From: Kraig
Warnemuende <ad6075@wayne.edu>
Date: Mon
Jul 4, 2005 3:57:28 PM
America/Detroit
To: Kraig
Warnemuende <ad6075@wayne.edu>
Subject: 07-04-05 Update from Kraig, Loren, Keren and Little One
Dear Friends and Family,
Happy Independence Day!!!
As you can see from the subject line, we are still in waiting mode
for Little One's advent. It's hard
to believe that she is due in just about a week! At the moment she's not showing any signs of wanting to make
an appearance, but we're praying it might be soon! In fact, my dad has put out a prayer request to friends and
family that she be born on the 9th--which just happens to be my mom's birthday
:) . His other deep desire is that
she is born before he leaves for a four-week teaching trip to China on the
13th. Trust me, I won't complain
if his prayers are heard! :)
Life is continuing well here, and the last few months have been
busy ones. Before I get into the
details, though, I have good news:
I've finally updated our webpage!
Here's a review of the info:
Homepage:
http://webpages.eng.wayne.edu/~ad6075
(On this page, click on "Keren Elyse" to get to all of
Keren's pages; you can also click on the family page to see pictures of our
immediate families; the one page I haven't updated is the one of my paintings.)
To see the first of Keren's new pages use the following
address:
http://webpages.eng.wayne.edu/~ad6075/Pages/Keren_Elyse/Keren_September-November_2004/index.html
Remember that the address has to all be on one line to link. There are no extra spaces.
With any picture, you can click on the thumbnail size to see a
bigger photo.
These pages will give you a little taste of what Keren has been
doing over the last few months.
She continues to amaze us with her strides, and we love her smiles and
giggles more all of the time. She
has grown a good bit this past year; every time we look at her it seems like
she's stretched a little taller and looks more like a little girl than a
baby. Overall she's been
healthy--just a few colds, and a bout with the flu. She had some sort of fever/cold last week that made her
miserable; fortunately her good spirits have returned even though she's got a
bit of schnozz and cough left, poor kiddo.
Developmentally Keren continues to move along a slow upward
trend. She loves to practice
standing and take steps, so long as she has someone there to give her
support. Her balance continues to
improve, though. In April she went
through a phase of popping up on her hands and knees regularly--we thought she might just start crawling--but then she
stopped and went back to rolling.
Her physical therapist said this is pretty typical for any kid's
development, though. They do
something for a while, then stop, then start up again better than before. We know we've seen this trend with
Keren before, too, so that's encouraging.
She continues to be more interactive with us and with toys. Cause and effect toys that make music
and light up are one of her favorite types now (oh joy to the parent's
ears....), and she'll do anything to get hold of a mylar balloon. Anyone who comes within arm distance of
her will soon have a hand in the face--typically a well-slobbered-on hand, too,
as she's taken to sucking her fingers more. She loves people!
She enjoys being outdoors more this year than last; it's fun to watch
her taking in the sights. Yesterday we took her to a park where she was
thrilled to be pushed on a swing by Kraig, and a few weeks ago my sister Jessie
and I introduced her to a swimming pool (she wasn't quite so sure about
that!). We continue to deal with
various bad habits that pop up--as soon as one is broken, another starts--but
that's all part and parcel of the parenting game. One thing Keren definitely understands is the word
"no!" and the sign for it!
March, April and May covered just about all of our annual doctor
checkups with each of the specialists.
I was really glad to get those done with! I'm always happy to hear the good reports (which they are in
general--heart healthy, development progressing, no need for any surgeries on
ears for a while), but it does get exhausting to run around. We had one scare this spring when Keren
had her sleep study for her apnea.
During the study, the tech observed possible seizure activity. This is something that a number of
trisomy kids have or develop, and while many are helped by medication, it can
be a big concern. We've never
observed anything like this with Keren, so it was a jolt, to say the
least. Well, as a result we added
a new doctor to our list of specialists and Keren and I went off to meet with a
pediatric neurologist. In April,
Keren had a 24 hour EEG where her whole head was pasted with electrodes, then
wrapped up so it would all stay in place for 24 hours while a computer recorded
brain activity. The good news was
we were able to be at home for this, and Keren dealt with her
"turban" better than I did!
You can see a picture of it on the "March-May" page of her
pictures. After the test we had to
wait three weeks for the results.
I know God had his hand on us during this time, because amazingly we
were able to put it out of our minds and not worry. Still, when we got the news that Keren's not having seizures, we were very
relieved! Apparently she has some
"left brain irritability" which basically means there is a possibility she might someday develop seizures,
but not definitely. Phew! I can handle that! I'd rather add a new doctor to our list
than a new problem!
Keren has just finished up the earliest level of her special
education program through our school district. In the fall, she'll move up to her new school which is the
main special needs school in our area.
I've heard all sorts of great things about the staff there, and Kraig
and I got to tour it this spring as well as go through the transitional meeting
with all of the teachers and specialists who will be working with Keren next
year--I think there were twelve at the meeting! She'll be in a classroom with up to nine severely multiply
impaired kids between 3 and 5 years old.
There will be a classroom teacher along with two parapros in the
class. In addition to that, she'll
get physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, feeding therapy,
music therapy--each with specialists who will work with her once a week. I'm really excited about the input
she's going to get. We'll start
her out three mornings a week and see how she handles it. It's kind of scary to think that I'm
sending my almost three-year-old off to school, but at the same time I know I
can't give her nearly what she needs at home (particularly with Little One
coming along). I know Keren gets
bored with it just being her and me around a lot--there's only so much play I
can do with her!
Kraig's been busy with his job that he started in February, which
of course has meant his dissertation is slightly on the back-burner :(
.... And it's almost done,
too!!! The other week he helped
out with Vacation Bible School at our church, something he loves to do each
year, and he was able to take each afternoon to mainly focus on dissertation
work. At this point it's a matter
of writing and compiling his research--he's done with testing and data
crunching. We don't have an end
date yet, but someday it will be done! (I was looking back at letters that we
sent out right before Keren was born, and realized that it was 2 1/2 years ago
that Kraig officially started this process. Yikes!)
In terms of me, I think my life right now is revolving around
Keren and being pregnant :) . It's
hard to concentrate on anything else!
Sometimes I wish I were being highly productive in some area, but then I
think, "Well, right now my job is being a mom and that's okay!" There will be chances to do other
things soon enough, and actually during the school year I have other activities
I'm involved in. My sister Carrie
and I finished up our Bible study class in May, just before Carrie headed off
to Alaska for two years as dean of women at Alaska Bible College (my little
sister is all grown up!). We had
such a good time working together in teaching, and we enjoyed the women in our
class so much as well. My MOPS
group finished in May as well, and I'm looking forward to taking on the
newsletter for next year (Am I crazy? Yeah, probably!). I've been able to get some watercolor
painting in, and hope to finish a painting I'm doing for Carrie at some point
this summer :) --"The best laid plans..." and all that....
I think we're just about ready for Little
One (as well as one can be with projects that can be done ahead of time). This pregnancy has been so different
than with Keren. The good thing is
that in both I've been healthy, so that hasn't been different. This one, though, has been so uneventful. I think back to the final months with
Keren where first we were constantly checking her growth, and then we had
non-stress tests the final month leading up to an induction birth (our doc
wanted to get her on the outside to make sure she got all the care she
needed). With this baby my
appointments have been "go in, get weighed, get measured, 'Any questions?
Okay, you're set!'" I know
Little One is a lot bigger than Keren was at this point. For one, I'm a lot bigger and have all
the lovely aches and pains that go along with that! I've also had the joy of swollen feet and ankles in our June
and July heat and humidity (It is NOT encouraging when the newscaster reminds
us that we've had three times as many over-90-degree days this year compared to
last!). Another difference with
this pregnancy is that Little One's movement is different. Keren was just bumps and nudges all the
way to the end, but with Little One I feel the shoving and pushing of arms and
legs. It's pretty amazing! We're still narrowing down our list of
possible names (it's a good thing we never promised to tell any one her name
ahead of time!). We're looking
forward to meeting her and introducing her to all of you!
So! That's the scoop
on us. This Thursday Kraig's folks
will be arriving for a three week visit so they'll be here for their new
grandbaby--we're very excited about that.
My mom is present and on call to take over Keren-duty when we head to
the hospital. Not much more we can
do to get ready!
We'll keep you all posted!
Much love,
Loren for the family