Backstroke

Special Olympics 2032 ?

Celebrity Status

Owens dad (Col) went to the shops last night to get a few things for dinner, he wasnt' gone long he took Owen with him. And for the first time he really noticed people staring at baby Owen and then looking away - You know the look I mean.

It hurt his feelings, it made him defensive, it made him feel the weight of social judgement of Owen and of himself.

I call it our "CELEBRITY STATUS" people seem to notice us now and some strangers stare in a "trying not to stare kind of way" and when you meet their eyes they quickly look away. I imagine its what celebrities face when they too nick to the shops for milk and bread. Yes its hard to get used to, I know with time we will develop thicker skins, with time we will become immune to the stare or we just won't care anymore - imagine that !

In the mean time at least there's no photos to document our bad hair days, tracksuit pants and muffin tops !

Crawling Track Ideas

Owen has been sitting for 6 months now but has not made any big move toward creeping or crawling.

Now none of my kids have been especially motor motivated, they are more the "observant, nerdy, book reading" types. But Owen is bored of sitting and once he has thrown everything out of his reach he whinges and grizzles until someone gets him something else to play with !

I first read about a crawling track on Unforseen gifts http://unforeseengifts.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-we-built-our-crawling-track.html

and took a leap and made one.

Now at first Owen could only push himself down backwards, after a week or so he got the creeping forward motion going (with his favourite toy at the bottom for motivation) things were going well for a few weeks but then he would just roll onto his back and refuse come down the track.

Anyhow today I went to http://trisacharm.blogspot.com/2008/11/patience.html and in it I saw Joaquin looking up at his wall as he was coming down the track so I had this idea to put the track next to the fridge so Owen could see and play with he second favourite toy as he was coming down the track and had his fav. toy at the bottom. SUCCESS he is staying on his tummy right to the bottom.

see why I love the DS blogging community so much !

Sitting pretty.

Owen is sitting up on his own from lying down ! (adjusted) he is 13 and a half months old)

And I missed it the first time
I had laid him down on the floor and turned away to start dinner and when I turned back just a few moments later there he was sitting up and giving himself the biggest, happiest, clappiest cheer ever.

In the past three days he has worked and worked so hard and has it almost perfected, it is such a huge effort for him - damm those short arms - he still cheers himself everytime !

'xuse the cheeky video !

Baby Wearing

I have an Ergo baby carrier nowas Owen is nearly 11kgs ! I have been through 3 different carriers intially he was just in my arms then he went into a sling then a front pack with his legs dangling down andnow the ergo (his legs wrap around me I have carried him all his life - but a lot less now that he can sit and play with toys.

When he was born 6 weeks early he used to have apnea events, he would turn ahorrible dusky blue but I found that by wearing him he would not have theseturns as often and if he did I just had to jiggle him and he would remember to breathe.

Then when he was 6 weeks (adjusted) he went into heart failure I carried himall the time and we slept together - I think it was comforting for both of us. After his open heart surgery he got RSV and we were in and out of hospital (between july and october last year) but I found that being upright in thebaby carrier helped him to shift the mucus in his lungs and I could keep aclose eye on how well he was breathing and if he needed ventolin.

And the baby carrier has allowed me to keep up with Cyrus (they are just 16 mths apart).

I think there is just so much sensory input when you wear a baby -the movement, the deep pressure and warmth of your body on theirs, the sound of yourvoice and heart - good for any baby but especially for our baby's with DS.

I am a convert (can you tell) LOL. I have never worn any of my other babies but I wish I had.

Tai Chi Hands

Owen he has what the Ped calls a "habit spasm" its like he gets a moment of too much tone if he is overexcited, overtired or frustrated - he rolls his eyes to the top of his head and stiffens his legs and arms and groans - it is somewhat upsetting as he is doing it alot at the moment. He has also started rocking when he is sitting, he has his legs out in front and hands on his thighs and rocks. He also loves to look at lights and loves to watch his hands and it looks like he is doing Tai Chi.

I have never seen or heard anyone else talking about strange behaviours of their kids with DS and I worry that Owen has something else going on like autism.

In other areas (except gross motor skills) he is progressing well he has over 10 signs, is vocal and communicative and has reasonable fine motor skills. How do I manage these behaviours - should I interupt him when he is doing it or is that rewarding the behaviour ?

I have been wondering do all or alot of babies with DS have these strange behaviours? I have heard it said that people with DS can have autistic like behaviours without being autistic and still be very capable and independant - just quirky.

I waver between not worrying about the "quirks" and being in a panic about them - it probably depends on how much sleep I have had !