31 for 21 Day 3

Today was cleaning day, oh how I hate that my weekends are filled with chores! But that's the price I have to pay to have relaxing nights during the week. We rearranged the furniture in the family room, I think I'm gonna like it. Addy has so much "stuff" that we are taken over! She has a bazillion toys and a stander and a gait trainer that take up quite a bit of room. She doesn't have her own room yet so that's really the only place to store them. We are working on moving Jake downstairs so Addy can have his room. There isn't another bedroom downstairs but we have an area that is really wasted space and his bed and "stuff" would fit there. He's really excited about it, we'll have to see if it works out!

Okay a bit about DS today, most of you know this, but we chose Addy. We chose to have a child with Down syndrome. We waited over two years for her. The only specification we had that she be a girl. We didn't care what race or health condition. Just girl. So granted Addy had a plethora of health issues that were very intimidating but we managed. Addy did have your "typical" heart condition associated with DS, her PDA, but it was repaired before we ever got her. However, Addy's main issue have been gastrointestinal. About 3% of infants with Down syndrome are born with an imperforate anus, meaning that there is no open anus from which stool can be passed. Addy also had duodenal atresia, about 5% of babies with Down syndrome have a duodenal obstruction, which means that the first part of the small intestine—the duodenum—becomes blocked. Usually this occurs because the duodenum developed differently during the fetal period. The end result is that digested food cannot pass through the duodenum; surgery is curative. So Addy came to us with a colostomy. Actually, two colostomies. She had a mucous fistula as well. Her birth mother told me that it was placed because it was really just an opening that oozed "gunk" from her belly. No, she didn't say gunk, she told me what it was and for the life of me I can't remember what it was! So here is a picture of Addy's belly when she came home. Wasn't she a chunk! She weighed 19lbs 7 oz. when we brought her home. See why I've been concerned about her weight???

Here's what her belly looked like the night before her colostomy closure (12/25/07).

And this is what it looked like after it got all healed and the staples removed!