how fast a year goes!!

well, time is just flying by!  in only 51 (or less - fingers crossed) days, Lincoln's baby brother will be here - and i'll tell you, i sure am ready!!!  Lincoln seems to be getting ready too, as he took his first steps yesterday without holding anything!  He is even doing better and taking more and more today!  Thank goodness because he is HEAVY!!  only a matter of time now that the soles of his shoes will get dirty :)   Physio starts again on friday, same as speech (well, speech was supposed to start last week, but Lincoln was sick:( )  and i think i'll request sessions more often.  The last physio appointment we had was Dec. 03, and since then, Lincoln has mastered the Mowgly walk, standing up alone, and now taking steps!!!  its time to get moving!!!  Last week we had an appointment with an ear, nose throat specialist, because i've noticed Lincoln starting to snore a little bit - and occasionally stop breathing for a few seconds while he is sleeping.  The Dr. noticed he had very large adenoids, and very large tonsils... he also noticed he had fluid in his ear just sitting there.   So i am likely getting a phone call this week sometimes regarding an appointment time at sick kids to have these issues addressed. We arent having a hard time with this decision,  maybe because he has been through so much already, that getting his adenoids removed is something *normal* for children at his age.  So i guess we will be back to sick kids before the year is up, but THEN, hopefully that will be it!!!  I have titled this blog how fast a year goes, because it was one year ago on March 02 that we found out Lincoln had down syndrome.  But as i mentioned in my last blog, it had been the best year of my life!!

that time has come again....

Well, its been about a year since blood work was ordered for chromosomal abnormalities, so i suppose it was about a year ago that our lives some what changed and our trust in doctors grew (though we didnt want to admit it at the time).  When I think back to 2010, i cant help but think of how strong my husband and I have been - with all that we went through during a short amount of time... I still to this day read my first blog entry and cry (maybe because of my hormonal imbalance, but still).  I cry of happy thoughts, and memories that brought my husband and I not only closer to eachother, but closer to our special little Lincoln.  From blood work, to the results on March 2, to the pneumonia that came only 2 days after finding out he had down syndrome, to the hole in the heart that came only 2 days after the pneumonia, to the heart surgery that came 2 months later.  It seems like quite a bit to have to go through in such a short amount of time - but thanks to God, family, friends, and our trust in doctors, we stayed stronger than I ever thought we could!  Which amazes me to this day.

On a better note, we are headed back to sick kids on friday for a 6 month post op check up (even thought its been 8 months) to receive more good news!  Seeing as things tend to be progressing at a rapid rate with Lincoln these days, I'm sure the plug must be doing its job properly :)  He started standing alone - and getting there on his own!  Its only  a matter of time now that he will start walking!! YAY!!  even though i'm sure lugging his 26 lb body everywhere i go is helping me not to pack on the pounds with this pregnancy like i did with Lincoln... it sure is tiresome after everyday!  He got spoiled at christmas by all our families, and we've had to re arrange and designate a special room in the house just to store his toys - its insane!!  now my front room looks like toys r us :S  lucky little guy!  His favourite however is his ball tent - my least favourite of his is his ball tent.  A blow up tent that consists of 250 balls, which get thrown out ALL THE TIME!  It was Uncle Wes's way of starting the torture... even though if a drum set decides to come our way, i will build a shed outside for it, lol.  Other than that, He still isnt saying anything except for BOOO and MOOO and OOOO.  He points at everything that we know he know the words to, and uses some form of OOO to try to say it, its cute.  A dog for example is OO OO OO (for ruff ruff ruff)  santa is O O O (for ho ho ho) ... the best is when he is playing with his farm animals... when he sees the cow, and bursts out MOOOOOO :)  Speech starts again this month sometimes, so hopefully we'll find ways to widen his vocabulary a
little... OO OO OO :) lol. 

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and all the best in the New year! 
thanks for reading!!

happy times!

Everything is about having a good time.  Lincoln just LOVES playing, relaxing in his new chair watching his favourite cartoons, giggling, and he loves to eat!  He has mastered many skills I didnt even think were possible at his age.  He has started to whistle  -  for real.  Today he started whistling when I did, which is very impressive!  He has also learned all of the animals, and some of the animal sounds.  We got him a barn for christmas (early i  know) which came with a bunch of animals and he LOVES playing with it!  He is officially drug free for about a month now...(and by drug free I mean he is no longer on asprin for a blood thinner).  But since being off of asprin, he has gotten an ear ache in both ears (at the same time :( )  and a sore throat.  The sore throat seems to have cleared, but the ear infections seem to be having a harder time healing, so he is now on a month long of antibiotics in the hopes that the pinkness in his middle ear will disappear - seeing as his ear infection was about a month ago.  If not, we will be referred to an ENT Dr. (ear nose throat) to see if he needs to have tubes put in in replace of his own tubes - which are very narrow because he has Down Syndrome.  We had our first visit with the occupational therapist (who looks at fine motor skills),  and she says that Lincoln is right on track for any child at his age - which is amazing... making me beleive more and more that his case is just mild!!
I am 1/2 way through my pregnancy already, time sure seems to be flying by - which is great because we cant wait to meet Lincolns little brother!!!  He was so excited and gave me a high five when I told him.  I think he might have a clear idea that there is something going on, even though my belly bump isnt too big.  When we go to our friends place, who have a baby, i point out the baby, and say tickle the baby, and he scoots over and tickles the baby.  When we are home, i tell him to tickle the baby, and he scoots over to me and tickles my tummy, which is cute!!  He is starting to understand so much more - almost anything i say really, but whether he listens or not is another story - i think the terrible 2's have started early :P  We start our speech sessions again on the 3rd of December.  The speech therapist was pretty excited to learn the Lincoln has started pointing.  He points to everything like he really wants to know what it is!!   As far as his walking - well, i still think its just around the corner.  He is so close!!  he will stand all day holding on to things, and i think if my house was FULL of furnature, he would walk all day too... but its not.  He has mastered walking behind his *walking* toys, so we have a few of them around for him to cruise around with.
We go back to sick kids on Jan. 07 for another echo, which i'm pretty sure will be nothing but the same good news!!  I just find it amazing every day how much there is available to us, free of charge.  All of the therapists that are working with us are great, and Lincoln loves them all, and they really give us good ideas on how to do the activities at home - in a fun way!!

Thanks for reading!!

exciting news :)

Its been a while, and wow, how things have changed.  Our little boy is a cruiser!!  He loves walking around on furniture, and even walking while pushing boxes!  He is doing soo well, that the physio therapists said they didnt have to schedule another appointment, and i dont really have to do my daily exercises with him anymore because he is doing so well!  Hopefully he will be walking soon.  Really hoping he will be walking before his 2nd birthday because Mike and I are expecting another baby - due on Lincoln's birthday!! But by the way things are going, i'm pretty sure he will be walking!  We have gone through the first set of genetic testing, and got the results back today - tested negative for down syndrome!!!  YAY!!  On another exciting note, I have decided to start recording on paper, all of the words that Lincoln understands, and when I was finished... i had completed a FULL page!  Its amazing how fast he is learning!  He still really only says dada and baba, hey you (or what sounds like hey you) and a few other things.  Speech therapy will start up again around December, and hopefully we can get a mama out of him ;)  We are also starting occupational therapy this month, so that will be interesting to find out where he is at there... I think he is doing pretty good, but we'll see!  Other than that, not too much else is new. He got a cold the other week, but it seems to have passed without a majour infection, so thats good! (colds or flus get us a little worked up because of the fact his body has a hard time fighting the virus).   We left Lincoln for the weekend for the first time this weekend while my brother got married.  I was nervous about leaving him as he has a tendency to not eat or drink for other people... but he has been doing so well lately, that his grandpa and nanny said he did great eating and playing and sleeping!  so... i think its time for a vacation!  lol.  Other than that, i dont think there is much else new.
Thanks for reading!

The Holden's.

climbing right up on the growth chart!!

Well, we are still keeping pretty busy... yesterday we had a speech therapy class - and Lincoln said his first word - while we were playing with the ball, he said : "ba, ba, baLL"  i was shocked!  and was happy that the speech therapist got to experience it with me :)  Today we went in for a weigh in - not because we're concerned any more, but because everyone misses Lincoln at the Haliburton Highlands Family Health Team, they call, knowing that things must be going great cause they havent heard from us, but wanted to see Lincoln, so we made the trip to pop him on the scale - and HOLY!!  I mean, i know his 6-12 month clothes were getting smaller, but yesterday I noticed they didnt even fit anymore - GO LINCOLN GO!  95th percentile - the growth chart had a line that shot STRAIGHT up!!  So that is so great to know that he is finally back up there, now we just have to convince Dad that we need to go shopping for some new clothes ;)  wish me luck!!
Another thing Lincoln has really picked up on is sign language... He TELLS me when he wants to eat - that is one that he has mastered - he uses it to tell me everything, so we're working on more, and he is getting all done down pat too, which is good, because before when I would ask him if he was all done, he would sign *eating* and turn his head... but now he is getting it down... he sure is a quick learner!!

Lincolns new favourite thing to do is to pull himself up on everything!  he really enjoys standing, which is great to work out his leg muscles!  His bum scoot is faster than a running child, honest - one minute he is here, the next he is creeping over to the dogs water dish to splash.  Keeping me busy!

Our next visit to Sick Kids isnt until January - so they must not be too concerned!  YIPPEE!!!

things are going GREAT!!!

I've been a bit of a bad blogger lately, i've been pretty busy, but I will try to write more often.  Well, its been a bit over 2 months since his surgery, and Lincoln is just sky rocketing - literally!!!  Its amazing how much has changed!!  I had him standing alone for like 3 seconds the other day.  He is moving all around the house - still doing the army crawl, but he is ALL OVER! Anyone thats been to our house will know that its VERY open concept, so its hard to confine Lincoln into staying in just one room - he always seems to go for the dogs water dish... argh...  His eating has made a drastic change - as he has gained 2.5 pounds since his surgery - and likely MORE :)  He loves to eat!  He has taken a hate towards formula, so he is now on homo milk and LOVES IT!  The pediatrician said she couldnt hear the heart murmur when she listened to him, which is exciting news, and says that he looks GREAT!  The physio therapist says that she wont have to do much work with him as he is doing very well :)  This is all great news!  We've been back to sick kids on July 02 where another sedated ECHO was preformed, and I just got the results from the cardiologist - his note read - no, no, no, no, normal, excellent, excellent, normal NO MURMER :)  PLUG in place!  I cried of happy thoughts when i got it yesterday!  I am SO happy for Lincoln!!!!  2 more sedated ECHOs have yet to be preformed, but just as routine, one at 6 months from procedure, and 18 months from procedure day.  Its just too bad they have to sedate him - as he HATES that, oh well... While doing my research on Down Syndrome - I have found that there is actually a different growth chart for children with Down Syndrome - which puts Lincoln in the 75th percentile...which i find more comforting than the 4th percentile!!  Everything is looking up these days, which is exciting!  We are busy at least 2 days a week with appointments whether it be physio, speech or occupational therapy, but after every appointment, I get more ideas on how to get Lincoln reaching his FULL potential!!
Thanks for reading :)


Michelle

Heart Surgery SUCCESS!!

Well the surgery went amazing!! Its incredible that He doesnt even have a scar on him from it! We went down to Sick Kids on Wednesday for a pre-clinic, in which we speak with the surgeon, and they go over the procedure, side effects, and risk factors. The procedure would be done thru a vein in the groin, where a scope would go up to the heart with a plug to close the holes and they would put a camera down his throat to see what they were doing. Given that Lincoln has pulmonary hypertension, the risk factors were increased which scared Mike and I quite a bit. After speaking with them on Wed. they said there was a 70% chance that they would actually close the holes on Thursday, all depending on how much pressure was on his lungs, how big the holes were and how small the holes were. On Thursday we had to be at Sick Kids by 6:30 am, so that left little time for a full night sleep for us. When we got to Sick Kids, we registered and spoke with the anesthesiologist, who also informed us of the risk factors because he has pulmonary hypertension (which is a large amount of pressure on the lungs - due to oxygen flow from the heart). When the surgeon came in to take Lincoln away from us, she informed us about the chances that they would actually DO the surgery (via a catheter) ... because they usually dont do it via catheter on babies that are less than 22 lbs... which Lincoln is 18.5 lbs. After speaking with Dr. Lee (the cardiologist/surgeon), and her informing us on the chances they would do it, we asked if they would let us know what they decided, and she said no. The surgery would take approximately 1.5 hours - 4 hours... and she estimated it would be the full 4 hours because he is smaller than usual. When they took Lincoln away, we could only pray that everything would go according to God's plan. As we sat in our room, and literally watched the clock ticking, 3 hours went by and finally, the surgeon came in to let us know that EVERYTHING WENT AMAZING!!! He infact had 3 holes, and one of the holes measured to be 12mm in diameter - HUGE. They closed all 3 holes with one plug. Lincoln was in the recovery room, and we were able to see him! It was one of the most happiest moments in my life when I saw that he was OK!!! Thank you to everyone who had us in your prayers - God surely does great things!! We were in the recovery room for 3 hours where he was hooked up to machines that were monitoring every millisecond of beating his heart did. After the 3 hours in recovery (in which he was awake, but drowsy from the anesthetic, he had a 2 hour nap (in our room), and when he woke up - it was amazing how fast he had recovered. We were playing music for him and he was dancing, laughing, talking, and playing just as if nothing had happened! The next day, he had a few follow up appointments, which went well, and we were on our way HOME!! He remains on asprin for the next 6 months, just as a blood thinner, but as far as restrictions... he just cant jump in his jumparoo or straddle his toys for 5 days, which he seems to be fine about! We will have another follow up appointment in 6 weeks time, to see how the lungs are responding to the holes being closed. He is doing better eating already, and we have appointments in these coming weeks for speech therapy, occupational therapy, physio therapy, and feeding assessments - which is great! Lincoln started to put himself into a sitting position from laying down - which is great for him! (except he seems to mostly do it when he is in his crib - supposed to be falling asleep haha)
Thanks again for all of the support from family and friends! It sure makes a difference!

-Michelle