appointments

Our life has been full of appointments this week.

Two trips to Children's Hospital this week--one to genetics, one to opthamology. We went to see a geneticist to find out what kind of Down syndrome Moriah has (there's a fun fact for you that you probably didn't know: there's more than one type, and more than one way DS is created, and it's not always hereditary). In the end, I was glad for the information (it's not hereditary in our case), but it really doesn't make a difference, as no geneticist of any other kind of doctor for that matter can tell us exactly what Moriah's course of life will be. I will say it was enormously frustrating to be asked questions like, "How far did you make it in school? Do you have any history of mental retardation?" and so on. Frustrating because I shouldn't be embarrassed to be asked such questions, but felt a need to defend myself, which only shows how much of my pride and life still hinges on a narrowly defined view of "intelligence." Afterwards, I thought I should have answered with something smart-aleck-y, like "Well, I really enjoyed fourth grade until I dropped out." :) In opthamology, we learned that Moriah does not need glasses (yet), but will if her shifting eyes don't self-correct, and if she continues to cross her eyes now and then. We go back in six months. My favorite part of that visit was when the Harvard-trained opthamologist asked me, "How often does she cross her eyes?" and I actually replied, "I don't know, I haven't counted." I think I'm suffering from appointment-fatigue and from feeling like there are a zillion things that "can" go "wrong" with a kid with DS, and I'm expected to keep "tally" of all of them, rather than just enjoy my daughter. It's energy-draining.

Today's appointment--back to GI. He promised me a month ago he wouldn't change Moriah's formula again, but she IS having trouble with reflex, and if he finds blood in her stool again, goodness knows what he'll decide. Today, I'll get to answer really fun questions like, what color is her stool? how solid is it? how frequent? why do you think she has reflux? and so on. Maybe it's the questions I'm finding so very tiring.

Also, the pediatricians this week for her two-month vaccinations (she's late because of her surgery), a visiting nurse, EI...this staying at home thing has NOT been the slow-paced life I thought it would be.

Moriah, though, is a joy. She's laughing now, and smiling a TON. She talks incessantly, to the surprise of our nurse and EI--they say she's advanced in that department, which is no surprise, since I pretty much talk to her nonstop. :) She's beginning to learn about her hands, and has a mean grab. It's pretty fun to hang out with her these days.

No news yet on our house...speaking of apponitments, house-shopping has added quite a few. :) We're hoping our offer on a house in West Bridgewater will be at least responded to by day's end today. In the meantime, we keep packing a box here and there when we can, and we're making plans this weekend to clean up our yard, put our garden to rest for the winter, and get some more packing done.

Off to GI...with boys in tow (they're home today)!