Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Happy "Birthday"!

Katelyn Grace is 3 months old today! She's already lived a quarter of a year. Our baby is growing up oh! so fast.

In honor of her birthday, I wanted to share some of the progress (therapy-related and otherwise) she's made since leaving home three weeks ago.

1. The day before she and Mom flew to San Diego, she smiled for the first time! Shannon and Mom were the only ones privileged enough to see her flashing one of those gorgeous smiles before Mom and Katelyn Grace were whisked off to the West Coast.

2. She's rolling over! Mom and Aunt Sharon looked up when non-Down-syndrome babies usually roll over, and Katelyn Grace is at the head of even those babies! Once, when Mom couldn't get to her quite quickly enough, and she was crying, Katelyn Grace turned from her back to her tummy and immediately stopped crying. "Hey," she seemed to be thinking, "I can do this!" So she rolled herself once again onto her back. Then back to her tummy. Back and forth, back and forth. She was just so pleased with herself!

3. The people who stepped us through the neurodevelopmental therapy process for Katelyn Grace said that "tummy time" is essential. Katelyn Grace is now doing some major push-ups that any baby would be proud of!

4. She's talking more. I hear her just goo-goo-ing and cooing over the phone. So precious!

5. Tongue thrusts are very characteristic of Down syndrome babies, and Katelyn Grace is no exception. However, since Mom has been working with her with the neurodevelopmental therapy, stimulating her, the tongue thrusts have decreased significantly!

6. Down syndrome babies have smaller sinuses, so Katelyn Grace's sinuses were not draining properly. Sometimes this kept her awake at night or made her cranky during the day. Mom reports that her sinuses are now significantly clearer!

Please keep Katelyn Grace in your prayers. Pray that she would respond well to the treatments.

Mom is also in need of prayer. Just being away from her family is hard enough on her. She's also having to make many, many decisions. Please pray that the Lord would give her wisdom and discernment.

We thank the Lord for our precious baby!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to let you know I am still praying for Katelyn daily and have added your mom to my list. My brother died suddenly in February and it was not possible for all of us to attend the funeral so I went alone. I've never been away from any of my children for more than overnight and I know how very difficult it was to be gone for the 5 days to attend my brother's funeral. I can't imagine how your mom is feeling right about now. Although I'm thinking that she should be heading home soon-am I right?
At any rate, I wanted you to know that I am praying here in Florida and that I check for posts often-even if I don't always have time to read through them right away, I check and make a note of any requests and then come back later when I have time to read more.
Today we are painting inside (our little girls' room) - we are covered in a haze of smoke from brushfires here, so it's not a nice day to be outside eventhough the weather is very nice (translated:not too hot and humid!).
As much as I enjoy reading about Katelyn and seeing all her pictures, I do enjoy reading about the rest of you too-I really need you all down here to do all that yard work! Our 15 (16 tomorrow) year old does most of our yard work, but I have had the girls out helping me plant flowers. Definitely not a clean job with a 3 and 4 year old, but lots of laughs. :-)
Bless you all-

FitzClan said...

Thank you so much for your prayers. You've been so sweet and kind!

Yes, Mom will be home in exactly one week! (I'll have to mention that in a post!) We are extremely excited and can't wait to see both Mom and our little Katelyn Grace.

It's nice to hear what is going on down in Florida and get a little idea into what your life is like. If you ever decide to start a family blog, please let us know!

~Lauren for "all of us"