Update

Well, things have been going pretty good. Grace's cleft palate, ear tube, clogged tear duct surgery is postponed until 2/17 due to her having an ear infection. It's all cleared up now, thank goodness. She's doing well although she started grinding her teeth again :( She is making so much progress in therapy and her therapists are just thrilled, as are we. She is getting stronger every day and has even gained almost 3 pounds. I'm trying to bulk her up a bit as I have a feeling she'll lose some weight after her surgery. The surgeon told us to plan on being in the hospital for at least a week. I will be with her most of the time and our other kids will go to back up daycare. We've done this type routine before and it's hard but we make it work. We are just praying for a successful surgery the first time. Ian's cleft palate repairs have fallen apart and he still has a hole in the front. Grace's is much less severe though so we're hopeful. Feedings are still quite difficult but once her palate is healed, we'll really hit the therapy hard. Grace also recently got glasses. She is quite far sighted and has nystagmus(cross-eyes). We were able to find frames that are made specifically for kids with Down syndrome but she won't leave them on yet. They need to be adjusted properly. Once she has her surgery, the surgeon will actually put casts on her arms to prevent her from putting anything in her mouth. Since she won't be able to bend her arms, she won't be able to take her glasses off. We will really try to get her used to wearing them at that time. The kids really love Grace and are very protective of her. Sam and Ivy are big helpers. Ivy keeps an eye on her while eating as Grace loves to get bored with her bottle and play with it. She tips it upside down and since it has a huge hole in the nipple(she can't suck or swallow so the hole is huge to allow the food to flow out when she bites the nipple and gravity pulls it down her throat as she lies flat to eat), she can make quite a mess. I'm usually cleaning up mealtime stuff by then as it takes Grace quite some time to finish a bottle. Ivy loves the responsibility. Sam holds her arms for me when I change a messy diaper as her hands go right in it otherwise. Iris is so sweet when playing with her and Ian...well, he could really care less, lol. Jon and I have adjusted to life with 5 kids. It really isn't that much harder once you already are out numbered with 3. I'm posting some family pictures we had taken just a few days after we got home with Grace. I'm not really on the ball lately and haven't even mailed out Christmas cards yet. They are coming soon though :) So here they are:

Happy Family of 7!

Our Gorgeous Girls!

Our Adorable Boys!

Beautiful Grace Nadja!