One seriously long day

I can't even fathom going through the details right now, but I need to for good record keeping. It will have to wait. I left the house at 8:03am and returned home at 7:05 pm. And I don't live 3 hours away anymore!! These days usually go so smoothly...but the honeymoon is over. This will be the last day we do the full day of visits. We moved here to be close, so we'll not do more than 2 or maybe 3 on the same day from here on out.

Today's accomplishments:
ENT--Check
DS specialist--Check
Cardiology--Check
Echocardiogram--Check
Eye center--Check
GI--Check
Audiology--Check
Lab--Check

Braska did marvelously, with some understandable rough spots. But she was great overall. And thank God that my mother-in-law came along... what a day.

Details later, probably on Braska's blog in the next few days. Ahhh! And I still haven't talked about our good day yesterday... I'll get there. Sometime soon.

Rested... for now

We've had a rough couple nights. Braska's birthday party went well. I'll get to that later, but soon I hope. But last night, Braska went to bed at 8pm (quite early, and without full feeds for the day) and I hit the pillow at about 8:45pm. M came in then too, because none of us have had good regular sleep for a bit. He was out in 2 seconds. I laid there til about 10 before falling asleep, but still. I expected Braska to wake up super early since it was an early to bed, but she slept til just after 7:15am and I slept till right around then. Not a bad deal. I'm up with visions of grandeur for things to accomplish today... we'll see.

Tomorrow is a crazy busy day, 7 appointments at Children's DS Center and various specialists, from 8:45am til about 4pm. Thank goodness for my mother-in-law coming along to help occupy and be extra hands through the day!

November is here

Fair warning...I'm not all that "with it" so who knows if this will be cohesive or not.

October went fast. I didn't get the whole post-every-day thing, but I did get in 31 total. Does that count for 31 for 21? I'm not going to stress over it, for sure. I did enjoy all the updates from all of you. But there were a few times when I felt posts were below par for my goals with this space. Not the end of the world, of course, but still...

November's going to be a busy one too. Tomorrow's the big day. Election day. I've already voted, thankfully, so that's nice. I can't tell you how happy I will be to not see another campaign ad of any kind. I've been praying often about this whole thing for months. No, that doesn't mean, "God, please don't let him win." That's not it at all. It means asking for peace and patience, as well as understanding that often history shows that nations are given what they ask for, even if it is not what is best overall. Sometimes that means we'll hurt for a while before we realize what is truly important. As a country, this could be a tough time. Honestly, it could be tough with either party winning. My hope is above all that we will realize that we are each accountable for our actions and choices. We live in a great country! And that is one thing, I don't have any desire to *change.*

After election day, we'll be looking toward our 8th wedding anniversary, my sister Julia's 13th birthday, my parents' 38th anniversary, Braska's 2nd birthday, a full day of appointments at Children's (7 hours, 7 appointments, one day), and finally Thanksgiving. Throw in 12 therapy appointments, 2 playgroups, 2 more dr appointments, and a smattering of other things on the calendar and we'll be busy.

It's getting overwhelming, I admit. I haven't felt well lately. It may just be the difference in pregnancies from one to the other. It probably has to do with having Braska around to play with, carry, deal with, and keep happy when I'd rather be napping. It's not some big problem, but it is interfering with life as I'd hoped it would be at this point in this pregnancy. I'm tempted to thin out our schedule a little just to keep caught up better, but I don't know if that would help or not. I go to the OB today for a regular check in. I'll let her know what's up, and she'll probably tell me it's just the way it is. But I'm just disappointed that I generally spend most of the day every day feeling tired and very achy. It's nothing that can't be dealt with, but it's still sometimes frustrating.

But time is flying, so we'll soon be to the next overwhelming stage of dealing with two kids out here in the open! Somehow, we'll figure it out. For now, I'll nap and rest when I can. I just miss having energy and actually *wanting* to do things outside the house.

So can someone go do some fun stuff and let me live vicariously through your experience?? Make it a good month, people!!

Distraction dancer

Sunday mornings at church are Braska's special time with Daddy. She sits with him, he holds her during the music and she dances like a crazy girl when the band gets going and claps right along with everyone else. She always attracts attention from those around, and sometimes I feel like she's gonna burst with excitement. Speaking of which, we could use a bit more of that at church, couldn't we?!

Anyway, this week, like most others, she was having a ball. One lady directly behind us played with her, waved at her, and when we sat down for the sermon, she played little games with her. She'd put her hand on the back on the chair, and Braska would push it away and smile. Over and over. (I hope she is a multitasker, because it was a really great message, so I'd hate for her to have missed anything.) Braska usually falls asleep for part of the quieter parts, and then wakes at the end to dance a little more before we go. I haven't figured out a way to discreetly video this fun...but I sure want to. It's the most animated she gets, and it's no wonder people are drawn to the giggles, wiggles, and smiles. Each week after church, as we leave, we always have at least 3 or 4 people come over to mention that they were watching her and just loved seeing her dance and cuddle with Daddy. I see it as a nice way that she makes people smile on a Sunday morning.

To hold you over...here's this Sunday's fashion pic before church. It's one of my favorite new outfit combinations. Ralph Lauren and BabyLegs with a side of Old Navy and Gymboree shoes. Can't beat it!

Ain't it kinda funny??

We're all wanting to be good little advocates, and it is a priority of mine to put a good and real perspective of life with Down syndrome "in the house." But we're all so busy just living life with our little ones that we're too busy to talk about how we're doing it. Funny.

And I guess, as many have said better than I, that's the point. Yes, we were shocked. Yes, I thought life was (cue the dramatic movie music) *forever changed.* And yes, there have been some things to figure out, to say the least. But the beauty is, you don't have to figure it all out at once. You get to wake up just one day at a time, like everyone else. And ya know what's crazy?? Life goes on. We do what we do, and we find it to be so much beyond more enjoyable than what we thought. PLUS, we have these ridiculously cute kids to play with in the meantime!

Just wish I could bottle this and share it with all those who are a few paces behind and still freaking out. It sure would've done me some good a couple years ago.

So much and yet nothing

It's 11:35pm. I should be in bed. Long ago in bed. But it's not been working that way.

And I have alot I want to get in before the end of the month, blog-wise. I want to talk a little about discipline and what we do with Braska. (Yes, even our perfect little compliant child occasionally pulls a naughty one on us...and she does get in trouble when that happens.) Part of me wants to talk about politics, but I can't formulate like I want when I'm this tired by the time I get to blogging. And I'm guessing I wouldn't successfully change many, if any, minds. (If you're undecided and just want some interesting perspective to consider, send me an email if you want.) I want to talk about the great things we've learned in these 23 months of being in this club that is living with DS.

But I'm exhausted. My kitchen is so darn messy. I need to get off this computer. So for now, these things will wait. And hey, who says I can't talk about them in November anyway, right?

Parenting Baby Galleries

Back in September, we were happy to find out that Braska had been included in the 3rd gallery of the Parenting.com A Special Joy: Babies with Down Syndrome. There are now 20 galleries! 20!! How great is that!?! And we know so many of those cuties...that's pretty cool, I think!

Check out all 20 from here.

Can I just ask a favor of those of you who don't have kids with DS but have blogs? As October is Down Syndrome Awareness month, would you be willing to post a little something with the link to the gallery page? It's kind of to be expected that those of us "in the club" would be all over it, but I think it would be a neat extension of the awareness aspect if we could spread the word via non-DS related blogs as well. We like to show off our kids, sure. But it would mean alot to have those who have been impacted by our kids to put in a plug for them as well.

Thanks, really.