Wednesday, 28 November 2012

Stand up routine!

This weekend we were honoured to have been invited to Rosie's friend Ella's 2nd birthday party. We had a fantastic time meeting Ellas family and seeing other parents and children from our local DS support group. I'm often unable to attend the monthly group meetings due to Saturday morning football commitments with my Sons so I really appreciated the opportunity to sit down and catch up within the intimate surroundings of Amy and Ian's lovely new house.

Read more about Ella and her big day over on her Mummy's blog 'A Different View'.

Since Rosie's birth we have been lucky enough to meet some amazing parents of children with DS and we owe a great deal of thanks to our local support group for this. In the early days Karen gained alot from the monthly group meetings – chatting and exchanging experiences with other parents and she soon had regular contact with many of the Mums during the week, meeting for coffee etc. In truth I never felt so at ease the first couple of times – I must point out this is in no way reflective of the group or its people, far from it in fact, this was my issue. I found it really overwhelming walking into a room full of children with DS and their parents, I guess it stemmed from the realisation that hit me when I first walked into the room that Rosie was a part of something 'different'. Little did I know at the time that the 'different' I feared slightly was soon to become the most positive life enriching experience I could have ever imagined. I now really look forward to the meetings (when I'm able to attend) and am really excited for the forth coming Christmas party!

Rosie's latest developmental aid from the physio is a rather barbaric looking standing brace. It resembles some kind of Victorian straight jacket for the legs! Needless to say she isn't overly impressed by it, although to be fair being strapped into something like this wouldn't be my idea of fun either. However, she is being so lazy at the moment, showing no signs of wanting to crawl or support herself that we're adamant to persevere with it!

We tried a new tactic at the weekend where Rosie's brothers stood on the sofa and blew bubbles down over her – She loves watching the boys, so coupled with the bubbles it was the perfect distraction from the fact she was strapped to this brutal contraption. The bubbles also encouraged her to reach up too – making her legs work to support her upper body without her really realising.

The boys efforts (and ours) were rewarded with a late night snuggled up in front of a film eating copious amounts of homemade pop corn!







Wednesday, 14 November 2012

Mamma!

It gives me great pleasure and pride to announce that...

...we all survived our first full weekend without 'Mummy'!

Most of it was a complete blur to be honest, but as far as I'm aware, there were no major dramas to report – considering my usually forgetful and disorganised self this is nothing short of a miracle.

Rosie was as good as gold allowing me two good nights sleep with no wake ups – unless I just slept through them? Either way she was full of smiles in the morning so I assumed all was well. The boys were great too and really pulled their weight keeping the Bud entertained whilst I was busy rushing around not really achieving anything, making huge mountains out of jobs Karen completes everyday with me barely even noticing!

We finished off a hectic but fun weekend watching the boys marching proudly in the village Remembrance Day parade, allowing me the time to stop for a moment and reflect.

The Bud (but mostly me) really missed Karen and her return was rewarded by Rosie's first attempt at saying, 'Mamma'. Okay, so she wasn't neccesarily saying Mamma but we've been trying to encourage the 'mm' and 'umm' sounds for a while now, with little or no response. She's now achieved this which is fantastic – a real big step in her vocal development. I'm sure it won't be long before it becomes a definite pronunciation of 'Mummy'.

We've also discovered Rosie now has a favourite book called This Little Teddy, it's one of those 'touchy feely' ones with different textures and materials. She is particularly drawn towards 'Miranda the Giant Panda' and when the page is turned to reveal 'Miranda' she kicks her little dumpling legs with excitement and loves to stroke the ears!

Progress on the crawling front has slowed down and she seems uninterested again, we try to encourage her but she is becoming quite stubborn in her refusal. If she doesn't want to do something she makes no secret of the fact. We tried her again in the crawling position last night and she immediately lay flat on the floor and rolled over finishing without her trademark smile – which is the real telling sign that she's not happy about it! There are also times when we'll give her a toy or teddy to hold and if she doesn't want it she will take it and throw it behind her. The one thing we can guarantee she wont ever toss aside is my phone blasting out Tom Petty, so we're trying to encourage the crawling again using this as bait!

I had hoped she may have been crawling a little by Christmas (she still might) but as with everything it will be done in her own time and on her terms!