I Am Still Here

Hello again and yes I am still here. The transition of taking care of John on a daily basis has kept me very busy with little time for other things. I miss working at a regular paying job but I must say that staying home with John has been one of the best decisions that Joy and I have made. We have committed ourselves to giving John the best start in life that we can give him. This has not only benefitted us/me but we consider it as our gift to John.

When I think about the ways that I have benefitted from this situation, I think about patience. I think that I have learned and continue to learn to have more patience. For example, when giving John the bottle he sometimes has a little trouble getting things to work right for him to get a good seal. I am learning that sometimes it may take extra time from me to help him to get the motions but eventually he will get this. He doesn't require help every time he feeds but sometimes he just needs more time. Granted, this may be just normal baby issues but I don't remember us having this much trouble with our other children. Either way, we know that he is doing well with his feedings because he is steadily gaining wieght. Another issue that I have noticed from John that is different is the reflux issue. I had written about this before and yes we are still dealing with this but we now understand what brings this on and how better to help him. We have learned that after feeding him, he requires burping. Now I know as an experienced Dad that every baby requires burping after eating but John does not burp well at all. I may sit and burp him for 15 min with no burp but I know that as soon as I lay him down, he will have trouble. So I have learned that I need to do what it takes to get it out of him before laying him down.

John is also becoming very interactive. He loves to be sung to and I enjoy seeing the way he studies my mouth movements as I sing to him. His eyes become glued to my mouth motions until I finish singing. He is also begining to smile a lot. His smiles coos are wonderful and I love to hear and see them.

His head control is still improvng as he is better able to hold his head in mid-line and not let it flop from side to side. He still has a little troulbe with front to back but we continue to work on this and I am confident that he will be able to do this in his own time. I know that I may not be able to change his timeline but at the same time, I want to keep him challenged.

Also, I would like to challenge you to visit www.family.org and listen to the program entitled Remembering Johnny Stallings. This is a story of how a coaches son with Down syndrome impacted not only his Dad, but the world around him. Thanks Rene' for sharing.