An Update from our visit to Children's Hospital

 

Lunch with Dad!

Yesterday Chris, Jocelyn and me headed to Childrens Hospital for a visit at the Down Syndrome Clinic and an Echocardiogram.

The down syndrome clinic went very well.  Our sweet Jocelyn Rose is doing incredibly well.  First we met with the social worker to check on us and see how we were doing:)  We are fine….  Then into the next room to meet with Dr. Bird the overseeing doctor of the clinic to do an overview of Jocelyn.  Everything looked good!   She was able to give us a referral for her blood work and also to ophthalmology.  Then to the Ears, Nose and Throat doctor.  Jocelyn’s ears look great.  They are glad to see her ear canals are big enough that they could see all the way to the eardrum.  Then we met with the Physical and Occupational Therapists.  They too were impressed with how well she is doing.  We will go to a physical therapist here in Temecula to do an thorough evaluation and make recommendations to help encourage her to keep moving forward!  Then we met with a speech therapist.  She also thought Jocelyn was doing well in her language development.  She has started m0cking her with “raspberries” and mouth movement.  Mostly they commented about how happy she is!  She makes us so proud:)

We had a couple of hours before we had to be at the cardiology appointment.   We headed to fashion valley for lunch and a little shopping.  I had to buy my sweet little girls something cute:)  SO nice to sit down with Chris for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory!

Poor Jocelyn wasn’t able to eat or drink anything for the day starting at 7:00 in preparation for being sedated for her echocardiogram.  She still was the happiest girl:)  Watching Jocelyn be sedated was very hard for me.  It was an oral liquid that they gave her.  Yuck, she did not like the tasted of it:(  She fought going to sleep for a while but finally gave in and was out.  An echo is an ultrasound of the heart.  Unfortunately the ASD (hole in her heart) didn’t close:(  This was very hard for me to hear.  It was the first bad news that I think we have gotten.  Not sure what this means because we didn’t get to meet with the cardiologist.  That will happen in a few weeks but we’ll call tomorrow to talk to the doctor.  I will be sure to let you all know when I know something more.    At the end of the echo when she was still sedated they were able to get her blood taken.  They tried for a vein in her arm but no luck.  They had to do a heel stick.  We should know the results of the thyroid test in a couple of weeks. I’ll let you know about that too….

Childrens hospital is an amazing place.  We are so fortunate to have them close.  Each person their makes you feel like your child is so special:) I think if I some money lying around, I would give them some!  Time to feed my sweet girl…..

xoxo,
Becca

A long overdue Thank You!

 

Our family made a trip to the fire station this weekend.  Above is a picture of Rich, the kind fireman who helped the night Jocelyn was born.  He was just as sweet as I remembered.  I was a very scared mama that night and he cradled my baby as we drove back to the hospital.  They were all so happy that we came in to let them properly meet Jocelyn!  Abby was a little shy and didn’t want to go in the fire truck but loved all the stickers they gave her:)  I have to say in that crazy evening and morning I had, the firemen were all so compassionate and professional.  I am very thankful to have had them a phone call away! 

I think we’ll make a trip to the station on Jocelyn’s Birthday:)

Love

Is this just the best picture you have ever seen?  I love it:)   Grandma T came up for the morning and we went to the farmers market and lunch.  Yum Yum! 

My own Story...

(check me out sitting up at 6mos old. This was two days ago. You should see me sitting today!)

There is a book that sits underneath our coffee table titled, "Babies with Down Syndrome", occassionally I will pull it out and begin to read. It makes me scared, sad and anxious. It tells me what I can expect of my sweet Jocelyn Rose. There is another book that it still packed away in Abby's baby things titled, "What to Expect during the First Year". I never pulled this book out because.....well I knew Jocelyn wouldn't meet milestones like a typical child and that makes me scared, sad and anxious. My sweet Jocelyn Rose is writing her own story and it's a very, very happy one:) This little girl is full of life and happiness and oh so very strong!

I think I would title this chapter: Sister LOVE!

It seems like I am constantly telling Abby to be gentle with her sister. Lately I've decided to stand back and watch these two play a bit more. Jocelyn is bigger and can take a little more "love". Jocelyn LOVES when Abby rough houses with her. The other night Jocelyn was cracking up as Abby did- "how big is Jocelyn?" (raise her hands in the air) "So big".

It's so much fun seeing them play together:)

PooBah and Maggie's Big Day:)

This weekend was one big party! We celebrated the marriage of PooBah and Maggie. A good time was had by all.....
At the Rancho Bernardo Winery- We almost got a good family picture. 3 of 4 is pretty good right?

There was a small ceremony and Abby was the flower girl. We told her that she was supposed to throw the petals. She took the word throw quite literally and threw the petals like you would throw a baseball. Maybe we should have chosen a better word.

Daddy explaining her job.

Picking grapes
Sara, Melinda, Jocelyn and Me

Abby has PooBah and Papa wrapped around her finger.

Mmmmm buntinis:) Jake, Maggie and Sara

These two are best of buds:)

Idris learned the great American game of horseshoes!

AHHHHHH so much fun with Uncle Clay in the water. These two are fish!

Congratulation Dad and Maggie we are very happy for you:)

Uncle Clay is here!

Uncle Clay is here...hooray...the fun can begin. Uncle Clay is so good with the girls. He really is a kid at heart. Abby has been dragging him around since he arrived. A couple hours after arriving they were out feeding the birds together! We have had so much fun with Aunt Mimi and Uncle Clay in town...and the fun is just beginning:)

Welcome Baby Isaac

I was so excited to meet Isaac Allen Sheridan! He might be the cutest little boy I've even seen and he certainly has a mommy who is deeply in love with him:) It was really neat to see a best friend that I've had since kindergarten become a mother. Kelly has it down already. It's going to be so fun to take our kids to the park together, have picnics and play dates:) Abby and Jocelyn can't wait to play with Isaac!

Jocelyn and Isaac are exactly 6 months apart December 28th and June 28th! Congratulations Kelly and Cris on your little baby boy. He is precious:)

America's Birthday

The girls and I started the weekend off with a little backyard swim on Friday. Check out these cute kids!

Jocelyn and Abby absolutely adore eachother. Jocelyn watches Abby's every move and will always give her big sister a smile.

This was fun....

We went to the Del Mar Fair and had a great time:) It was our 6th anniversary that day so it was only fitting that we went to the place where love was sparked.....sigh....

Here is a picture of Ellen and Oprah hanging out! Great job at the fair Rachel!

A little girl who loves "Hot Dog on a stick". It's so funny to hear her say it. Yes, she ate the whole thing:)

Abby convinced Daddy to take her on the "Footsie Wootsie". She chose the tinkerbelle pink one of course!

Aunt Mimi and Abby on the Merry-go-round. Abby wanted to ride the pig...

Grandma T showed Abby all the fun things to do at the fair. She won her a puppy dog:)

Mama, Jessica and Aunt Mimi hanging out with Jocelyn. Jocelyn loved looking around at the sights and sounds.

Daddy and Abby on the slide...

It wouldn't have been a day at the fair without a little pouting because we had to go home. We told Abby we didn't have anymore money for tickets to go on the ride. Daddy had an emergency call yesterday and Abby was so excited because he was going to make money to buy more tickets....if only life were that simple:)

We went to a great fireworks show put on by Pechanga

Jocelyn slept in her stroller through the whole thing...

Brrr it was cold. We still enjoyed the show

On Sunday we had a little BBQ at the house. Abby and Nonno got to play:)

Jocelyn and Nonno are "little buddies" and sat on the couch together. Jocelyn loves her Nonno.

Wow, what a great weekend we had! On another note, Jocelyn had her 6 months check up today. All is well for sweet Jocelyn Rose. She weighs 14 lbs 3 oz and is in the 8th percentile for weight. I can't remember how long she is but she is in the 54th percentile for height. The doctor was still impressed by her strength and head control. We go at the end of this month for another visit to the Childrens Hospital Down Syndrome Clinic. She'll also have a sedated echocardiogram that day (I am already worrying about that). I just love my sweet Jocelyn so much:)

How Cool.....

How cool is it that Abby can slip on her rain boots and go down to visit Daddy at the hospital just before bed where she get to bottle feed a baby alpaca?
Abby thinks it's pretty cool.......

Aunt Mimi's here.....

What a fun surprise to have Aunt Mimi come in from Australia early. Picking her up from LAX was SO exciting. Abby insisted on wearing her princess shoes and dancing dress. Cute huh? On Thursday morning we were sitting at breakfast and Abby started talking about Aunt Mimi's arrival. She was so excited to see her. She explained that Aunt Mimi would "jump out of the airplane with a flag. Just like at the bucking bulls" (at a rodeo she watched a man skydive from a plane and land in the arena). The arrival thankfully didn't go like that....

Is that Aunt Mimi? nooooo.....Is that Aunt Mimi? Finally we saw her..

Jocelyn meets Aunt Mimi.....Mimi is so good with her. Even after 24 hours of travel she sang to her in LA traffic on the way home from the airport:)

Abby was so excited to finally see Aunt Mimi. What do you think the was the first thing she did and said? "Look at my shoes!"

Funny story: I picked Abby up from preschool on Wednesday and the teach announced to her friends that she would be on vacation for the next couple of weeks. Naya yelled out, "I am going to Hawaii." Jackson said he was going to Grandma's house. When we got in the car Abby was so excited to go on her vacation. She wanted to know where we were going? Ummmmm.....nowhere??? No, I didn't tell her that. I said we were going to the airport to pick up Aunt Mimi, we were going to the Del Mar Fair and a parade. Abby couldn't be more thrilled about our vacation. She reminds me a couple of times a day about our vacation.

Homegrown

Here's a picture of the garden. Chris has been working hard on it and really enjoying his time that him and Abby work in it:) Stay tuned for next years garden.....He has even BIGGER plans. He had to put up a stronger fence to keep all the rabbits out. Now it's growing well. So far we have eaten carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumber and snow peas.

Abby is so proud when she picks something. Take a look at these carrots....

So, I am pretty proud of us! We made Jocelyn's first food (other than rice cereal) from our garden. I would have NEVER though I was capable of this with Abby ( I think my mom even recommended it). I did have a little coaxing. Flora has been making food for Megan and recommended a book and our dear friends the Paulys gave us "The Magic Bullet" (you've probably seen the infomercial). It was pretty easy. Next she'll be trying yellow squash:) Oh, and she LOVED it!