worse than the other days. My head was killing me and I could barely breathe. I called my doctor and got the last appointment available for the day. 12:45. I knew that we had a winter storm heading our way but thought I could get back and forth before it got too bad. WRONG! I left a little after 10am to drop Joey off at my in-laws and by the time I got there, the roads were AWFUL! I slid past my in-laws driveway, slid past their neighbors, got turned around in the next street and went to pull into their driveway. My van went sideways and I slid into the guardrail across from their driveway. Thank goodness I was only going about 2mph and did no damage to my van and didn't even wake Joey up from his nap. So I back up and pull into their driveway. Almost 20 minutes later I walk in the door. I kept sliding and getting stuck in the driveway (what a mess!!). No one was home at their house yet so no one heard me trying to get up the driveway which was good due to the fact I was in no mood to talk to anyone after that ordeal. There's one thing I've learned from that experience... new, better tires on my van by next winter!!!

So needless to say, I called and canceled my doctor's appointment. There was no way I would have made it to my doctor's office. Throughout the day, I started feeling worse and worse. Thankfully I had my mother in law and sister in laws to take care of Joey. The snow was falling my the inches which followed in the evening with sleet and a lovely layer of ice. My husband got off work at 2:30 and the usual 20 minute drive to his parents house took him almost 2 hours!! We decided to stay put to see if the weather was going to let up at all. By 9pm, still coming down hard. So we decided to stay the night. It iced all through the night and into the early morning.

This afternoon the sun is finally out and melting the ice down some. We'll hopefully leave here soon to go back to our house and feed my poor little fishies! What a way to spend our St. Patrick's Day, snowed in!!!

I'm feeling MUCH better today, actually about 75% better. I felt so sick yesterday, miserable, down right miserable. Thankfully much better now!!

One Year Checkup

Joey and I just got back from his one year check up with his pediatrician. Things are looking great! He's 18 pounds, 3 ounces and is 28 inches tall! He also got 3 vaccinations which he wasn't too happy about getting. Dr. B was thrilled with how well Joey is doing.

Did I mention he's starting to stand?! He can't pull to stand yet, but if you stand him up next to the couch, he's holding himself up for about 30 seconds at a time. Joey's PT about had a heart attack today when she was working on his standing. He also wants to crawl so bad, but instead of pushing off with his knees, he tries to use his foot and falls back down. He'll get it soon enough!!

I've had a darn cold the past couple days and it's driving me crazy. Whenever I think it's getting better, I start feeling like crap again. It just stinks since I'm pregnant, I can't really take anything besides Tylenol and benadryl to feel better. I can't even take a nice, hot bath (lord, what I would pay right now to soak in a nice hot bath!)

Also, I forgot last week that I promised pictures of Joey in his new bath seat. He absolutely loves the thing! I think he'd stay in the bath for a hour if we'd let him!!

More hives...

My poor little guy has even more of these hives/ rash that last night. The ones he did have yesterday have tripled in size and there's more. Luckily, there's none on his face, but he now has them on the back of his neck up into his hair. I feel so bad for him but it doesn't seem to be bothering him too much. I'm going to call his pediatrician at 9:00 when he opens to see if there's anything else to do since they've gotten worse. I just feel so helpless, I hate it when Joey is sick!

My poor boy!

I noticed Joey had two little pink bug like looking spots on his rear end this morning and didn't think much about it. We took a trip to the mall and a hour after we were there, I went to change Joey's diaper to see that his crotch and rear end were broke out in a rash and that there was a few bumps forming on his belly. So, naturally I decided it was time to leave and when I got out to the van I called Joey's pediatrician who told us to come straight over. By the time we got there, Joey had these little bumps going up his belly and on his neck. It's not chicken pox, mumps, from teething, I didn't change any soaps or detergents, or any type of allergy, Doc B said that it's a viral infection of some sort and to give him benadryl. I just hope it doesn't get any worse before it gets better!

Not again...

Well, I thought Joey and I were safe from this flu bug. I was hoping it was the same strain that we already had, but it seems like it's not. Joey has started vomiting again and I'm getting nauseated. Poor little guy has already puked 3 times. I'm just hoping that mine is from me being pregnant and not another case of the flu! Wish us luck!

Mmmmm, formula!

Yesterday I started Joey back on solid foods, poor little guy hasn't been able to eat any food or drink formula since he had the flu last week. He's been on a clear liquid diet. And finally this morning he had a "good poop" so I gave him a bottle of formula and boy did he ever enjoy it. I've felt so bad the past well, almost week. I felt like I was starving the poor little guy but everyone I would give him formula, hours later he would have the most awful diarrhea ever. And if I gave him food, he would vomit it back up. So, yesterday I started him on applesauce and cereal and it did the trick! Yay for a good, no yucky poop!

Speaking of that nasty flu that Joey and I both got last week in Ohio, my hubby came home from work today with it. It's definitely going around, now the ugly booger has invaded my in-laws house too! You know it's bad when schools close due to it!

We're back!

Well after a long sick week, we're back! Our week didn't go anywhere near what it was planned to be. The first weekend went great! Tuesday morning about 4 am, I wake up to Joey crying and his bed covered in vomit. So, we took it easy Tuesday and late afternoon I thought he was feeling better so I gave him some baby food. Bad idea.... poor little guy puked all over me twice, the second time choking on it so my father and I took him to Dayton Children's Hospital. In the mean time, I hadn't been feeling too hot all day, but I figured it was me just being pregnant and thought nothing of it. Well, we get to the ER to find out that it was FULL of sick babies with the same thing wrong as Joey. So after sitting there holding the little guy for a hour, I was so nauseated, I had to hand him over to my dad. My mom arrived after she got off of work and took over holding Joey. After 2 hours, we got called back. Once in the room, I started vomiting. The good news was the Joey didn't aspirate. So needless to say, the next couple days were full of me feeling lousy and poor little Joey not able to keep anything down but pedialite. Of course none of our family wanted to be around us except my poor dad who also caught it. Hopefully our next trip will go better.

Well, I'm off to call Joey's pedi to see what the heck to do with Joey. Yesterday I gave him formula for the first time in the airport so he wouldn't scream his head off on the plane and now he has diarrhea again.

But we didn't get to do all the fun things that were planned for our trip and we barely got to see anyone that we were suppose to see. At least I got to see my brother and his wife, and my grandma!

Also, while in the ER, the doctor there detected a very slight heart murmur in Joey's heart. I called Joey's Dr the next day and he said that he was aware of it. Why didn't he tell me about it!? He says it nothng to worry about, but I would have still liked to have known about it!

I need relief!

I used to enjoy wearing perfume and scented lotions, now I can barley walk through the perfume section of my favorite stores without sneezing 10 times. I would always wear my favorite perfume, Miracle, but now it's just a pretty bottle sitting on my dresser along with my Bath & Body Works lotions. I can't even light my favorite candles anymore without getting a headache and sneezing! Gotta love allergies that arrived in my early twenties. Medication doesn't even help me sneezing to my favorite scents! These allergies have also brought on a new enemy... mold! In November, my allergies seemed to be getting better in that department after our first freeze. WELL, thanks to the past couple weeks of the temperature being in the 50's, 60's and even last weekend in the 70's, my friend, Allergy has reappeared. I've been sitting here sneezing my head off for the past couple weeks. We had a freeze last night so I'm hoping for some relief in the near future. Not to mention, I'm running low on Kleenex!

Dental info

I was doing my daily search of DownSyn last night when I came across this article. It's from the Nation Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research and it's about practical oral care for people with down syndrome. It has some pretty interesting information for anyone who's not read it yet or that might be interested in it.

Surgery update

Joey's surgery went very well. His ears were full of fluid & wax but unfortunately, his ears canals are still too small for tubes. So the doctor cleaned his ears out and the audiologist did his hearing test. His right ear is still perfect, his left is good but not perfect. The audiologist compared it to someones eyes starting to go bad, but not needing glasses yet. So we have to go in every year now for an annual hearing test and maybe in the future, he might need a hearing aid.

He woke up just fine after his trip to the OR. He was so unlike most of the other babies in recovery. It seemed like all the other babies were crying and screaming. There was Joey, happy as can be, blowing bubbles at everyone who walked by. HE'S SUCH A TROOPER!

Joey's ENT is planning on scheduling another ear cleaning the same day as Joey's circumcision in April to do another ear cleaning and possibly then tubes.

Tomorrow

Well tomorrow is Joey's surgery. Hopefully he won't have to get the tubes. Hopefully, they'll go in and any fluid is no longer in his ears and he'll pass the hearing test. If that's the case, no tubes. If there's fluid, he will get the tubes and then they'll do the brainstem hearing test while he's still asleep. We have to be at the hospital at 6:30am which means we have to get up extra early! Which us luck tomorrow and be sure to say a little prayer for Joey!

Joey update!

Geez, I've been so focused on other things lately Ive not had a true Joey update post! He's doing so good! He's finally feeling better and back to himself after our little trip to the ER the other day. He's not liking to take his antibiotics very well though.

Did I mention when they weighed him at the hospital that he weighs 16 lbs 8 oz?!?! He's getting so big! He grew out of his 6/9 month clothes and is already in 12 month clothes!

I can't believe he turns 9 months old tomorrow. The months just keep flying by! Before I know it, he's going to be 1 year old!

He's doing such a goof job with his sitting. He sits up for about one minute now, sometimes longer. I had him sitting next to me on the couch last night watching TV and he was so excited just sitting there next to me. I wish my husband would have been home to grab a picture of it.

He's still not doing much in the way of crawling. He wants to so bad! He gets up on his knees then falls down and rolls over. He'll get it soon. His PT has been working on it with him.

Friday, we have another trip to the hospital but this time instead of the ER, we're going to the OR. Joey's ENT wants to knock him out since he can't see inside of Joey's ear canals and since he keeps failing his left sided hearing tests. The ENT wants to be able to get a good look inside of them, if there's fluid clean it out, put in tubes if needed and while he's still sleeping, have the audiologist do the brainstem hearing test. This will determine if he keeps failing the test due to fluid or an actual hearing loss. I'm hoping for the fluid well actually I'm hoping that if it was fluid that it's disappeared since his last hearing test and that he won't need tubes at all! But with the size of his tiny ear canals, I doubt it.

One of those days...

Sorry I haven't posted since Friday, we had a BUSY weekend! My best friend from Ohio flew in and then the 2 of us went and picked up are other friend who is stationed in Groton at the Navy base. Anyways, it was a great weekend. I really needed to see someone from Ohio.

Last night Joey started getting sick. Running a fever, and cranky. Gave him some tylenol and put him to bed. He woke up a 2:30 crying and still had a fever. More tylenol. Woke up this morning still with a 102 fever and crying. I called his doctor and he told me to go ahead and take him to the ER. After bloodwork, labs, ect, it came up that Joey has a bad UTI. So now he's on antibodics and still feeling crumy but seems like he's doing a little better.

On the way home from the hospital, I called my OB to see if they could get me in sooner than my appointment next week or make me an appointment with someone to talk to about my miscarrage. I can't sleep very well at night and I've been crying whenever something reminds me of my baby. Needless to say, I'm a wreck! I also asked if they got the pathology results back from why my little baby didn't survive. The results are in and the receptionist said someone would call me. Well, it's 6:41 and no one called! I'm not too happy about that.

Geez, I can't wait till I can go to bed and hopefully tomorrow Joey will feel better and maybe I'll get some answers about my little baby.

Fever blues

My poor little guy has had a fever all day today. At one point, it was up to 102 degrees. He's been crying and just not happy at all. He got his flu shot 2 days ago, so I'm guessing that it's the reason why. He's been asleep more today than he's been awake. I've been giving him tylenol every 4 hours in hoping to break this fever, but so far, no good. I just want to cuddle him and make it all better!

Thank You!

I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers over the past couple days. Just knowing I have people out their praying for us really has helped to get through this. My mother flew in from Ohio and that has also helped tremendously. There's nothing better than having your own mom to comfort you, no matter how old you are. I'm doing a lot better than what I thought I would be doing. I still feel lost, but I'm sure that it will take a long time to heal mentally from something like a miscarriage. I know part of me will never heal, but knowing that my little baby is up in heaven, helps. Thank you again for everyone's thoughts and prayers.

But the good news is, that my doctor said that we only have to wait 2 months before I can get pregnant again, so keep your fingers crossed that we'll be expecting again very soon!

This is probably the most difficult and painful post I've ever had to write. I'm miscarrying my baby. I feel so lost. I can't even think straight. I don't know what to do or say. I've never felt so lost in my life. I know God has other plans for my little baby, I just don't understand. Why me? Why did God have to pick my baby? Hopefully my baby will become Joey's guardian angel and watch after him as he grow up. But I just still don't understand. I will be taking a couple days away from posting on my blog, but please pray for me, Patrick, Joey and my little baby.

I-teeth oh my!

Well, little Mr. Joseph has decided to start the teething process. He has all 4 of his I-teeth coming in. They haven't broken through yet, but he has 4 lumps where they belong and the bottom two are much further along than the top. Poor little guy, I've heard that those teeth are the most painful when coming in, and lord knows how long it's going to take for them to come in, but hopefully it'll be sooner than later. The funny thing is that he's going to look like a little vampire! He has none of his front teeth yet. The bottom left one looks to be the closest. Let the teething begin!!!

Convention 2006

Yesterday was the CDSC's annual convention and it was a blast! Not only did we learn a lot more but we got to meet Chris Burke. His band performed and it was awesome! They actually had my mother in law dancing along to their music. We went to three different workshops.

The first workshop we all went to was on Oral Motor Therapy and its importance to speech production and clarity. I didn't realize that when I signed us all up for it, that it was Lori Overland's assistant so we pretty much got a repeat of when we went to see her a couple weeks ago. But it was still useful information.

The second workshop we all went to was on Otolaryngology (ENT) issues in children with down syndrome. We got so much more information on what to expect from Joey's upcoming procedure with his ears. The doctor who was there speaking agreed with our doctor about getting Joey's ears done now and also gave us some more advice. Like, did you know that instead of using Q-tips to clean out ears that it's better to use a dropper and put one or two drops of baby or mineral oil into someones ear to clean out the wax? I had no clue!

The third workshop my mother in law and I went to was on Medical Issues in Children and Infants With Down Syndrome. This was was also very informative. The doctor gave us more advice on Joey's problems with his constipation. While we went to that workshop, Patrick and my father in law went to a workshop on a due process primer. Since Patrick is an attorney, he wanted to hear what the other attorneys had to say about IDEA and other laws pertaining to children with disabilities.

Unfortunately, our forth workshop was canceled due to a death in the speakers family, it was suppose to be on Early Elementary Language. But we were all so tired, that we just decided to cut the day early and go home. We had been there since 8am and by that time it was 3:00.

Also, the keynote speaker, Steve Riggio gave a great talk about his daughter and their struggles with inclusion and other everyday difficulties. But I still think the highlight of my day was meeting Chris Burke!

Ok, just a quick update. Unfortunatly, Joey's urologist still wants to wait till he's a year old for the circumsision to apparently "let him develop more". I wanted to get it done now since at a year, he'll probably be able to take off his diaper and/ or rip off any bandage that might be on his little man parts. Oh well, I'm not too happy about having to have him put under twice in 4 months, but I'll have to live with it. Anyways...

Tommorow is the Connecticut Down Syndrome Congress's annual convention and I can't wait! It's from 8am-4pm so it's going to be a long day but worth it. We've signed up for 4 different workshops that focus on various issues with infants with Down syndrome. Also, the keynote speakers are Chris Burke and Steve Riggo who has a daughter with DS and is the vice chair for Barnes & Nobles. This is going to be such an interesting day! I can't wait! Hopefully tomorrow evening I'll have a recap of what all went on!

Thank goodness, yesterday was hay fever. Whenever it's really windy, it seems to flare up. I never thought I would want a major freeze, but we need a freeze to kill whatever is making my sinuses go crazy!

I just looked back on my posts from last week and realized that I never posted on the progress with Joey's helmet... his head has already had a 4mm change! The helmet lady was very surprised to see that big of a change already. She said he might not even have to wear it for 13 weeks now, it might be shorter!!

We had a great weekend. We went to a friend's Halloween Party in Massachusetts and had a great time. They had an extra room so we brought Joey's pack n play & monitors and spent the night. It was nice being able to be at a party and check on Joey all at the same time. Patrick and I dressed up like pirates and of corse my camera batteries went dead before I was able to get a picture of us! Hopefully someone else took one!

Well, I guess that's it for now!