What it takes to make a reader.......................

My only hesitation with posting this pic, is that people will look at it & think "That's too much work".  Remember, this is a picture of 3 years of work.  We started out making a few cards here & there & weren't really dedicated until our daughter was about 18 months old.  Now that we are going through 40 plus cards a week, I write most of them out on an index card with a felt pen & it takes seconds per card.  My laminator actually gets time to cool off now! Most of these cards have pictures on one side & a word on the back because my daughter refused to read anything without a picture until quite recently. 

We really couldn't fit them all in our living room & kitchen!  This is most of K's cards, stacked in sets.  I couldn't get the cards from the last 6 months ago or so because we ran out of space - and we are going through more than 40 cards per week! The very large cards in the background are some of the very large cards we used when she was a baby.

Her adoring fans.....................

K lined up several of her animals & read books to them this morning!

The squeaky wheel........................

I don't complain very often, but after 5 months of waiting my dd was still not getting any speech (or OT or PT) therapy.  I think that the neurodevelopmental program that we started a few months back is going to make a big difference with this, but I don't like to leave any stones unturned.........so I became that proverbial squeaky wheel (I was polite about it though!).  It worked!  K will be starting speech right away with the speech therapist of my choosing.  It  will mean a couple of hours of driving to get an evaluation & program set up for the local person to follow, but to my knowledge, she is the best speech therapist within more than a days drive.........maybe a few days drive!  K will also be getting OT & PT through the same organization.  I am so excited!

I do  have to add that the local person in charge of K's IEP was NOT to blame for the lapse in services.  I respect her & appreciate her so much for all she has done for our school, community & children.

K's word cards

Because babies eyes are  not as well developed, we started with very large words.  We continued with this for a little longer than is recommended because K is nearsighted & has congenital nystagmus. It has only been in the last 8 months that she has had an accurate eye glass prescription - sometimes I wonder how she has learned to read as many words as she does!

The phrase in the picture above is the size we often use now, although she can read any print that we find in storybooks now & often she likes to read the back of the cards which has very small print like in the picture below or even smaller.

Time to hit the slopes

Look at me Mom!

Skiing  is hard work - Time for a rest!

Learning to Crawl - Crawling Track

By the time K was about 6 or 7  months of age, I had been reading a lot about Glenn Doman & his organization - IAHP. 
http://iahp.org/

Some of the stories of kids with DS on this program are pretty inspiring

I bought a few of his books including this one:


Which can be purchased here:

http://www.gentlerevolution.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=G&Product_Code=0206

In his book, Glenn Doman talks about not helping our kids to sit until they are able to get into that position themselves.  He also encourages allowing them a lot of tummy time & encourages teaching them to crawl on their belly & creep in a four point position as much as possible. This made a lot of sense to me.  Not only that, I could understand  how a sitting baby could play with toys you give her in new ways, but a crawling baby has a whole new world open up for them to explore.  In my opinion, they are stimulated in so many more ways & exposed to so many new & wonderful things by being able to crawl.



We took Glenn Doman's advice from the book & built a crawling track. Ours was a home made crawling track.  It looked something like this, only ours was a little longer:



Here is a picture of our crawling track.  I can't find my original & for some reason the quality is really bad.  Hopefully you can get a bit of an idea.  The frame is made of wood & the covering is naughahyde.  It is a little dusty in the pic & leaning up against the garage wall, but it gives you a bit of an idea.  The darker patches were for contrast to help with vision & stimulation.  Some people use the black, white & red infant stimulation cards for this, & I actually did try to place things like that on the wall beside where we had the track.

The crawling track was wonderful for helping K to learn that she could be mobile, a little earlier than she would have realized otherwise.  At first we raised one end of the crawling track up.  By keeping the track on an incline, K was able to use gravity to help her begin to move.  Before long, she would begin to move her arms & legs & inch her way down the track. As she became more mobile, we lowered the track until she was able to crawl when it was sittingflat.  We were so excited the day that she crawled off the track & just kept going!  She was only 8 months old! 

K soon became very proficient at crawling on her belly, & by 12 months of age, she was crawling in a four point position & even pulling to stand.  Although she was pulling to stand, we encouraged her to crawl, not to walk & gave her every opportunity possible.  While on a family holiday when she was 14 months, we allowed K to crawl through museums, parks, beaches, etc.  I'm sure we horrified some first time, or germ concerned mommies, but K got tons of exercise & stimulation.  I did find myself washing her hands about every 5 minutes though & thankfully she never caught any type of cold or illness over it.

If you have any question about how we made our crawling track feel free to ask in the comments or just check out the Physically Superb book.  Also, there are a few videos on You Tube that you can check out.

This blog has a great crawling track tutorial.

9 years later! My breastfeeding Story.

I finally don't have a breastfeeding baby, so I added it all up the other day.......................I have breastfed 4 babies for a total of about 9 years! This close to 1/4 of my life!  Wow! I have seen other ladies post about earning their  bronze or golden booby awards.............I would love to know what 9 years (3.5 with my youngest) has earned me!

Before I launch into my breastfeeding story, I want to say that I do understand that not every baby can be breastfed, especially those with complicated medical problems.  However, please don't let anyone tell you that your baby can't do it. Unless your baby has a medical problem that truly prevents them from breastfeeding, it is worth a very determined effort. I have heard many stories of babies with DS that struggled for a long time, but had determined moms that kept offering & their babies finally learned at 4, 6, or even 9 months of age.  Don't give up!  In the mean time, pumped milk also offers many benefits.  This article by Sarah Rosenfeld Johnson  will be helpful in avoiding some of the problems babies with DS may experience.

 The article is called: The Oral-Motor Myths of Down syndrome & can be viewed here:

  http://www.talktools.com/s.nl/it.I/id.20/.f 

For babies with DS, I truly believe breastfeeding is even more important than with typical babies.  I'm sure it has been another of the key factors in K's speech development.

One thing that I have learned as a mom, is that every baby is different & a mom really has to adapt to each baby's needs. When my oldest dd was born, I was very determined that she would breastfeed.  Luckily, she was great at nursing & taught me a lot.  It was my 3rd baby that I struggled with the most of my 4, but I am thankful to have had that learning experience. By the time K was born, I had a lot of experience with various breastfeeding problems & was a lot more prepared than if she had been my first. 

K was very sleepy as a newborn.   This is common in babies with DS.  Thankfully she had  very good

suck -swallow coordination which helped a lot.  In the early days, she could not stay awake long enough to get a full feed in.  We all know how beneficial breast milk is & my natural stubborn streak kicked in at full force, & I was determined that this baby would be fully breastfed.  Besides, being an experienced mom of 4 kids, I still had no clue how to give a baby a bottle:)!

The first few days were difficult.  Her wakeful periods were so short that she just couldn't get enough & we'd spend the next hour or so trying to get a few more swallows in.  Finally, the wonderful, & wise grandmotherly nurse who was the go to at our hospital for nursing problems, came up with an idea.  This is a very rural hospital & I'm not sure if they even have a supplemental nursing system (commonly known as a SNS) as in the picture below:

Instead, we used a syringe attached to a very tiny tube & as K nursed, we slowly injected additional, pumped breast milk.    Because she got a lot more milk with less effort, she was quickly able to get enough in this way. As she became more wakeful over the next couple of months, she was able to fully breastfeed & I gladly put the breast pump away.

I was lucky that this was all it took to get K nursing.  I know it has been much harder for many of you & I applaud all of your efforts. To those of you reading this who are still expecting or have a newborn, check out this site it has some wonderful resources:

http://downsyndromepregnancy.org/breastfeeding-experts/

This is a link to post  on breastfeeding - the comment section will be helpful. You will find many other interesting topics on this site as well.