Sunday, February 7, 2010

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!

10 comments:

Jon said...

Good job of the site redesign, it looks great!

And patiently waiting... said...

Beautiful blog to match a beautiful family!!! Such cute pictures of the kids!!!

amyl4 said...

Sarah, you have a BEAUTIFUL family!!!
Amy

Sue said...

Beautiful pictures....Iris looks so big (I know the other ones do to..but Iris really does). Glad to hear things are getting better and you are getting into a routinue

chaosdiaries said...

Beautiful!

Gardenia said...

I love your new blog header. what a beautiful family OF SEVEN you have. what beautiful pictures. i love the green -- so unique. Iris is beautiful and growing -- she's about my daughter's age, I seem to recall. and the littlest one -- what a precious blessing. they are ALL blessings from God, aren't they! happy happy to you. and you look great!

Kelly said...

Sarah, she is just beautiful! As is your whole family! I guess I didn't realize you had so many adopted kiddos! Love it! :)

** Could the recurrent teeth grinding be part of the ear infection?

Tami said...

Perfectly beautiful! You are very blessed!

Shan said...

Are you by chance "My Girls R Angels"? Hope so...I'm responding to a comment that you left on Half Soled Boots today.

Butylated hydroxytoluene - commonly known as BHT, one of the preservative that has been villified for being potentially cancer-causing. It's used to coat the inside of cold cereal bags to keep the cereal fresher, for one thing, and it's an additive in all sorts of things - from rubber to shortening to embalming fluid. It prevents the spoilage of fats by oxidation - exposure to the air. Most fats don't have a long shelf life, but people want to buy products from far away - so in order to facilitate the transport and storage of food far from the grow site, manufacturers add these chemicals for 'freshness'. (Hence the embalming fluid connection....ew.) And we eat it all the time.

No wonder it's so hard for me to lose weight....my damn fat keeps getting preserved!

likeschocolate said...

Hi! Thanks for visiting my blog! You asked what hotel I stayed in while in China and in Guangzhou we stayed in the China Hotel which is a Marriott. There are two great parks with one being on each side of the park. Can't loose! The only thing with that hotel is that their aren't many restaurants near by, so you have to take a taxi to get something to eat!