Well my gorgeous little Jess turned 7 months yesterday, so it is time to write about what has happened in the past two months.
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Feeding |
I continued with breastfeeding and supplementation until Jessica was 6 months old. I was very satisfied with my achievement.
Soon after the last diary entry I gave up the breastfeeding as Jess was not improving as I had hoped. In the end it was much easier for her to take the bottle than me. I think she probably had a bit of nipple confusion mixed in with it all. I then expressed for 2 more months until my milk dried up.
Jess also started solids in this time (at 6 months). I was tentative beginning solids as I wasn't sure how she was going to go. I got a lot of advice and steeled myself for what I thought was going to be a horrible experience. But there was no need for my trepidation because Jess did really well. The main thing I found was that I needed to use a hard small headed shallow spoon. I also had to push her tongue down with the spoon to help her keep the food in her mouth. She pushed some out with her tongue but we just kept on going. She had no problems swallowing.
I began with custard as that was close in consistency to her thickened formula. Next Jess had baby cereal mixed with the custard which was a lot thicker but she happily ate it. Then we started to introduce different flavours and textures. Pumpkin was not too big of a hit. But Jess liked the chicken and beef combos. The next plan is to introduce more flavours, small lumps and then progress to bigger lumps.
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Jessica's Heart Defect |
Jessica continued to see the cardiologist once a month for a checkup for her avsd with a common valve heart defect. No deterioration was occuring which was a miracle with the state of her defect. In fact you would not know she had a serious heart defect as she was putting on weight, she had no serious feeding problems once we put her purely on the bottle (still some leakage around her mouth from the low tone of her facial muscles), she had energy and she did not have cold, clammy sweating. The only thing noted was that Jess was breathing more rapidly and was picking up colds (but I wondered if this was because she was getting a lot less breast milk so not as much immunity). We were told, the op would occur by Christmas, but we are not holding our breath on this, because she is doing so well.
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Down Syndrome Baby group |
I continued to take Jessica once every three weeks to the baby group with the FECS team (early intervention). To be truthful at times the information was overwhelming and I felt like a first time mother all over again. I had taken milestones for granted with my first two children. They had both reached their milestones quickly and without any help. One of the first things I found out was that DS babies need help to achieve their milestones, though they will achieve all milestones but at a slower pace. Once I settled myself down I took the new information to heart and set out to be educated and to help my daughter as much as I could. The FECS team was happy with her progress.
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Coming to terms with the Down Syndrome |
I thought I had come to terms with Jess having DS, but it hit me when she was 6 months old that I hadn't. I was deceiving myself. I was extremely angry that Jess had been born with DS and I was carrying a lot of societal attitudes and prejudices towards DS. The shocking thing is I don't know where I picked them up - my only guess is from the emphasis that was put on whether my other two children had DS early on in my pregnancies (both started off as babies with DS, which was later ruled out) and that DS was a terrible thing for a baby to be born with.
Talking about my feelings and acknowledging them was freeing. Releasing the anger I felt towards God, who I know loves me, and would never give me something that I could not deal with, was cleansing.
I now can love my daughter for who she is and I don't have a problem telling people that she has Down Syndrome.
After acknowledging these feelings I immersed myself with others. We went on a family picnic with our local Down Syndrome Association, and I met and talked to other mums who have DS babies. There is nothing better then talking to someone else who is walking in your shoes. These activities were all antiseptic to my soul.
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Milestones |
Jess keeps steadily progressing with her height, weight and milestones. At the end of 6 months she weighed 6.96 kg and was 64.5 cm long. She has gone from the 50th percentile to the 75th percentile on the growth charts.
Jessica continued to practice what she was already doing. We did notice though that she stopped rolling from her tummy to her back. She would roll onto her tummy and then scream when she got too tired or frustrated. We worked on this with her and at the end of the 6 months Jess started to remember what to do again.
The main milestone reached at nearly 6 months was that Jess rolled from her back to her tummy.
She also started to hold her head up high when she was on her tummy to look at objects.
She reached for and held on to a lot of different types and textures of objects. (And mouthed everything).
At about 6 1/2 months Jess found her feet and she liked to hold them one at time to begin with. By the end of the month she was holding both of them at the same time, and by the end of the month she was even sucking her toes!
She interacted with us and would follow us with her eyes. She enjoyed grabbing her daddy's goatie and my hair. She also loved holding fingers. Jess loved her brother and sister's attention and would give them big smiles and stare at them. When we talked and sung to her she would make sounds back at us.
At the end of the 6 months Jess was beginning to develop more strength in her back and was beginning to sit up straighter but she was unable to sit up unaided.
The other thing Jess would do was to stand up which she did from early on, jump up and down when being cuddled, almost like she wanted to crawl up our chest and fling herself backwards. We learnt to always have two hands on her.