Opinions Please

Cameron starts 4K tomorrow at the same elementary school where he was in EC. He is going to be fully included in a "typical" classroom and pulled out for therapies.

I just got a message from Cameron's EC teacher who will be helping out in his classroom this year asking me if I wanted her to talk to the classroom about what makes Cameron "special". She indicated that last year they had a little girl who was visually impaired and a little boy who was significally autistic.  Telling the classroom about their differences helped everyone understand and help out if necessary. However, other than being very tiny and his speech a little delayed Cameron is pretty typical.

Although I want the other students to understand I also don't want him to be thought of as different (not yet anyway). The teacher said this in her message that she didn't think it was necessary but wanted to get my opinion.

I would love to get everyone's opinions on this.

Play Doh Fun!

Adjustment Period

I am slowly adjusting to having another child with an extra chromosome. I am actually glad that I did the amnio and have a prenatal diagnosis so that I can adjust to this now and enjoy my princess when she arrives.

I am also becoming excited about having another baby. This will be our last baby and I will be taking the advice I was given with my first one - to enjoy every minute because they grow up so fast. However, our little ones with the extra chromosomes do everything on their time table and usually a little slower than our "typical" children. I really do have the best of both worlds! I see how fast Mitchell is growing up and although he is passing Cameron up with regard to certain things, it reminds me to slow down and not be in such a hurry.

Can someone please remind me how to post pics (do I upload them to Photobucket?)

Concern

Cameron was my first child and I had always planned on nursing. However, with him having Down syndrome and a heart defect that didn't work out so well so I pumped. I HATED every minute of it but knew that I was providing my baby with the best milk possible.

Mitchell was my second child and was born healthy and "typical". I nursed him, only pumping while away at work. I still HATED pumping.

Having the third baby and no longer working I was SOOO looking forward to exclusively nursing her. BUT she, like Cameron, has Down syndrome and a heart defect.

Has anyone successfully nursed a newborn with Down syndrome AND a severe heart defect. I say severe because she WILL require surgery, it's not something that is going to fix itself.

I just remember with Cameron, it was a HUGE challenge to get him to even wake up to take a bottle. Then keeping him awake long enough to finish was challenging also. We had to set our alarm clock every two hours throughout the night to wake him up (taking off all his clothes and sometimes even having to put a little cool water on him to wake him up enough to eat). Repeating the process when he fell asleep before finishing.

Any success stories and/or tips would be GREATLY appreciated.

$50 Gift Certificate Drawing

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Another Update

I had the amnio and she has T21. I know that some parents would embrace this howevever I am devastated. I will grieve and move on and she will be loved and wonderful but right now I'm broken. I keep wondering why can so many people have so many healthy "typical" children and not even appreciate it and here I have two children with Down syndrome. (BTW, we are not carriers).

Brief Update

It has been confirmed that the baby does have an AV Canal (AVSD) which is the same heart defect that Cameron had; and she will need surgery likely at 3 months (same as Cameron).

I don't know whether she has T21 or any other genetic abnormalities as I haven't done an amnio (and don't know that I will).

I'm trying to enjoy my pregnancy and not think about the "what ifs".

On a brighter note, she moves around alot and the nursery is painted! Well, sort of. The bottom is brown and the top is pink BUT I hate the pink (reminds me of Pepto Bismol) so hubby will likely be redoing the pink part to make it a little lighter.

The boys are enjoying talking to and kissing my belly. Mitchell has a cabbage patch doll (that was Dave's) that he takes with him everywhere and says is his baby sister. It's too cute.