Elmo Cake

I have had a request for some pictures of Samara's birthday party.

She slept for most of it. Possibly she was conserving energy for the cake........

Here are the cake pictures. I will add other party pictures in a separate post.

First up we have the cake. It was a bit of a drama. Elmo looked near perfect when I first made him. But then the Queensland heat got to him. The icing started to melt, and his eyes and nose slid right off his face! Now I really wish I had taken a photo right at the start! Anyway, here is the version that was as repaired as I could manage. The icing had lost a lot of it's volume, so the fur look never did get back to it's original plushness. I guess he was just like a real Elmo toy once a baby has matted his fur!

Samara didn't know quite what to make of this new Elmo when she first saw him....

So she did what she always does when she sees an Elmo. She gave him a hug and a kiss!

Deciding that, while this Elmo didn't talk like most of them do, he could be forgiven. Especially since he tasted so GOOOOOD!

The resulting crime scene was not a pretty sight! CSI would have had a field day!

Fearing a wrongful death suit, Samara thought it might be best if she covered her tracks by eating the evidence.....

But the evidence was speaking for itself. With Elmo "blood" all over her face even AFTER daddy had put her under the beach showers!

So I tried to clean her face, hands, and arms with Wet Wipes.....

When we got home, she had a bath. Yet after these 3 cleaning attempts, she is still a red tinge!

Needless to say, there wasn't a queue waiting to eat what was left of poor Elmo after that.

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby Girl!

Well. We did it. Samara's first year has now ended. This time last year, Samara was just 19 minutes old. I was completely knocked out, and Samara was in NICU on a ventilator.


Now, she is laying in her bed, exhausted after another night of coughing. I am laying on my bed after another night of patting her back and checking her sats.


She really couldn't be bothered with much this morning. Although she did really like her new Elmo Pillow book. She also liked Up, Up Elmo. Not too sure what Dorothy the Dinosaur was. And we haven't given her her swing yet, cos the landlord is fencing in our yard today, so there is nowhere to set it up:(


I am enjoying the quietness of today, knowing that tomorrow we will go from only having 3 girls here, to having 12 when Kerrigh arrives with her 6 girls! Then things are going to be full-on. We have FECS tomorrow, then I am going to meet Kerrigh and the girls at the bus. Friday we have Premmie Playgroup, then the doctors. After that I have to do the grocery shopping for the party, bake the cake, find someone to blow up the helium balloons I bought from the States (here is a picture of the best one!), pray (hard) that the weather will be fine Saturday (the clouds are rolling in at the moment!), make sure all the girls have their Sesame Street Tees ready to wear........I think I may fall into bed at the end of the day! Then Saturday I need to decorate the Elmo cake. Shouldn't be too hard, but it makes a lot of mess - and the kitchen here is a shoebox!


But I am really looking forward to the party. It is going to be such a huge celebration. Because we have so much to celebrate. We have been blessed with such a massive miracle in such a small package! They say the best things come in small packages - and in Samara's case I can really vouch for the truth of that!


Samara's breathing is sounding pretty whistly. I'd better go check her sats......


Til next time........

The significance of tomorrow

Well, in just over 3 hours it will be the 23rd. The day that marks one year since our precious angel was born. It is hard to believe that this time last year, I went off to bed totally unaware that within the next few hours I would have the major bleed I had been warned of, get rushed down the road from Ronald MacDonald House to the hospital, have an emergency c-section and 2 blood transfusions, and then later that day get to meet the most beautiful fragile little baby I could imagine!

Now, at nearly 8kg, she is over four times her birthweight. She is totally convinced she is a big kid. She even takes one arm out of her carseat straps, so she is just wearing a seatbelt over one shoulder like the big girls! She is trying to walk. She is a fair way from it yet, but that doesn't mean she isn't going to try! She has learned some sign language. She shows definate preferences for what she does and doesn't like. Elmo, lollies, icecream, chocolate custard, chicken (not mushed up tough!) flashing lights, baths, bubbles are all worthy of enthusiasm. Medicine, nose-wiping, sitting in the car, babies who pose an attention risk are not:)

On the way to Kingaroy at the weekend, she ate more than half of Renata's icecream. We gave her another one, and Samara ate half of that too! In fact, she got mad at Renata for taking any for herself! She is even getting fussy about the bottle. She wants to drink from a cup. Not a trainer cup mind you. A real one. Talk about making a mess! Not to mention the fact that we have to be careful that she doesn't aspirate it by going too fast.

This past year has be frought with many difficulties, and much sadness. But it has brought so many joys and enriching experiences, that I find it hard to believe that it has all fitted into one year. In some ways it feels like she has been here forever. That we have been on this Down Syndrome journey forever. (and that's only been 11 months since dx). I was saying to Kerrigh the other day that the days in the nursery really seemed to take forever. Those 2.5 months felt like an eternity. But the 9.5 months since then have just flown by.

Tonight as Samara lays sleeping in her bed on the other side of my room, I am sitting on my bed listening to her wheezing breath. Hoping she doesn't end up in hospital on her birthday. That just wouldn't be fair. I wish I could take away this aspect of her disability. The rest isn't so bad. I just don't like seeing her struggle like this.

I sit here, and I watch her. And I feel such a huge wave of love wash over me. I am floored by it every time. It brings tears to my eyes. We really have been blessed beyond our wildest imaginings.

Samara - I love you with all my heart. Have a wonderful birthday sweetheart.xxx

Yes, I'm still alive...........Thanks for asking:)

Well, after my last post the laptop power connection broke. I hate when that happens! Anyway, it took a while to get it fixed, and I am too lazy to sit at the computer desk for longer than I have to! Then, I finally got it back, and have spent the last couple of weeks catching up with people, and generally just doing nothing much!

Then Cathy asked me about it on dsdownunder, and I finally got the kick up the pants I needed!

The house we were looking at fell through. The place the owners were supposed to be moving to fell through, so they have stayed in their place.

Samara has had a few more colds/bronchiolitis, and had to go on steroids again. We have just got an oxygen saturation monitor off ebay, so now I can see how her levels are when she is sick, or having apneoas. She had quite a few last night where her levels dropped down to around 80%. I considered taking her to the hospital, but the trouble is, once she wakes up she is fine, and we just get sent home.

We don't get in to see the sleep clinic (and I'm just talking initial consultation) until 16 December! So who knows how long it will be before she actually gets a sleep study. I am tempted to take her to the hospital every night that her sats drop below about 85, just to bug them, so maybe they will make it sooner just to get rid of us!!!!

This weekend we are heading up to Kingaroy to Kerrigh's place (Veritee's mum who has been featured here before!). We have to get the container of stuff we have on our friends property in Childers off by the weekend. So now we have to find a container, and ship everything down and put it in a paddock at Kerrighs. I really can't be bothered, but while we are still in this 2.5 bedroom house, we don't really have a choice.

I am getting very distracted at the moment, by a certain 16 year old with Aspergers who is going completely off her rocker. The girls have got the dreaded headlice yet again. They are being treated today, and she doesn't like the way it was being applied!!! So she has been storming through the house punching kicking swearing and screaming. I really don't feel like dealing with her! I was up til 3.30am with Samara's breathing, and then up at 6.30am getting organised before Playgroup.

The playgroup at Woody Point Special School now has a group especially for babies which Samara likes way more than the one with the older kids. She especially likes the bubbles song, and painting. She is getting better and better with her sitting, and trying to stand. But still not interested in crawling or rolling. She is a chatty wee thing, and has learned a few basic signs, and made up some of her own.

In just one week from today it will be Samara's first birthday. And what a year it has been. We are going down to Suttons Beach where we are going to have an Elmo party. I am just waiting for the balloons to arrive from the US, and then we will be set. Michael thinks she will nose-dive into her cake, and he plans on videoing said nose-dive for Funniest Home Videos! Typical male thing to think of LOL.

On the 10th of October (Sara's 18th), Sara, Samara and I are going down to the Gold Coast to meet some of the other dsdownunder families. It should be a great week. We are going to all go to Seaworld, where we are going to have a combined birthday party for Samara, and Armarli and Tori-Shaye (who are both turning 2 around then). I am really looking forward to it. Everyone else isn't showing up til the 11th and 12th, so I thought we might go on one of the short cruises around the bays for Sara's birthday.

Well, that's pretty much all that's been happening here. I'll go have a look on photobucket now for a picture or two to pretty this post up! LOL

The Paed Visit, FECS, and the Down Syndrome Awareness Poster

Well, Dr Slaughter (yep, that's really his name! - but I figure that a dr with a name like that must be pretty good to still be practising!), has put Samara on the waiting list for a sleep study. It could be a long wait though. In the meantime, he has prescribed Rhinocort for her, in the hopes that it will help. He thinks the problem could be allergy or asthma related, or at least worsened by one of these. Especially since both are in the family.

She had a pretty exhausting afternoon at FECS doing physiotherapy and Speech. But she did have a lot of fun with all the toys! We have been given some exercises to do to try and get her rolling over, and also to push up on her hands when she is on tummy time. We are also starting to encourage her to reach in different directions when she is sitting, rather than just staying in her safe central position.

I have spent a lot of the last couple of weeks doing photos for the Down Syndrome Awareness Week poster. Today, I was at the DSAQ office helping them to do a mock-up poster. We still are waiting for some of the products, and we need to get a nice cloud shot (but it hasn't been cloudy!) for the background. I am also going to play with the photos a bit and try a couple of different layouts, and alternate photos, but this is what we have come up with so far. The one of Samara and Emma (our next door neighbour) were a bit of a challenge. Samara grabbed Emma's foot, and Emma had excema there, so it hurt her. After that, Emma didn't want' to go anywhere near Samara! I was worried that we wouldn't get anything, but with a bit of hardcore patience, we finally came up with a few useable images!

The product shots were interesting. I haven't done products since I did my photography training! But I was pretty pleased with the way they turned out. Some of the products haven't come back from the manufacturer yet, but when they do, they will go down the right hand side. Well, that is if we keep with this layout. I am thinking of turning the 3 in the bottom picture sideways, and making the overall portrait part go across the page, with the products underneath. We are a bit limited though, because the whole thing has had to go before the committee, so we have to stay within certain guidelines.

While I was there, I found out that 2 of their staff are off work with Swine Flu. Also, a friends daughter may have it too. (we have seen them twice this week). I hope Samara doesn't get it. Her breathing problems are scary enough as it is. It doesn't worry me for the rest of us. But I would do anything to keep her from getting it. I am thinking of starting her on Kyolic. Just to give her that little bit of extra protection against it and other colds and flus.

Well, the battery on the laptop is about to go flat, so I'm going to call it a day now.....

The Joys of Respiratory Problems

Ok, so joys probably wasn't a good choice of words. But Samara is having terrible problems trying to breathe at night. And, as a result, I am having terrible problems getting enough sleep. Poor girl. It is so hard watching her struggle like that.

From what I have heard from other mums, their bubs have mostly had problems too, but it doesn't make it any easier. And there doesn't seem to be much literature out there about it either.

We are off to see the paed again tomorrow, so I am going to ask him for a sleep study for her.

We started at Woody Point Special School playgroup today. The teacher there asked me if she could hear ok. I had been a bit concerned lately cos she didn't seem to be responding as well as she used to. She also doesn't turn towards sounds/voices etc. I am wondering if she may have glue ear. I will ask about that tomorrow too.

Yesterday we had a combined housechurch celebration meeting out near one of Brissy's lakes. It was a lovely day, and so beautiful. A friend of ours came with a Shout Shout Elmo for Samara that she had found at a garage sale. I tell you, that made her day! You should have seen the grin on her face LOL.

Afterwards we went and had a look at a 6 bedroom house that is for rent. The owners are homeschoolers with 8 kids, so they know what it's like trying to find a house for a large family. We will probably take it, and it should be available in about 6-8 weeks time. So that's pretty exciting after being in 2.5 bedrooms for so long:)

Anyway, gotta go. Bubby wants a feed. Will try and get back sooner next time.

2nd Anniversary of our immigration

Well, today marks 2 years since we moved to Australia. 2 years and 1 day ago, I lived in Timaru, New Zealand. The same town I was born in, and lived most of my life. We lived in a 5-6 bedroom 100 year old villa, that we were working on doing up. We were right next door to Michael's work, which was very convenient. But, boy was it freezing! Average temperatures that were below freezing overnight, and not much more during the day. Our 6 daughters all lived at home with us. We had enough space for a scrapbooking studio and a library.

Since then, we have some totally radical changes. We can now go swimming at the beach at this time of year. It does get a bit cold, but more like an averaged summer day in NZ. We have lived in several different places. 8 months were in a caravan on friends' properties - 4 months in Childers, and 4 months in Glenwood. Michael was unemployed most of this time, and we were living off the sale of our house and the Family Tax Benefit.

Then Michael got a job on the Sunshine Coast. He commuted for a while, until we found a house to rent in Mapleton at the top of what the Australians call a mountain, overlooking Nambour. At Easter we found out we were expecting another baby. The rest of that story is already on here, so I won't go there, suffice to say it brought some radical changes!

After a few months at Ronald MacDonald House, we moved to Margate on the Redcliffe Penninsula, into a 2.5 bedroom house. It feels pretty crowded, and for that reason, we are hoping to move soon. We are looking at a 6 bedroom house for rent in Kallangur, which would feel great after being cramped so long! Although I would miss being right near the coast.

So, now, here we are, thousands of miles from 'home'. There are good things, and there are bad things. I miss my family. My sister is pregnant, and I don't know when I'll get to see her baby. I miss my friends, although we have made some great ones here. I get frustrated with all the things we don't get help with because we aren't Permanent Residency holders, and stressed about the whole application process that we are about to go through to get it.

We have a disabled child - something I was always willing to go through was adopting a Down Syndrome baby, but never, for the life of me, was I prepared for going through the shock of giving birth to one! She has had a fairly sickly winter - and for that I am so grateful we live in a sub-tropical climate.

I totally don't miss NZ winters. I am finding it cold enough here!!

But so often, I still question whether we did the right thing. Before we left, God told me not to be like Lot's wife. In other words - don't look back. So I am trying to focus on the fact that we are here. We are supposed to be here. Sure, we have had some setbacks. But there have been a lot of positives too. Besides, if this is where God wants us, then setbacks mean nothing. If we had our Permanent Residency Visas, a lot of the negatives would go away. I guess Queensland will always be the Paper State, but I can live with that. The people here are great. I love the place. It is so beautiful. So why do I keep turning back?