Cute times four

Sam, Justin, Jaxson, Carter

Is this not the cutest picture? Four special little boys all sitting in a row. I went to drop off a blankie I had helped Jaxson's mom with and Justin and Sam and their Mom's were dropping off dinner at Jaxson's house. It is so amazing to meet other Mother's going through similar circumstances. All these boys have similar mannerisms and we just sat and watched them watch each other. We swapped stories and found out that none of us knew while we were pregnant that we were having a boy with Down Syndrome.

I feel so blessed to have been able to meet these special angels and their mothers. I am grateful for the blog world that lets us find new friendships and allows us to know that we are not alone in this journey. It gives me comfort knowing that so many people have traveled this journey before and so many will follow and we can share and support each other through milestones and hard times.

We can't wait to see these cute boys again!!

Third time's the charm

Number 1 kid was severely allergic to milk, wheat and eggs (he outgrew his allergies at age 5).

Number 2 kid is severely allergic to peanuts and still is.

Number 3 kid is NOT ALLERGIC to anything!! Hallelujah!!

We made it through the allergy testing and Carter came out a winner. He has no dietary restrictions!! Of course he has had more than his fair share of other problems - but we are thankful for this blessing. I was thinking the night before the test about what it would mean if he was allergic to something and I was worried about his cognitive ability to understand that we weren't depriving him from certain foods but that it could be a life threatening situation.

So he was awake when he was getting poked - but alas he fell asleep as we waited for the timer to tell him he was done....I tried to get an awake picture - ha!ha! (If you don't understand why this is so funny - read the post just before this one)

This is the skin prick test. The really red mark on the top left of his back is the control so it always turns into a hive. Then you can see the numbers 1, 3 and 5. If he was allergic to anything the red spot on each of those lines would have turned into a hive depending on what he was allergic to. As you can see there are no hives!!

We haven't received the results of the sleep study yet. I called the pediatricians office today and the nurse said the results are there - but the doctor is the one that has to tell me the results and he had left early today. She left him a note to call me with the results so I hope to hear from him tomorrow!

I see a theme developing

OK so today I was going to do another post - and then I was looking back at my other posts and all of a sudden I notice a recurring theme. I won't post the pictures - I guess I will have to spread them out so I can get out of this rut I seem to be in.

So could it be that I only think to take pictures when my kids look like angels (sleeping) or does Carter seriously have an issue with sleeping?

Today I took a really cute picture of him outside in his swing.......ASLEEP.

Later today we hooked up the bike trailer and took a long ride and I took a picture of Carter.......ASLEEP.

Neither of these activities started out with him being asleep. So to all you mothers who are dealing with children who are not sleeping - please don't think that Carter sleeps all day - because he doesn't - it would just seem that way because of my blog posts. I will try to come up with a new theme and it will be something along the lines of Carter being AWAKE.....

Tomorrow morning we head off to the allergist to get Carter tested for food allergies. It is just something we have to do because our other two kids have both been allergic to some foods. We are praying that he doesn't have to deal with food allergies - but if he does we are pretty much experts on how to tackle this one. I can guarantee that Carter will be AWAKE during the testing.

A peaceful nights sleep - yeah right!

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So Monday night Carter had his sleep study done and boy what a fun time we had. We arrived at the hospital at 8:00 p.m. and started this whole process. After filling out pages of paperwork and putting him in his pj's we were all set to hook him up.

This is Carter all happy and laughing while we waited for the technician to come in with all the electrodes.


He was being so funny and laughing so much. When the technician came in she asked if he was sleepy yet - I kind of laughed and said, "Does it sound like it?" Yeah not really.

We started hooking him up to everything at 9:15 p.m. and he was finally ready to go at 10:00 p.m. I fed him his bottle and off to sleep he went. I wish I could have taken pictures as they were putting everything on but I was in front of him trying to keep him happy and keep his hands busy so he wouldn't pull everything off.


They tried to keep him on room air - but his saturations would not cooperate at all. After a few minutes of hanging out in the low 80's they had to turn on the oxygen. I kept telling them that hanging out in the low 80's is not normal at all for Carter. He is usually 86 and above. Honestly though, with all the tape, the sensor in his nose, the cannula and everything else - there probably wasn't enough room to breathe in enough room air to keep his saturations up. This kind of frustrated me - but I guess we will see what the study shows. He slept pretty good - only fussing two times during the night. I on the other hand did not sleep so well. It was hard to sleep through all the people coming in and out and the camera on the wall recording everything.

They came in at 6:00 to wake us up and do a lab draw on Carter. The lab technician said Carter must have passed his sleep study because he was asleep. I asked him to do a soft poke so as not to wake him and guess what? Carter slept through the whole blood draw - that man gets an "A".

The technicians then came in and started unhooking everything - and they sat Carter up and he clearly did not want to be awake yet. He kept fussing - but his eyes were closed. When his eyes decided to open he gave the technician the biggest grin. She wanted to go and get the camera and take a picture of Carter because he was being so cute. Her words were, "He would make a great candidate for our after picture on our flyer - look how happy he is - see sleep studies aren't so bad!" But how anyone can sleep with all the wires coming out of everywhere is beyond me!

We now get to wait 2-3 weeks for the results. Can't wait to hear what they say!

One minute and thirty seconds = too long!

Evidently one minute and thirty seconds is too long to wait for your breakfast oatmeal to cook.......


Carter didn't make it - oh well - maybe after a nap he can eat it.

We went to the speech therapist on June 2 and she was happy to see his progress. She said we need to start moving more toward table foods and not so much baby food. Hence, we were going to try regular oatmeal - but as you can see it takes too long to prepare. He has tried some biter biscuits and he does pretty good at holding them and getting them to his mouth - what a great concept!!

It is the last day of school - mixed emotions there. Ashleigh isn't feeling well so here we sit on our last day together watching a movie on the couch. She is missing her last day of preschool swim party and is devastated. Life is just not fair. Yesterday she did have a really fun day by spending hours and hours at the zoo with the preschool class.

No more pencils......no more books!!! Yeah - summer is here!!