Thanksgiving, football, 7 weeks already

7 weeks old and already Alayna is the life of the party...

Alayna was the center of attention today at Uncle Ed and Aunt Jane's house (and may I add she loved every minute of it).

It was a little like a football game...First, cousin Kellie held her, then cousin Kara intercepted, then back to Kellie, oh wait here comes Aunt Jane in for the hand off, oh now Uncle Ed (but, wait he has greasy turkey fingers and fumbles her back to Kellie oh no here is great grandma in for the final hold...wow that is a lot of baby holding yardage. Of course, Alayna snoozed right through it all and enjoyed all the doting on her.

We hope that you had your fill of turkey, dressing, cranberries, pie, family & friends.

We pray that you stop for just a moment to reflect on what you are thankful for.

Our list this year is SO huge we couldn't begin to list it in one blog (well I could but you would get tired of reading it quickly, I'm afraid). SO, here is what we are thankful for the short version...(cliff notes for you teacher types out there!)

Our Amazing God who has blessed us beyond measure. Our two beautiful, healthy, wonderful children, loving families that support us, outstanding friends who comfort and care for us, our awesome church family, and all those awesome prayer warriors who continue to lift our family.

Alayna is doing well and growing like a weed, just yesterday Aidan and I were amazed that she was doing mini push ups during tummy time.

We go to Children's Mercy Hospital on Dec 4th to the Down Syndrome Clinic for a checkup. They will follow Alayna every 6 months until she is 18. Thanks for the prayers, please keep them coming.

Will leave you with a few more pics...

Uncle Ed tries and tries to wake Alayna but to no avail. Doesn't he know babies have to sleep to grow (great grandma told him so)...

Aunt Jane "Queen of the baby spoilers"

Alayna...

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Please keep those prayers coming for Alayna and LC! LC reached 9 pounds 1 oz today. YAHOO! Go girl go...

Smiles continue

Alayna is being super spoiled by her Aunt Elise this week as she is on vacation. Today Elise was kissing Alayna on her neck and Alayna was loving it and showed it by grinning and making all kinds of fun baby sounds (glad I had the video camera close by).

She is watching people more, especially faces and imitating them. She also is talking and babbling a lot more now. She also tried the rolling over trick on me again this morning. Gotta watch that girl every minute.

She loves her baths and today Aidan was so excited that he got to wash her before he went to school.

She will be 6 weeks old tomorrow. Wow time is flying...

Smiles for Big Brother

Who says babies don't smile until after 2 months of age??? As you can see see Alayna didn't read that baby book. She is smiling for all she is worth at Aidan.

He loves to have her lay on the couch and then he plays peek a boo with her, going back and forth. She moves her head and tracks to find him.

It is truly amazing to watch how much love they have for each other already. (Of course, she isn't trying to get to his matchbox cars yet...). We got out the music & lights bouncer seat this week (ok Aidan is having more fun playing with it than Alayna is yet) but, I am sure she will soon love it like he did when he was a baby.

Just to prove I am not always behind the camera...

Alayna continues to nurse well and is getting bigger by the day. She will definitely let you know when she is hungry...she lets out a little yell then once she is fed she is back to her happy, laid back self.

We are so blessed by both our children and we are glad you stopped by to check in on us.

To look alike or not to look alike

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We thought we would let everyone see how Jason's genes have definitely played a huge roll in this family. Above is our little cutie, Alayna and below you will see someone she looks A LOT like (although he is a lot bigger than her at this age), Aidan. Even though she has darker hair than Aidan they both look just like that crazy British guy I married...I am SURE I carried them both and have the c-section scars to prove it.

Alayna has definitely got the boys wrapped around her little finger. Aidan loves laying with her and taking their picture and daddy loves snuggling in with her and sleeping for hours. I think I have my work cut out for me...

Baby therapy class

It must be the educator in me, Alayna and I went to sit in on our first baby class today at the Lee Ann Britain Infant Development Center . See the link for more information. https://www.shawneemission.org/content/view/337/648/


Of course, at one month old she slept almost the whole time (she did wake up during music therapy for Twinkle, Twinkle (must be big brother's influence) and for the giant drum in which she laid on while we drummed on it. In physical therapy, she worked on the medicine ball to practice lifting her head and strengthen her shoulder muscles. Then we were on to occupational therapy where she laid on a cool incline mat that had music piped in and she could feel the vibrations of the music. She loved it.
She will also have speech therapies and water therapies every other week. Besides this group therapy class she will have her own physical therapy session for 30 minutes weekly.

It is an awesome program and we are hoping to get on scholarship as insurance only covers part of the cost. (If you are looking for a great place to donate to before the end of the tax year this would be one great place...)

We decided to give Alayna a little more time to be a new baby at home and we will start after the first of the year when she is 3 months old. The physical therapist gave us some things we can be working on at home until that time. But, she was pleased that Alayna already moves her head back and forth, brings her hands up to her chest and up to her mouth, and that she is able to lift her head.

Prayers for her continued success on gross motor skills, for our ability to parent she and Aidan and for Aidan's continued transition into sibling hood.

Super Growth!

This morning Aidan woke up and looked at Alayna and said, "mom she has gotten so big". It is true... Alayna is now 6 pounds 3 oz. No wonder she can't fit into any of those preemie clothes or diapers...She is 18 3/4 inches long (2 1/4 inch growth since birth). The doctor was SO pleased with her progress she said I don't even have to wake her up every 3 hours at night to nurse her anymore. Instead she can go 4 hours without feeding and we know from experience that Alayna wakes us up when she has gone that long so no more alarm setting for me. YIPPEE! Next check up with the pediatrician will be her two month visit (& shots).

After the doctors appointment we took the kids to the pottery place and had Aidan's hand prints and Alayna's footprints done on plates to commemorate their ages and size. It was really fun. (I took the camera but, forgot to take it out and use it while we were there.)

This afternoon Jason, Alayna and I are going to the Leann Britain Infant Development Center for a tour and to see what services they have to offer Alayna.

HAPPY 1 MONTH BIRTHDAY!!!!

Happy one month birthday to Alayna (sing along if you like)...Where has the past month gone? Seems like yesterday we were getting that crazy call to jump in the car and run back to the hospital for a c section to deliver Alayna...Oh yeah, now I remember how we have spent the last month...running back and forth to the NICU for 17 days then happily enjoying the past 2 weeks at home where we are claiming normalcy (ok ok as normal as WE get!).

Wow how time flies when you have a newborn and are sleep deprived...Actually I am feeling great, much better than the fog of the first two weeks.

Alayna is doing so well, we know that God continues to watch over her and bless our family. She lifts her head and looks around, tracks objects with her eyes, follows sounds (especially voices) and has even been caught a few times with her itty, bitty little thumb in her mouth sucking away (I guess she learned that from her cousin, Grace)

We celebrated the day by going to church and then to small group this afternoon. Our small group friends showered us with a chili luncheon and wonderful welcome to the world cake for Alayna. Of course, I had the biggest piece of cake with the giant flower on top, that will plump Alayna up by morning (should make for some yummy milk eh?)...Thanks small group family, we love you.

We go to the pediatrician in the morning for another weigh in. The girl has a healthy appetite (who wouldn't with the way us Cannons eat? Truly it runs in the family, have you ever seen how much Jason can eat?)

She is officially out of preemie stuff...YAHOO! No more doll clothes and diapers (truly she can fill up a preemie diaper in no time~trust us!), she is a big girl wearing newborn stuff and proud of it. Hopefully she will be topping the scale at over 6 pounds sometime this week. She is determined to catch up to Aidan (he was 10 pounds at 1 month)!

We love that you stopped by to check in on our family. Thanks for the love, support, prayers and friendship. Please feel free to leave a comment and stop back soon...

Big brother loves his baby sister and she admires him already. He still sings Twinkle, Twinkle to her all the time.

Please say a prayer of thanksgiving for the blessing of Alayna. Also, LC turns 1 month tomorrow (HAPPY 1 MONTH) please also include her in your prayers for the blessings these two beautiful girls have added to our lives...

DSG Breakfast ~ Connections to others

Today we went to the DSG new parents (& grandparents) breakfast. It was a great place to connect and meet other families from around KC that are experiencing the same things we are. They had so many positive and uplifting stories of the accomplishments their kids have made so far it was truly inspirational.

We were thrilled to see Courtney, Justin & LC. LC & Alayna had their pictures made together (so sweet)! It is so nice to have this family so close and walking the same path. (Thanks photographer extraordinaire...Courtney for the awesome picture of the girls)

Grandma & Pop Pop got to meet other grandparents and hear their stories of how life with a grandchild with ds has impacted them as well as learning more information about down syndrome.

Alayna slept right through the whole meeting then almost on cue as we dismissed she knew it had been 3 hours since she had eaten and she woke up starving. Grow, grow, grow... she has another weight check at the pediatricians on Monday morning.
Aidan was thrilled to hang out in the play room with all the other kids and siblings.

We will be investigating the infant development center and how soon we can get Alayna in for therapy.

Will add more pictures tomorrow as she will be ONE MONTH OLD!!! AHH Did I just say that? Where does the time go?

Hanging out

Alayna has settled in nicely to our household. Aidan loves to hold her, talk to her and sing to her. Twinkle, Twinkle is one of her favorite songs as Aidan sang it to her nightly while she was in utero.

She is waking up early on some feedings (about half) because she is hungry. YAHOO! She is still nursing well and WOW you should hear those burps (that must be from the British side of the family). She has grown 1 1/2 inches since birth!

Here is a picture of the boys schmoozing over her....She is so stinkin' cute we can't help ourselves.

We are all excited to be going to the Down Syndrome Guild (DSG) of KC's new parent breakfast this Saturday morning. Will let you know how it goes...Have a great day!

The weigh in & more tricks

Alayna is up to 5 pounds 9 oz as of this morning. The home health care nurse said she would probably be dismissed from their services because she is nursing and gaining weight so well. Alayna has learned more tricks (as lifting her head is old news)...she was so close to rolling over today on the nurse's scale. If there weren't high sides on the scale she would have gotten all the way over. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't have a witness. Wow she is a mover and a shaker already... watch out Aidan she will be chasing you before long...

All went well on my first day at home with the kids. Aidan was really good and we even managed to have enough time before school to make spider cookies with grandma (Thanks, Big Sarah) they turned out SO cute. He gave them to the neighbor kids, grandma and pop pop and his teacher. He was truly proud of his creations!
Alayna, of course missed all the action by sleeping most of the time (how can she resist when she had grandma here to hold and spoil her). Alayna is telling BIG stories already she is such a talker (wonder where she gets that?)

Thanks for the continued prayers! We definitely are feeling them.

Sunday - Full of big outings

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Today Alayna made her debut at church (Kaw Prairie Community Church http://www.kawprairie.com/). She was of course a huge hit and her fans went wild. She loved the service so much she slept right through it, (sorry PD, I guess the sermon wasn't appealing to her).

This afternoon Alayna got to meet her great grandmother, Edna at her 95th surprise birthday party. Again, Alayna was a huge hit. She enjoyed the party so much she woke up just to enjoy some food then kept her eyes open just long enough to enjoy Aunt Jean's violin playing then off to dreamland she went.

She is growing so much (envision Lou Ferrigno as the Incredible Hulk) her preemie clothes are about to be a thing of the past. Tomorrow home health comes to weigh her again. If she has maintained weight gain like she did last week she will be discontinued from home health care's observations of her.

Jason goes back to work tomorrow so say a prayer for me as I undertake taking care of 2 children on my own each day!