Aubrey reached the 3 month mark today. It seems like we haven't stopped running around since the day she was born. Now that summer is starting to wind down and I actually have some time to sit down and think, I decided it was time I did a little writing about my sweet little Aubrey.
Many people have asked if Aubs is a good baby and my answer has always been YES. She is such an angel. Seriously. I don't know how she could be more perfect. She hardly ever cries. She sleeps at least 10 hours through the night (and has pretty much from the beginning). She still sleeps a lot during the day but when she is awake, she is very content. She loves to be snuggled, and will let you do this for hours on end if desired - but does not expect to be held constantly. It has taken her a little longer to give smiles freely but when she does, they pretty much melt your heart.
She can often be found with her tongue sticking out- this is a common thing for children with down syndrome- but I love it! I also love that she has hair that I can play with. Not much but still...
One of the benefits of having down syndrome is that we get to have a nurse/physical therapist come to our house once a month to work with Aubrey. When she comes to our house, she lays Aubrey on the floor and watches her for a few minutes and then is able to tell us what sort of exercises we should be doing with her to help make her stronger. By doing this, we are able to catch certain things before they become a problem. For example. Aubrey has amazing strength in her legs but not so much in her core. When she was about a month old she was already able to roll herself from her stomach to her back because she would flip her legs up so high she would roll. When our nurse saw her doing this she was able to tell me that I need to hold her bottom down during tummy time so that she is not relying on the bottom half of her body therefore giving her upper body a chance to build up the muscle. Who would have known? Definitely not me. This month we are working on further strengthening her core by holding Aubrey in a sitting position with our hands under her armpits- giving her enough support to hold up her head by herself without arching her back to do so... We also have some special sit ups and leg crunches we do with her (once again to encourage her not to arch her back).
Aubrey loves to suck on her fingers. Normally I would not encourage this but she has such a hard time keeping the binky in her mouth- due to the fact that she sticks her tongue out so much- that she gets so frustrated.
The only complaint I have, is that I can not seem to get her to gain any weight! And really, I mean any. Granted babies with down syndrome do tend to develop slower, but even on the DS growth chart she is only in the 27th percentile (1st percentile on the normal charts). She is barely over 8 pounds at 3 months old. I was 8 lb 3 oz at birth! I know I had an over abundance of milk when she was in the hospital- making double what she was eating. Somewhere along the line though, she must have decided not to eat as much or something because I could slowly tell my milk was disappearing. As of today, she is being completely bottle fed. This makes me quite sad, especially because I worked so hard to make this work in the beginning (another story for another time). Even though I hate that it had to end, I know it had to happen. Sometimes it really isn't better for the baby to be nursed... this being one of them.
Really though, this little struggle is nothing compared to what we could be dealing with. And for that I am grateful.
I love you sweet little Aubs!
