Electric fences

For 3, maybe 4, months a year our property borders an electric fence. It is about 8 feet from our chickens and the garden. It is so beautiful to get up and have coffee while watching a newborn calf nurse from his mother. I love it here. My children are growing up in the same house I did and playing in the same yard I did. Hank grew up on a small farm, so this property was a good fit for him.

I slowly feel we are becoming our own small farm. There is always something that needs done. Like yesterday. I took Goldie outside to swing. While we were out I noticed the walnuts on the ground needed to be picked up so Hank could mow the grass. I walked over to get a wheelbarrow to put them in. While getting the wheelbarrow I see that the chickens need water. I take the bucket back to the house. While I'm dunking it in the rain barrel I turn to check on Goldie. She is headed toward the cow pasture. Despite my running and screaming, she beat me to it. By a mile. I felt like I was in a race against the electric current. This time we won. The fence wasn't working. (FYI, they don't deliver a continuous shock, it travels around the fence, which is very long. I've been shocked and it hurts, but it isn't dangerous, kwim?) The neighbor called later to see if everything was ok. She was outside and heard me yelling. I told her Goldie was fine, but I was very sore and would be spending the afternoon on the couch. I'm 29 weeks pg, not a good time to start sprinting.

I really believe inclusion begins at home, but I struggle with including Goldie and keeping my sanity her safe. She usually stands and watches the chickens while I get the water. Hank taught her to pull grass and feed it to them. This is very cute, but she's gotten her fingers pecked already.

Overwhelmed No More

I've spent the last week trying to get a handle on our home and my time. Over the last year I've felt increasingly overwhelmed by the day-to-day stuff that needs done around here. So, on Saturday I handed over a volunteer job to someone better able to handle it. This is something I should have done a looong time ago. Like, after Goldie was born.

I have to come clean and admit thinking to myself after she was born, "I'm not going to change. I'm not going to let Down syndrome take over my life. I'm still going to do everything I did before. I won't become obsessed with it." Its taken me 2 1/2 years to admit that I have changed, my life and interests have changed and its not as bad as I thought it would be. Down syndrome didn't take over my life, but my love for Goldie has. She demands more of my time than I anticipated in the beginning, but who can think of a better way to spend their time.

The volunteer work I did was bookkeeping. Which is best done without the help of a 2 year old. I tried waiting until she was asleep, but she would wake up constantly and I still didn't get anything done. The bookkeeping kept getting further behind and my guilt kept growing. I put off doing crafts and projects around the house because I felt like I should be getting caught up on the work I was already committed to. I ended up getting nothing done for myself, my family, or the charity. Which led to more guilt.

Now that I've relinquished my duties, my time is once again my own. Like Hank said, "Now all you have to do is take care of the kids." Yep, that's it. HA! HA! But really, I've been planning field trips for them and organizing their rooms. I'm good at organizing when I'm pregnant!

Totally unrelated to this post, but when I was looking at my calendar, I saw that Goldie's first transition meeting is next week. Eeek! I don't feel ready for this process.

Maya Wrap Sling Before & After

Before

After


I just didn't think it would be right to wear our baby boy in a pink sling! You can also see where the fabric had really faded. I thought brown would be a good fool proof color to dye it. While I had a big pot 'o dye on my stove I dyed him a couple shirts and a pair of socks. Then the girls had a great time tie-dying their socks with what was left.

Measuring Growth

I take Goldie for her well checks, they measure her and plot it on her chart. I write the number down and plot it on my charts for her at home. Sounds simple enough. Apparently not.

Last September (18 mos) Goldie measured 32" (81cm). In March at her 2 yr appt she still measured 32". The ped noted that they must have measured wrong at the 18 mo appt because she jumped up on the curve and was now back where she should be. As spring turned to summer and we had a lot of appointments lined up for Goldie there were many more measurements taken. Always 32". Just for kicks, I measured her myself one day. Lying down, like at her 18 mo appt. I got 34 1/2" (87.5cm).

Mel commented on my last post that maybe Goldie was having a growth spurt. When she felt heavier the other morning and her pj's looked shorter I measured her again. I laid her on the hard floor with her head against the wall. I got 35 1/2" or 90cm. I waited a couple days and measured once more. Still 35 1/2".

We were having trouble getting Goldie's last blood work results from the lab, so I had a call in the ped. I asked about measuring growth when I spoke with her. I thought maybe Goldie's low tone made her shorter when she stood up. She explained that your joints compress when you stand up and they have had children "shrink" when they began measuring them standing up. Glad I asked! I gave her the measurement I had for Goldie and she wrote it in her chart.

Speaking of charts, what do you use? We use the DS charts and the WHO charts. WHO charts are based on the growth patterns of breastfed children. The reasoning for not just using the DS charts are that if they are based on children who may have less than optimal growth for any variety of reasons then they may not show a slow in growth as obviously as the WHO charts. If we want Goldie to grow as typically as possible then we need to compare her growth to a larger population of children. I forget where I first read about this theory, but it made sense to me.

New Routines

Thank-you to everyone who has been thinking about Goldie! She is doing much better. Actually, I think she's trying to make up for lost time (and weight) by eating non-stop. I still have to remind her to drink most of the time.



The only time she stops eating is to sleep.

I've spent the last week getting the big girls into their new school routine. I am homeschooling all of them again. Fortunately, the oldest takes online classes through a cyber school, so I only have to teach her math. We have been working very hard to make up the days missed while I was taking care of Goldie. With the baby due in December this is not the year to fall behind!


Mini Me's first day of school!

T & A Setback

I'm exhausted but wanted to update on Goldie's recovery. Thursday morning she wouldn't eat or drink and was very tired. After lunch when I tried to take her temp she had a nose bleed, so that sent us straight to the ER. They determined the bleeding was stopped, but she was transported to Children's Hospital for dehydration. After some convincing on my part, they admitted her. She was soooo lethargic I don't know why they even considered sending us home. We stayed until this evening. I was very hesitant to bring her home because she was not drinking reliably. Although, she was eating and running around. She's done a little eating and drinking since we got home. I wasn't able to get her new pain meds because all the pharmacies are closed on Saturday nights. (One of the reasons I wanted to stay until tomorrow am.) I'm ready for bed, but Goldie is still up. Why don't any of these meds make her tired???

Honey, We Have a Problem

That what I heard when Hank was upstairs putting up the girl's "new" bunk beds. Curious, I go up to see what's going on. He quietly takes my hand and points into our bedroom,at the ceiling. There is a HOLE and BEES are flying into the room. That was definitely not there this morning when I got a shower. While I called exterminators, he set some foggers off in the attic and sprayed some bee killer in the hole. Of course he put duct tape over it when he was done. What man could pass up a chance to use duct tape. That should hold them back until Friday when the exterminators come. I'll be sleeping on the couch in the meantime. Hank assures me its safe to sleep in our room because bees sleep at night. That's nice to know, I'll still be on the couch.

Goldie is doing ok. Her appetite is pretty good, but she's still not crazy about drinking anything. Her sleep has been horrible. She wakes up in pain. I give her the Tylenol w/ codeine. She hates it and puts up a huge fight. Then she's up for a couple hours. So, tonight we're going to try the regular Tylenol. She doesn't like it, but tolerates it somewhat better. Her sleep schedule is off and she takes longer naps during the day. Last night I couldn't get her to bed until almost 12. Then she was up by 5. Right now, she's laying on the couch kissing her baby. Maybe they're ready for bed.