6 Months

It’s hard to believe that Austin was born six months ago(February 24th)! Six months ago, we were so scared. It was supposed to be a joyous time. Instead, we were faced with not knowing if our son had Down syndrome or not. All I wanted to do was take him home. I didn’t care what he had or didn’t have. I had a C-Section, so we had to stay in the hospital for 3 days. Those were 3 days of various doctors coming to talk us and nurses taking my baby to try and get enough blood from his body to analyze his chromosomes. They never were able to get a sample; we ended up having to take him to Children’s Hospital a few days after we were released.

Austin has come so far in the past 6 months. He’s 15 pounds and 25 ½ inches long…which means he’s doubled his birth weight! He’s eating all sorts of baby food and loves his banana yogurt. He doesn’t eat a lot of baby food at once, maybe a little less than half a jar at a time. He’s a finicky eater, just like his mommy. ;-) He can roll over from tummy to back and back to tummy. We’re working on sitting independently and getting into the crawling position. It’s a constant struggle because he doesn’t enjoy bearing weight on his arms. It may take a while, but I know he’ll do it when he’s ready. If I were to say it doesn’t make me a little bit sad when I see other babies his age doing these things that he struggles with, I’d be lying. It’s a reminder that he's going to struggle with certain milestones and tasks. As a parent, that’s very painful because no one want to see their child struggle. I have to remind myself what Austin HAS accomplished. He’s defied the odds in so many ways. He’s healthy and we have SO much to be thankful for. We wouldn’t change a thing. Not. One. Thing.


Birthdays are a BIG DEAL at our house!



You only turn 6 months once!

Our next goal is to “Sleep Train” Austin. Yes, my child still sleeps in our room…IN BED WITH US. (Bad Mommy, I know.) It all started when Ryan was working out of town during the week and he’s still sleeping with us at 6 months old. We have a King size bed and I don’t know how I end up on the very edge…every night!? I have to admit, it’ll be nice not to be kicked by a baby or wake up with a back ache due to sleeping on the very edge of the bed. However, I’ll miss not being able to cuddle with my sweet boy and watch him as he sleeps so peacefully. He needs to sleep in his own bed and we know this…I’ll just miss him being so close to me at night.



It looks worse than it is. Most of the icing ended up on his shirt.



Cupcakes are fun!

We’ve also come so far as a family during the past 6 months. It may seem like Down syndrome might weigh on a marriage, but it’s quite the opposite. We pull together during the struggles. We don’t take the good times for granted…and the good times outweigh the struggles, by far. Our life is so much more “normal” than anyone might think. We both want to freeze the time and hold on to these precious moments because they go by too fast.