Baby Hulk ~ Toddler Group

     Arden was too excited about starting his first day of toddler group today. After 2 failed signs I finally spelled everything right and managed to get it to all fit on the third piece of construction paper. And then he wouldn't let me take pictures!

No time to hold signs! Lets go!

     We arrived at the church where Toddler Group is held. We were the first ones there and the office ladies didn't seem to know what was happening. As the office lady was about to take me back to the class I reminded her I was pretty sure I was suppose to sign in. I wonder if my being 5 minutes early threw her off because there was indeed a sign-in sheet right there on her desk and I had been told ahead of time I would need to sign in. I signed us in and she walked us down the hall where we ran into Teacher Barb! She greeted us, made us name tags, and showed me a cubby to put my bag in. Then we played in the classroom as the other toddlers showed up with their moms, and one "nana".
     Arden was the only toddler with Down syndrome in the group. I have to say I was a little disappointed. I would really like to be able to get to know some other kids his age with Down syndrome, but the local Up With Down Syndrome group is run by an older couple whose kids are all adults now so I just don't think they even think about how important that might be to others. There was one little boy who will be 3 soon, but I think everyone else was closer to Arden's age, though I am pretty sure he was still the youngest. There were 2 sets of twins out of 7 kids in the class! I wondered if they were just preemies and needed a little extra help. One of the sets of twins I had actually met before in my babywearing group! I am pretty sure the little girl has spina bifida. I thought I saw a scar on her lower back at one of the babywearing meetings, and she uses a walker and has leg braces. She also has the best little chuckle ever. Her twin brother is the sweetest little boy I think I have ever met. He just walked right up to me and wrapped his arms around my legs and laid his head on me while I was just standing there not even paying him any attention! The other set of twins will be 2 in a couple of weeks so I believe they were the closest in age to Arden. Their names were Jane and John and I couldn't help but giggle to myself and wonder if their last name was Doe. Arden played with the Doe's the most and really seemed to like their momma. She was fun and young and actually interacting and playing with all the kids not just her own.
     We played around the room for about 15 minutes and then Teacher Barb rang a bell. We cleaned up our toys and then all came to the middle of the floor and sat in a circle around a hula hoop. We sang songs and learned signs for parts of the songs. Then we played with a koosh ball in a toy frying pan. After that it was snack time. The kids all sat down at a crescent shaped table washed hands and passed out bowls and spoons. Teacher Barb sat across from them at the center of the table and dropped little dollops of apple sauce in their bowls as they ate and passed out pieces of graham crackers. Then she passed out cups and poured in about a tablespoon of water as they finished up eating. Jane Doe kept pouring her water into Arden's cup secretly and then asking for more. Only Arden and I seemed to be onto her sneaky ways.
     After snack we all went out into the hallways where there was a line of trikes against the wall. The children were all supposed to pick out a trike and ride down to the gym but in the chaos Arden ran ahead and followed Teacher Barb's helper with the basket of balls instead. Arden loved the big gym. It echoed and he ran around yelling the whole time he played enjoying the sound it made.

     Finally it was time to go back to the class. It was sand table time. Arden was the only one there who just couldn't refrain from throwing sand and dumping it on the floor so Teacher Barb stood behind him to encourage the not so messy kind of sand play for the remainder of the time. 

       Then it was time to go! We gathered around the hula hoop one more time and sang goodbye to everyone.

"Goodbye, Arden. Goodbye, Arden. Goodbye, Arden. It's time for you to go."

     It was a 2 hour class full of fun an excitement and Arden was totally exhausted by the time we got to the car. He was passed out before we were even halfway home and took a nice 2 hour nap.

     I am pretty excited to have this become part of our week! He had a blast and I had a pretty fun time watching him get to play with other kids his age. It has been hard filling the time when his big brothers are at school. I can only read him so many books and I'm no good at the crazy wrestling play he does with his brothers. This is one day a week I wont have to worry about boring him to death.

No more PT?

Yay! BACK TO SCHOOL!!!!!! The first day was Sept 3rd and I was sooooo ready for it! I still managed to get all emotional walking Ephraim up to the school for his first day of kindergarten. My nose got all itchy and everything (that's how we heartless people cry in case you didn't know)! But summer break is just WAY too long! We were all ready for a break from each other. Before we headed out to school  I took all the first day of school pictures of the big brothers. 

 Arden snuck into Nolan's shot looking like Chucky...

...So I was more than happy to oblige when Russell asked me to take pictures of Arden for his first day back to Physical Therapy today! Made him a sign and everything! He was pretty excited to get his own sign and knew exactly what he was supposed to do with it.

As we waited to check in for PT we ran into another mom with a 2 1/2 year old little boy with Down syndrome. He wasn't yet walking. I felt guilty telling her when she asked, that Arden wouldn't be two until November as he was excitedly running down the hall to go find his beloved room of fun. Ms. Annie was amazed by his progress and how strong he is. After she bragged about him to all the other therapists as they passed by, she told us she didn't need to see us anymore! Just a quick visit every couple of months so we can see how he is progressing! What!? I mean I know he is doing awesome and all that, but we love Ms. Annie! We missed our appointments over the summer!
     I guess, in the early intervention program, once they are established in walking they just send them on their way.
     Instead of PT Arden will be starting Toddler Group next Wednesday! Apparently it is kind of like preschool and sounds super fun.  I guess I'll be making a new "first day"sign! This feels more like a real first day of school anyways. I hope he loves it just as much as he loved PT.

I hope everyone had a great summer and hopefully now that I only have one child to entertain during the day I can get back to this blogging business!

Baby Hulk ~ He Don't Need Yo Affirmation

     Lately I have been getting extra annoyed with the things people say to me about Baby Hulk or others with Down syndrome. It has taken a while to figure out why that it is. I have always gotten these comments so why is it bothering me so much now? There is the "God only gives special children to special people" (don't even get me started on that one!) and "Oh people with Down syndrome are always so happy" I have seen blog posts by other parents of kids with Down syndrome upset by all the things people say and I just finally realised why these things people say piss me off so badly. I figured it out shortly after I received some newspaper clippings about how scientists have figured out how to "turn off" the extra chromosome. Why do we need to fix my baby? He is fine. That's when I figured it out. It's like people feel the need to find some way to make things better, to make my baby's extra chromosome a positive thing. Sure in the beginning these comments were good. I was freaked out and upset and needed comforting but my child is 10 months old now! I'm over it and I love the crap out of that kid and he can kick your baby's ass any day! My baby is awesome and I don't need your positive spin on things, random stranger! I already know my baby is awesome. It would be like me coming up to you giving you a sideways, pitying smile and telling you, "Awe, all the blonde babies I know are always so agreeable!" ...yup... dumb.

     So please. I don't need you to try to make things better. My kid is awesome. It is nothing to be sad about.



     Baby Hulk is 10 months old now! He is soooo close to being mobile. He gets onto hands and knees and just bounces but still only goes backwards when he tries to crawl. He will travel across the living room backwards and often gets stuck under the coffee table. He claps too! Hooray! We are working on signing now. He doesn't sign back but understands some of the signs, like when I sign "mama milk" to nurse. He has signed milk a couple of times but I don't think he sees why he should have to when he knows I already know exactly what he wants. So if I sign, "milk" and try to get him to sign it back he just gets mad and screams at me as if to say, "Woman, you know what I want, now give me the boobies!" I am pretty sure he understands the sign for"no" too but what kid ever listens to that anyways?

     September 19th the South Puget Sound Up With Down Syndrome group had their first meeting after summer break and we finally decided it was time to see what they were all about. Darling Husband has gone to a couple of their board meetings to talk about his car event he put on but this was the first family friendly meeting for us. It was held at the Hands on Children's Museum. They brought pizza for everyone talked a little about the Buddy Walk that is coming up October 5th in Lacey, WA and then we all got to mingle and the kiddies played. I wasn't nervous to be going. Darling Husband kept asking me if I was. I really wasn't. Then we got there and I met a horribly tacky woman. Okay I never actually met her. I think she formed her opinion of me the moment she saw my LGBT Obama sticker on my car. She didn't look at me once. Just very loudly told her husband about the hilarious bumper sticker the other day that she totally forgot about (until she saw my bumper sticker of course)! "Ahoihoihoi (do that laugh in that hoity toity my feces have no odor kind of way) Oh honey, I saw the funniest bumper sticker the other day! It said Obama Bin Laden! Ahoihoihoi!!!" That tacky woman's poor husband looked soooo uncomfortable. Way to welcome the new people to the group, lady! To make matters worse with that semi racist comment, her son with Down syndrome is adopted... I know this because he is black.
     So we started on that note and then I was nervous! I really hadn't been before but then I realised the thing we all shared in common, the reason we were all meeting here was not going to be enough of a reason for some to be friendly and get along. I was on edge when we got to the room, it was back to reality and these were just people... I don't like people. They do what I was now doing, they judge. They see my blurple and pink afro and my kooky baby carrying ways and they make assumptions. I did the same. We had pizza, I honestly have no idea what that horrible woman did the rest of the night My slight terror of the whole thing kind of gave me tunnel vision and then I found families who were nice. After I made my assumptions I decided the people with the child in an ergo carrier were my people, they wear their kids in hip friendly carriers... Nope my thoughts of how things would go were wrong again. I need people to make the first move, they didn't so we never spoke. Another woman did engage me though. A woman who had somehow seen pictures of Baby Hulk in his hip helpers. I wanted to ask how she had seen pictures of him before but I didn't want her to feel like a creeper... I am a creeper myself so I personally don't think it is a bad thing but I know others do. I didn't want to call out her creeperness. She was nice but I think I was too young of a mom for her. When I told her how old I was she seemed to kind of backed off and started talking to another mom closer to her age. Oh well. Her loss I suppose. Baby Hulk and I spent the rest of the time hanging out on the floor playing with toys.

      I am glad we went though. I don't think I met any potential new BFFs but it was nice to meet the other families and also really nice to see how Lumpy and Mr. Grey interacted with the other kids. I already knew Lumpy would do fine since Tsunami is in his preschool class this year. He loves her and is always playing with her but I haven't ever seen Mr. Grey around another kid with Down syndrome. I was so happy to see him playing with one of the little boys there. He played nicer than usual even. He would hand balls to the little boy he was playing with so he could put it in the tube that sucks them up. He didn't even ask why the little boy had a tube in his nose or anything like I know I would have as a kid. He just played with him! All in all it was a good night.
     I can't wait for the Buddy Walk! Find your local Buddy Walk! If it hasn't happened already GO!

Baby Hulk ~ Service Baby

     Since school let out I have become quite familiar with anxiety attacks. It's pretty bad... like if I were a sane person I would be seeing a therapist and probably be medicated. There is a giant invisible gorilla with his big hands around my neck!!! But I have my own stress reliever. Baby Hulk. He's like a service animal. I should get him a special vest so I can take him into restaurants with me and... oh wait... he is a human baby... he can come into restaurants with me... Well... he needs a vest anyways.
     So when I get out of the shower to discover the other bathroom's floor has been flooded and Lumpy and Mr Grey are using soaked stuffed animals like water balloons, or when Mr Grey and Lumpy climb onto the super high exam table  and then Mr Grey sends Lumpy plummeting to the ground while Baby Hulk's pediatrician watches, in horror. Or the spitting, or the biting. Lumpy opening the door with the red warning on the handle that tells you it is for emergency use only and an alarm will sound! Refusing to stay in their room and running through the house screaming hours after bedtime... When I am to the point where the invisible gorilla is strangling me, I pick up my sweet, good, Baby Hulk, hug him tightly and breathe in deeply, his sweet barfy baby scent. It took me a while to figure out why my baby didn't have that baby smell. Then around four months he started spitting up and suddenly he smelled like a baby! I pick up my sweet baby and a sense of calm washes over me. The gorilla doesn't entirely let go, once it starts he pretty much hangs on until an hour or so after the kids are asleep. But suddenly I don't want to beat them as much. I can think clearly enough to send them to the playroom (I know I never gave you the tour of my new house but it has a playroom... with a door... that I can close).

     On July 3rd Darling Husband took off from work early and we loaded everyone into the car and drove to Bellevue for an ophthalmology appointment for Baby Hulk, all my baby sitter options were unavailable with Buttons out traveling and my poor Momma Pru managed to get pneumonia! Since the monsters were coming I needed wrangling help after that embarrassing ordeal with the pediatrician I was not going at this one alone! So it became a family outing!
     The doctor noticed something Baby Hulk's physical therapist had just been calling torticollis, a slight head tilt, only she had speculations that it might not really be torticollis. She thought it might actually be a misalignment of his eyes!   Baby Hulk really hated the doctor, she kept trying to straighten his head so she could get a look at his eyes and he fought her the whole time and every time she turned her back on him he had quite a lot of horribly rude things to say (I am certain if The Doctor had been there to translate, since he speaks baby, there would have been a lot of bleeping). By the end of the appointment he was extremely cross with her and she had no answers. She wants us to set up another appointment with her in 3 months... le sigh...
     Oh! And do you know how they fix a misalignment? SURGERY!!!! I hope his physical therapist is right. She doesn't think his eyes are the problem. She knows she isn't an eye doctor, but she has worked with a baby who had an eye misalignment before and she says it was completely different. I was already a bit in denial that anything was really wrong with his eyes, but having her say that may have made it worse. I had pretty much given up on the doom. There will be no doom! My baby is healthy as an ox!

     Playing defense for his brothers is serious business so Baby Hulk has had to do some serious working out so he can take on the evil Mommy. He has been working on bulking up and as of 7 months this kid now weight 13lbs 6oz! ...Yeah... that's still tiny huh? And he is a little over 24" long!!!!! Yeah... that's still tiny too... But if you enter in all his stats into the Down syndrome growth chart... well it's still tiny... He is in the 16th percentile for height, and 22nd for weight, BUT he is in the 56th percentile for head circumference! That's just on his own special growth chart. Plug those measurements into the regular growth chart and it comes up "less than 3rd percentile" for both weight and height and 6th percentile for head circumference. Tiny!!!! My 7 month old has hand me downs from a 2 month old! He is between 0-3mo and 3-6mo clothing depending on the brand.
     It's kind of weird, but because of his size it doesn't at all feel like there is anything different about my baby. He looks like he should be doing what he is doing developmentally. He looks like a little baby who should just be learning how to sit unsupported, and chewing his toes. When I look at my other friends' babies I can't imagine him doing the things they are doing at 7 months. Pulling up and cruising and such. He is too tiny! He is just a baby!
      Just when I started to think the amazing and obvious changes and strides he was making in his physical therapy were slowing down, last week happens! He still is only prop sitting, but has gotten so good with it now that he can shift his weight around from one hand to the other so he can play with his toys with the free hand. He rolls to his tummy like it's nothing now, which actually has been causing me quite a bit of grief. The boy now wants to sleep on his tummy... "Back to sleep" has been drilled into my head so thoroughly that I just can't let him sleep on his own now! I end up holding him in bed with me to keep him in the proper position all night. I think I would be okay with his tummy sleeping if he hadn't oh so conveniently forgotten how to roll back onto his back from his tummy! When he started rolling onto his stomach his physical therapist told me she believed he would be rolling around the room in no time.... and then he stopped rolling both ways!
     I was not at all expecting him to be any kind of mobile but then this week he started turning, his belly is his axis as he spins to reach the toys he wants, and then Friday night (7/12) he starts bringing his knees up under him and trying to kick himself forward, and by Saturday he is doing kind of an inchworm move, only somehow it ends up propelling him backwards... but holy cow I wasn't expecting this at all!!!! I'm really proud of my little boy. I think he is proud of himself too.

     And now to catch you up through super cute pictures!

  

7 months old, lounging by the kiddie pool

 First Independence day, kisses from Lumpy, and watching fireworks on the dock at Grandma's house with Stitches and her offspring

Momma lovings

Hanging with the boys

  

Trying to be grown, and give me a heart attack

 

 

 

      I thoroughly intend to keep up my postings this summer although as you already know, I am not good with doing what I say I'm going to do.  I hope you will stick around for my random and occasional posts and maybe I'll even try to take over a little for Buttons and Stitches on Hot Toddies events. There need to be some of those. I miss them!!!! I think a Lady Porn marathon is very much needed in the near future. Remember back in the days before the drum broke when we played Rock Band all the time? Yeah.... I'm thinking maybe we should use the money from our He Had A Plan sales (I still can't believe we wrote a book!) to get some new drums...

Baby Hulk ~ Darling Husband Saves the Day

Darling Husband is my hero. More so, he is Baby Hulk's hero, he just doesn't know it. I have no idea what I would have done in this situation, I probably would have just shouted nonsense and then cried because my mouth doesn't work when I am angry, which frustrates me to the point of tears.  Enough intro though!

Yesterday morning Darling Husband stopped at the Shell Station to get a caffeinated beverage on his way in to open up at work at 7am.  The cashier greeted Darling Husband and Darling Husband replied, "Good morning, how's it going?" 

     "Ugh, just cleaning up after retards all morning"....Ummmm are you freaking kidding me!? Dude's at work talking to customers like this!?

     Darling Husband glares at the guy as he was paying, and was going to let it slide, he told me he was thinking, "I don't know this guy, couldn't give a f$*k about him, it's not worth getting mad over."
     So he tried to move along and then the guy says, "Don't you just love all these f#@king retards?"  

     Well Darling Husband had had enough! He turned around and said, "Actually, my son has Down syndrome and I don't like the fact that you are throwing that word around like it's nothing, and in a place of business at that."

Three cheers for Darling Husband!!!!! 

The cashier was super embarrassed and apologized about five times as Darling Husband was walking out. He says he felt like an a-hole, but it pushed him too far. He says he wasn't rude to him at all, he just had to let him know. 

I am so proud of him. I am glad he is mine.

 

a little bit of Baby Hulk mean muggin'

Baby Hulk ~ If I Could Go Back In Time

I love my life with Baby Hulk in it. Just yesterday on a Target run I passed the same two women with their same two screaming babies multiple times while Baby Hulk just sat in the sling staring up at me like I am the most wonderful thing in existence. I wouldn't dream of having it any other way, but for some reason I still find myself being sad for Pru of the past. Very often, probably more than not, looking at pictures of myself while I was pregnant makes me sad for me. Look how happy and unaware I was.

I had no idea how much my life was about to change and I just wish I could go back and warn me so I could be ready for it. I want to go all the way back and say, "Hey Pru, this baby is going to have down syndrome, but don't worry because he is beautiful and amazing and you will love him to pieces," because I hate when I get teary eyed when I think back on my pregnancy, birth, and up until I was finally able to just be happy. When I reread that first post about Baby Hulk, I wish I could have helped past me. I wish I could think back on it all as a happy time. To have known that everything is going to be fine and just be happy. I am SO happy now! Baby Hulk is the perfect last child. He is super sweet and easy. He hardly ever cries and even when he does it is always super easy to soothe him. He is still so tiny, so I'm getting to hang on to my tiny baby for longer, which is something all moms dream of getting to do! I shamefully even find myself pitying other parents with their always screaming babies. Ha! Mine is fantastic! Way better than your little diva child that won't even let you sit down or go shopping!

But I still wish someone had told me.

Baby Hulk ~ Catching up!

Why hello there! It's been a while... AGAIN! Sorry about that! We all were sick for a while, even Baby Hulk, his first cold, and it was miserable. I took him to the doctors office the day he really started showing symptoms and I couldn't pass it off as his normal snortiness.  I was so afraid he would get a respiratory infection since those are apparently common. I took his temp multiple times a day and held him in my arms all night long afraid he couldn't breathe. I basically didn't sleep for about 10 days. Okay not true on the weekend I made Darling Husband take Baby Hulk in the morning and then I passed out finally until 11am. We all made it through though!

I had a special blog post planned for 3/21, and what luck! It was even on my regular posting Thursday! Oh sorry, I suppose I should explain. 3/21 was World Down Syndrome Day. 3 21? Get it? Trisomy 21, 3 copies of the 21st chromosome? When I called NW Children's Heart Care to make Arden's follow up appointment to make sure his PDA from birth had closed up properly and the woman making the appointment told me the first available appointment was on 3/21 I just knew it had to be! The day before I went to Stitches' house and we had a wonderful sewing day and I made a skirt to wear just for the special day, gold and blue, the DS awareness colours. I had a panic attack in the middle of Joann trying to figure out what kind of fabric to buy for it. I even sent Stitches a text telling her I couldn't find anything, I wasn't coming. I stood there amongst the fabric and right as the tears were welling up in my eyes I got a text from Buttons. I told her what was going on and she rushed over and helped me pick out my fabric. My skirt turned out super cute!

 Oh right! You probaby want to know how his appointment went!


IT WAS WONDERFUL!

 (Darling Husband was beyond relieved)

Baby Hulk's heart is perfect! Still no doom and now that I have been through it all, I wonder if maybe there never will be any doom. Perfect eyes, perfect ears, perfect heart. He has a physical therapist who comes every other Tuesday now and he is doing so well with that as well! His one struggle is holding his head up while he is sitting. He is great at holding it up during tummy time but he slumps forward when he is sitting up right. Just this past Tuesday his PT gave us a new list of things to do and I am already seeing a difference!

As usual! This baby boy is awesome!

  

(4 month photo shoot) 

 

(Easter family portrait)

Baby Hulk ~ "That's Retarded" (revisited)

It's funny, as things continue and as I get more settled into this new life of mine, things change. If you notice my very first Baby Hulk post I wrote down's syndrome. Well, that is wrong sometimes things are named after people who have it and sometimes they are named after the person to discover it. Well this Down guy didn't have it he just stuck his name on his research. Since he doesn't have it, it does not belong to him so no apostrophy S. I'm learning I'm adjusting and I'm changing my mind. I have changed my mind about how I feel about people using the word "retarded" I wrote about it before here but now I don't even like writing it out it feels so wrong but to get my point across at how absolutely horrible this word actually is I am going to write out another horrible word for you so you can understand what kind of word retarded really is.

Nigger

Did you cringe? I did. Yeah, that word sucks. I've been called that word a few times myself actually! I'm from North Carolina. South of the Mason-Dixon line where racism is still flourishing. Let me just tell you it feels like being punched in the chest when someone calls you a name like that. Sure maybe not if you are white... I had a friend when I lived back in NC, a tiny crazy white girl who threw the "n" word around in the exact same way people throw the "r" word instead of calling someone stupid she called them the "n" word. I had to talk to her about it a few times. She protested, saying she didn't mean it like that, she wasn't talking about me or even about black people. She didn't get it, but she eventually stopped.  I am sure she was just censoring herself in front of me to avoid angering me. I actually had a few white friends using the "n" word as a way of calling someone ignorant. I'd like to say after I lectured them they stopped but I think most just censored themselves around me as well. I don't want you to censor yourself around me. This isn't like I am a child and you don't curse around me. This is saying something that is hurtful to someone you are supposed to care about.

I am pretty ashamed to say that I was one of the people using the "r" word. I of all people should have known better. I know how much the "n" word hurts. I never got caught up in saying "that's gay," I always knew that was a horrible thing to say. I think for some it takes some sort of connection to realise it is wrong. My big sister is gay so I just always knew how horrible that word was used out of context. I can't believe I was so ignorant that I couldn't see how horrible the "r" word really was! I've been going through my vocabulary making sure I'm not saying anything else like it. I don't want to hurt anyone with my ignorance. I know how it feels.

Please consider yourself educated. I know it can take some time and slip ups happen so please, don't just censor yourself, imagine you love someone like Baby Hulk and STOP.









I planned this post last week, totally unaware that this special day for awareness was happening so, to tie it all together I am making my post a day early! Pledge to be heard at www.r-word.org

I Keep Forgetting! ~ Baby Hulk

I keep forgetting there is anything different about my little boy. I like this and I don't like it at the same time. I don't even see anything about him that really makes me think, my baby has down syndrome. The only thing physically I really feel would even alert anyone to his fanciness is his eyes and I forget that they even go along with it because they are so beautiful. Every time I look at him my heart explodes into a gooey mess of oh-my-gosh-he-is-so-cuteness, okay it doesn't really but it feels like it. When he oooohs and gooos at me I swoon, and when he smiles I die. So you see, with all this exploding and swooning and dying I am doing it is quite easy to forget. I think I said in an earlier blog... or maybe I just thought it... well, I wanted to be able to forget in the beginning. I was so upset that I couldn't get through a day where I didn't look at him and my heart would sink and I would think, my baby has down syndrome. I didn't want it to be all I could see. I was still having a hard time excepting what all that extra chromosome would mean. I still didn't know that much about it and that unknown scared me. Which is weird because I really like the unknown. I guess I just like to be able to pick and choose my unknowns and this one was just thrown at me.  I am okay with this unknown now.

I get nervous when I forget for too long though. I worry that I will forget so much that one day something bad will happen that is unmistakably because of the downs and it will just knock me down. I don't want to get too comfortable. This is just me though, getting too comfortable makes me nervous. That's when bad things happen. I need to keep myself grounded in all aspects of life or I will just float away and this beautiful boy of mine is filling me with helium.

Can I ask you a question? Almost everyone who knows about Baby Hulk tells me if anyone could handle this it is me and that they couldn't think of better parents for him than me and Darling Husband. I never would have thought this. In fact that was one of my first thoughts when he was born, this is a mistake, he can't be for me. I am impatient and stubborn and obnoxious, I procrastinate, and I never finish what I start. Is it just something you said to give me confidence since I didn't really have a choice? Everyone, family, long time friends, new friends and people I hardly know. How did you all know? Why was everyone else so certain I was so perfect for this?

Playing Catch Up ~ Baby Hulk

I haven't gotten a blog post out for a while. Can you believe Baby Hulk is 3 months old today!!! I guess I better catch you up! It all started with the week of disaster. I think that's how I got so thrown off but because of the hilarity of my first bit of embarrassment of that week, I must share.

 I never am embarrassed by anything. I am embarrassing, I embarrass others but never myself! Well that was not true for that week. It started when Darling Husband went out with his friends for a late lunch and then brought them back with him. I was caught off guard by this and was sitting on the couch with my boob hanging out because Baby Hulk had fallen off and was sleeping and I just hadn't gotten around to putting it away. To add to this unfortunate situation I was watching Twilight of all things!!! So I was all flustered to see them coming in and I am pretty sure I flashed even more boob in my desperate attempt to cover them. Then to add to my embarrassment, after they had been visiting a while I noticed that after a load of delicates was done today my husband had hung all my fancy undies from the the chandelier in the dining room!!!! They were right there in everyone's line of vision so I gasped and then started uncomfortably laughing I just knew there was no way they missed it, so when they asked why I was laughing I decided to make it less awkward I would just tell the truth... well they HADN'T noticed! So I basically called myself out on it. Thank goodness they were at least my fancy undies instead of the granny panties and thank goodness I have kind friends to say things like "all they saw was how damn lucky your DH is!" Hahaha like I said, good thing granny panties can go in the drier! 

The week pretty much continued on this path only not in ways I could immediately laugh about like the panty chandelier. Mr Grey had a field trip that we were super late to and then I found out he actually had school BEFORE and his teacher gave me the disappointed teacher voice!!! Appointments all over the place, and the one I had been dreading the most. Baby Hulk's hip ultrasound. I was most afraid of this because I had to go alone. Darling Husband has to work, we have no money and I feel guilty asking Momma Pru to watch the boys so much. She has enough on her plate right now with her parents so I didn't want to bother her. But that's a whole other story, remind me to tell you about going to the horses funeral...

I took him to his 2mo appointment by myself, that sucked, he had to have 3 shots and he screamed so hard his face turned a lovely shade of fuchsia. He weighed only one pound more than he did at birth but at his weight check last week (2 weeks later) he had gained 10oz so that is pretty good. I have been stuffing my face trying to get enough calories in which is hard enough for me to do when I'm not breastfeeding! To add to my stress of trying to shove my face 2 days after his 2 month appointment I noticed blood in his poop! I called the doctors office that night and set up an appointment for the next morning. They told me it could be an allergy to the proteins in milk as this is when they typically show up. I had to either stop eating dairy or switch him to some special formula. To me there really was only one option, after all I went through with getting him to breastfeed I wasn't giving that up and giving him gross formula!  I'm already a vegetarian! I have nothing left! I now eat eggs burritos and spaghetti! I don't know what else to eat! I don't want to over do it with the soy so that really leaves me with nothing! But I am trying! I have an app on my phone to count calories. So strange to be using it to GAIN weight instead of losing after having a baby!

Then I got the reminder call for Baby Hulk's hip ultrasound, I was told it would be 90 minutes long and if baby was bottle fed to bring a bottle with me and if breast fed to be prepared to nurse baby afterwards... I was a little freaked. He is 2 months old he can go longer than 3 hours between feedings now.. so why did I need to be able to nurse him? I took this to mean that he would be VERY unhappy when it was over. So I was stressing about that appointment for days all the way up to it. Well it actually wasn't bad at all!  Baby Hulk did very well and once again good news, his hips are perfect. He even had his revenge for all the poking and prodding they did by pooping on their table! 

The appointments have finally calmed down now. We met with the lady from the Early Intervention program and his Physical Therapist came to see him. Last week we had to bring him in for a weigh in because he isn't gaining weight as he should be. 

Oh, it's been so long I am having a hard time remembering everything! Baby Hulk may have a thyroid problem but his pediatrician didn't seem too worried, she just told me we would have to check it again in a bit. I'm not too worried about it. Thyroid problems can easily be managed with medicine. Did you know this boy can roll over!? I know I know. I told you he could do it before and yeah he was rolling over but it was totally on accident. If you put him on his stomach now and sit behind him and talk to him he will roll over so he can see you. Still way early too! Apparently babies start rolling tummy to back as early as 4 months! Yeah.... unless they are AWESOME! Then they start at 2 months.

Okay I think that is it. I will try to get better with my posting. Catching up is way too hard and makes these things way too long!


**I was just informed the 12 weeks does not count as 3 months, stupid Romans, I am still designating this his 3 month because there is no 29th this February! So he would never get his 3 months!**

Baby Hulk ~ What I've Learned

Oh my goodness guess what!? Baby Hulk is 2 months old today!!!! Where is the time going!!!??? This week I've noticed he is beginning to push with his arms lifting his chest up off the floor during tummy time, and he is vocalizing and smiling a lot more!

And now on to business! For those who know me, I  for some reason discover and retain ridiculous information that serves me absolutely no purpose, like that giraffe is kosher, if a Jewish person wanted to eat a giraffe or drink it's milk they could... I don't know why random facts like that interest me but they do. Well yesterday I learned some things about Down syndrome that interest me in that same way only this time it is information that is relevant so I just have to share!

Okay so! Down syndrome is an extra chromosome. Typically we have 46 chromosomes. They come in pairs, 2 sex chromosomes and then the rest are numbered by size smallest to largest 1-22. So 22 should be the smallest chromosome... but it's NOT!!!! Whoever was in charge of numbering them all screwed up! 21 is!!!! It just has a sneaky little line on it that makes it appear to be larger than 22. Okay so maybe I'm the only one who thinks it's a fun fact that someone screwed up there.

I learned this information yesterday. Baby Hulk had his first Genealogy appointment. Apparently we are over achievers. They were just expecting to tell us he needed to be in the Birth to 3 Early Intervention program and to let us know to set up an eye appointment and find a good pediatrician who is knowledgeable in DS... well... Done, meeting with Birth to 3 tomorrow, and done!

I'm super proud of my big boy and feeling like I can handle all of these appointments now. I am such a procrastinator, I hate making appointments and I dread them once they are made but I have been doing so good with making his appointments and I was actually excited to go to meet with the genetics counselor and I am even excited to have the Birth to 3 month people coming tomorrow even though my house is a mess!!! I am ready! I know Baby Hulk is awesome and I can't wait to show him off!