Wordless Wednesday

Noah sitting with his legs crossed as he now does at pre-school

Big Cook, Little Cook

One of the kids programes Noah loves is Big Cook Little Cook, I let him watch it before he goes to Pre-school. They do a dance routine when they are about to cook and Noah joins in, he has done for a while but I managed to catch it on camera. He knows the routine off by heart as he pre-empts what they are about to do. You will have to excuse the noises in the background I had Finley on my lap at the time and he is making loads of grunting sounds. !!!

Pre-school half term update

I've been really busy this last week, what with end of pre-school meeting, Finley's 6 week check, a hospital visit for me and finalising Noah's DLA form, which is a right pain as some of you will know.

Noah was in the bad books yesterday, Pete has rock band (which is a drum kit and guitar) he left it out downstairs after playing it on Saturday evening and Noah got hold of the drum sticks on Sunday morning. I left him alone down stairs for a matter of minutes to fetch Finley from upstairs as he was crying and the drumsticks had disappeared. We had a quick search for them on Sunday but had other things to do so didn't think to much of it. Then Pete wanted to play it on Monday as my brother Matt was stopping over and they wanted to play on it together. Do you think we could find the drum sticks, we looked everywhere for hours literally. Eventually in the last place I decided to look, I pulled out the black bin bag from the bin and feel on the outside and what do I feel two drum sticks. Which leads me to wonder what else has made its way into the bin that I haven't found. Noah loves hiding things, whilst searching for these drum sticks matt put his hand down the crease of the arm to the settee and he pulls out a couple of cars and a brick. Whats that all about!?!

Noah has now done half a term at pre-school and loves it, I think he must keep Pre-school on their toes as he certainly keeps me on my toes when he isn't there. He has really settled well into a routine, he sits whilst registration, he sits for longer during story time and song time. I'm really pleased he has settled in well and cant praise the ladies at pre-school enough. Thank you.

Im trying to keep Noah busy during half term but its really hard whilst we are stuck in doors due to this horrible weather. We are hopefully off to Drayton Manor on Friday if the weather gets better.

The clock change. Noah forgot to put his clock back on Sunday and decided it would be great to get up just after 6ish. Needless to say it started to catch up on him on Monday when he was falling asleep at the dinner table. I took him out of his chair and put him on his comfy chair where he fell asleep bless him.




Finley is doing well although he has slept quite a lot today. I suppose he is getting into his own little routine and he is managing to occupy himself a lot more these day. He was weighed last Wednesday and now weighs 12lbs 9 oz he is on the 91st centile for weight, height and his head so he is in proportion. He smiles a lot more and chuckles sometimes aswell.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Photo by Catherine Tully 4 weeks ago

Local Heroes Awards, Birmingham Mail and the Pallasades (part 2)

There was a write up in the Birmingham Mail on Friday 10th October, I will be scanning the news paper in due course and putting it onto the website but for now if you click here you will see the write up. There is also a write up about Jason Donovan click here to read.

A video presentation was also composed and can be seen below.




There are photos for sale of the event on the Birmingham Mail site and can be found here.

Local Heroes Awards, Birmingham Mail and the Pallasades

Today was the Local Heroes Awards Ceremony at the Botanical Gardens we had a lovely day and I felt honoured to have been awarded a Local Hero. We arrived at the Botanical Gardens just before 12.00pm where we were greeted with nibbles and drinks. Our host was Dianne from the Birmingham Mail who wrote the news paper article last year Page 1 Page 2 Page 3
then we were in the paper again a few weeks ago here

Before we went into the room we were introduced to a number of people, firstly Carl Chinn MBE Birmingham Historian, broadcaster, newspaper columnist and author.
The second person we were introduced to was Jason Donavon, he asked what my story was and I told him about Noah's blog. Noah took to him, Jason had a bread stick in his hand and Noah pointed at it and went to eat it so Jason had to give it up and give it to him.

Everyone was asked to go into the room apart from the Local Heroes and their nominators/hosts.
We were introduced by Carl Chinn and then we walked in to the room to the table. Carl Chinn introduced a number of other celebrities along with Jason Donovan. After this dinner was served.


The food was lovely and we all enjoyed it. Picture of the pudding is below.


After the meal the awards started. There were 12 of us all together, there were a lot of remarkable stories and they were definitely hero's. 1 little boy saved his father's life, a couple caring for the elderly in their community, people raising money for charity all of these hero's will be in the Birmingham Mail tomorrow.


I was the last Local Hero to be called and I took Noah up on stage with me, although it had been a long day for him and he was still not 100% he was very good. Carl asked a few questions about why I had set the blog up, about the Solihull Down Syndrome Group and the support I get from my family. I would just like to mention that I have an incredible partner and family who are extremely supportive and are always on hand to help out with Noah and now Finley, so I would like to thank them because without them I wouldn't have been awarded Local Hero.

I was awarded a copy of the news paper article framed, along with a plaque my name on it and a cheque for £100.00.



There is going to be a big write up in the Birmingham Mail tomorrow. I am very grateful to the Birmingham Mail and the Pallasades for a lovely day along with our great host Dianne, Pete and Mum also really enjoyed it and the two little ones were really good. Noah didn't throw any food thank goodness and Finley slept for the whole 4 hours the little star.



Also on our table were two people from Gough Allen Stanley, Michelle and Sunny they work with Drayton Mannor. I think their company is looking into supporting the event or doing something with the Birmingham Mail next year. They were really lovely and have said they will send some tickets for us to take Noah to see Thomas at Drayton Manor where he can ride on Thomas and meet the fat controller. Noah will really love riding on Thomas, we have not taken him to Drayton Manor before but I think he is now getting to the age when he will really enjoy it and he'll love going on all of the rides. So thank you Michelle and Sunny we are really grateful and thank you from Noah.

Hopefully I will be able to get my hands on some more of the pictures from today and will post them as and when I get them. It's been a very long day and I need to get some sleep before Noah decides to wake and Finley wants feeding.

Finley - 4 weeks old today

Finley 4 weeks old

Today Finley is 4 weeks old, this time has gone so quickly, but it also seems like we have had him forever. He is really alert he holds his head really well and its as if he is older than 4 weeks old. He now smiles at times he loves looking at the photos on the wall of his brother Noah. He loves being held and cuddled. He still crys with terrible wind but he is learning to deal with it along with the help of cool boiled water and infacol, he is breastfeeding on demand and therefore has no regular routine, he wakes up about 2 or 3 times during the night but then goes back to sleep. Its so much simpler feeding Finley than Noah, I don't have to wake Finley up for feeds like I had to do with Noah.

Finley

The health visitor came in today and he now weighs a wopping 11lb 7oz and he is an incredible 56cms centile in length. He is on the 91st for his weight and between the 75th and 91st centile for his length. He is a little pudding.

Noah 6 weeks old in the same trousers that
Finley is wearing

'Safer' test developed for Down's

Noah 1 day old

The following news article was posted on the BBC News website yesterday regarding a new safer test for down syndrome during pregnancy. News article.

Personally I think if this test is introduced (which the BBC report they will be introduced in the next few years) lots more people will terminate their pregnancies due to down syndrome. When we found out about the risk, we had a 1/61 chance of Noah having down syndrome we decided not to have an amnio to confirm whether he did or did not have down syndrome, for us it would not and has not made any difference. If it had been confirmed whilst I was pregnant with Noah the he definitely had down syndrome I don't think I would have enjoyed the pregnancy at all worrying about how we would cope thinking worst case scenarios. Instead when I was handed this little bundle of joy and I knew that he had down syndrome by just looking at him it didn't seem to matter. I could see that this little baby had all his fingers and toes he was a healthy little chap and it didn't matter.

Some people do not know how to handle the unknown, they are scared and therefore this is why I think there will be more terminations. If only they could spend a day with Noah or any child with down syndrome they would find out that yes they may be hard work but the amount of joy that you get back from the child is incredible.



I think that some of the medical professionals should also by re-educated to down syndrome. During are stay in hospital after Noah was born we had to go and see the baby doctor, you know when they do all the checks to make sure that the baby is doing everything they should be doing. Well I took Noah into this room with the doctor and after she had examined him she said you are aware of the risk you had of 1/61 chance of the baby having down syndrome "well I am sorry to tell you he does have down syndrome". I was shocked at the way she had said this and told her not to be sorry we new the risk and it didn't make a difference one way or the other he was our baby and I was just happy he had arrived safely and he was healthy. Why are some people in the medical profession so negative. I have heard story's of mothers been told to leave their child at the hospital because the child wont be able to do anything. How awful to be told this absolute nonsense. On a positive note not all medical professionals are like this (thank goodness) and we have met a lot of understanding and genuine medical professionals.

Sickness

We have had a pretty crappy weekend, Noah has been unwell, he developed a temperature after Pre-school on Thursday and because he has such small tubes to his nose which is normal to children with down syndrome he always suffers with snotty noses and loads of congestion. I took him to the doctors on Friday in case it had got onto his chest, the doctor prescribed some de-congestion medicine. He was just miserable all weekend so I kept him off pre-school on Monday. He started to perk up and this morning was fine so I brought him along to pre-school but he wasn't his normal self and fell asleep so pre-school called me and I picked him up early. He is now feeling a lot better as he is back to his mischievous self getting into everything, climbing and talking on the telephone. He is still left with his snotty nose and red sore face which is likely to continue throughout the winter.

Speech & Language and an update on Noah

Finley is getting bigger

Speech and Language

I took Noah to Speech and Language on Tuesday he went and sat on the chair straight away. I think there were quite a few distractions as we weren't in our normal room but Noah did say "C" into the microphone he said "Car" and "Key" into themicrophone which was fab. I managed to get him to keep his hearing aid on by keeping his hands occupied. He did keep taking it off but I kept putting it back on and he was leaving it on for longer.

When I drop Noah off at pre-school there is a set routine, we go into the hall and he has to find his name in the rack, he then takes it to Amanda his key worker at the green table. So when I dropped him off later on Tuesday all the name cards had been placed into piles. He went over to the rack to try and find his name. He has settled intoPre -school and his routine really well and its helping at home with his sleeping patterns. He has dropped his afternoon sleep and is going to sleep between 6 - 7.30 which is fantastic as I get an evening, well that's if Finley sleeps. Noah then wakes up between 6.45 - 7.30am.

He is so gentle with Finley and here is a picture of him being a great big brother.

Funny video clip of daddy and Noah when he was little

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Wordless Wednesday

Noah with his hearing aid band on