Tags
apointments, development, doctors, down syndrome, first day of school, Jana, Peanut, progress, school, therapy
Its been a big week for Peanut!
First, you saw on Monday that she has been making great progress with her walking skills This morning she has been averaging 10 steps by me only holding the monkey leash on her back! Her confidence is growing and I can see her making, even more, strives the more we work on it.
Wednesday was huge!! Peanut went to school for the first time! Her in-home therapy sessions will now stop and she will attend class once a week for 3 hours. So even though she loses the one on one help, she is able to socialize and learn alongside some of her buddies. This has been something Juan and I have been terrified of! I have not missed a single therapy session with her. I can’t even think of a time where I’ve been home and she wasn’t! If I was freaking out, I don’t know how Juan held it together! Tuesday night we went and got her a new lunch pail and prepared for her big day. We had no idea how she would do. Would she freak out when she realized we weren’t there? Is 3 hours too long for her? Will she get overwhelmed with the new environment and kids? Everything was up in the air!
We arrived and she walked in like a pro!! Using her shopping cart, she checked things out for a few minutes, then walked right over to the table, sat down and looked at her teachers like “Ok, let’s get started!” She blew us away! Just like a big girl, she was more ready for this new journey than we were! We stuck around for a few minutes but wanted to give her some space. We left the class and our Peanut in the hands of her therapist. (It wasn’t horribly bad btw…her regular in-home therapist Maria was with her the whole time!)
When I arrived to pick her up, they said she did great! They were even surprised considering it was her first day! I was so excited to see her messy and exhausted. She crashed on the way home and took a good 3-hour nap. I count that as a good day 🙂
Yesterday we headed up to San Diego to see her GI doctor. This was our 6-month return visit to monitor her growth and weight. We had been concerned about her size and weight gain. Throughout the past year, she has consistently been around 21 lbs. She has worn the same size diapers (size 3) and size 18-month clothes. Basically, she hasn’t grown. This has terrified me because she SHOULD be getting bigger.
6 months ago when we first saw the GI, they had us add high content fatty foods to her diet. This brought in regular PB and honey sandwiches, pasta, chicken, veggies, avocado, whole milk, grass-fed butter, and lots of cookies and snacks. Truthfully, our girl can eat! But her size basically looked the same.
So yesterday heading into the appointment we were worried. Discussions about doing a scope or biopsy had taken place during past appointments. They wanted to monitor her first to see if the diet would help at all. Guess what….. it did!! She gained a whopping 11 oz and grew about 1/4 of an inch. Now, that sounds like nothing. We were still concerned it wasn’t enough. But they said the goal was for her to gain 5 grams of fat a day, and she gained 7! So she passed the goal set. The doctor informed us that since she is active and hyper (literally didn’t sit still during the whole visit) that is why she is burning her calories. They were very happy with her progress. We have an appointment set up for May, but other than that, the worry is gone!
So all in all this has been a great week. I’ve been working diligently on getting my story down on paper….or computer I guess. Well, see what goes from that. But it has been very therapeutic.
I see some big things happening for our family this year. We still have a big appointment next week with her ENT to discuss her trachea surgery we’ve been waiting for. Pray for that about that please! As well as her cardiologist appointment coming up next month. She’s a busy little girl 🙂