My Journal - Week 93 (11Jun11)

A DISAPPEARING ACT??!!

For all my readers, all my friends and family.  I am alive, well and truly sorry for not posting more often.  I have had many many emails asking if I am okay, and I am certainly not surprised that people are asking.  After all, posting nearly daily, and then weekly - people were bound to wonder what happened to Sandi when not a single post was made for nearly four weeks!  The good news is, I am absolutely fine, physically I am well for a 39 week pregnant mom with extensive back pain and extreme swelling in my limbs.  I suffered quite the scare after having stopped one of my medications (blood thinner called Lovenox) which I was required to take twice daily after discovering my very own double dosed genetic mutation called MTHFR or Thrombophilia.  For a few weeks after stopping my blood thinner injections, I suddenly discovered that my right leg was swelling more than a little tolerable bit, and was feeling a horrible amount of pain in the back of my calf.  Worried that I might be suffering with a DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) or blood clot, I nearly went into panic mode.  A DVT that dislodges and travels to one's lungs can be fatal, causing a pulmonary embolism.  This kind of problem is one of the concerns a person with thrombophilia must be aware of, especially during pregnancy.  It seems after many visits to my two doctors that it isn't likely that it's a clot.  So, for now I am relieved.  And I will be further relieved after this upcoming Wednesday, when our newest addition to the family is expected to arrive via scheduled C-Section.

The past four weeks has been extremely busy with respect to Down syndrome!  Besides running my bi-weekly YMCA Play to Learn parent/child support-play group, I have been working night and day preparing, creating and finally distributing the Durham Down syndrome Associations brand new Newsletter that I have been put in charge of.  My official title, Executive Director of Resources, Memberships and Newsletters has definitely added to my already busy and chaotic life, but I love it nonetheless.  The executives and I have been meeting often and working hard to ensure that we meet the needs of the many people in Durham, Ontario.  I am proud to say, I have been able to reach many new families and bring them awareness of our Association and also provide them with the resources and support that they so very much deserve.

On top of creating a brand new Newsletter, I am also the new Webmaster for the DDSA's website, which at the moment is in need of a fresh new look.  I invite everyone to take a look at the Newsletter that I created, for Summer 2011 edition.  This new bold newsletter was distributed to every member via Email, Postal mail or while at our last Meet & Greet open General Meeting.  The Newsletter will be issued quarterly (seasonally) and will always be posted to the website for anyone to view.  The website can be found at, www.ddsa.ca  AND I am also posting it here:




Finally, because I had not posted a blog entry for sometime, many have been asking about Hunter's swimming progress!  I am happy to report that swimming lessons have been going fantastically, and I do plan to upload his newest swimming lesson, just as soon as I install the Sony Software to my new computer.  I recently purchased an iMac (yes, dare I say it - I have left the PC world and joined the small crew of people who enjoy MAC products).  I just want to say for the record, I wish I had switched to a MAC a whole lot sooner than this past month.  If you are a creative person, and love to work on web designing, photo editing, movies etc., there is no reason to stay on a PC.  I have never had such an easier time working with a computer than these past few weeks.  Honestly, working with Apple products has been such a treat and so much less stress than all my previous years on a PC - but it's not for everyone.

I will close this moderate length of a post with a few photos of Hunter - since it has been quite a while since anyone has seen anything from "Our House"!!

I'm getting ready for my buddy Vaun's birthday party!

Here were are, the three musketeers!  I am so happy to be with my two buddies!

Daddy, Mommy & I at the Toronto Zoo!  What a day!  So many animals....

Daddy & I sitting down having a break (at the Zoo).  Poor mommy, she's tired too!

Mommy is brave!  She's got Hayleigh inside, me outside and it's hot!  But she still looks happy!

This is my new shower!  Mommy & Daddy had it specially designed for us! 

Mommy and Uncle Ollie are hugging me up!  I love my family!

Here I am at the Brooklin Fair!  This fair was on the 5th June - we went with Vaun & Haedyn!

Wow, this is the best day ever... I got to eat Daddy's chocolate Ice Cream!!

I am such a cool boy!  I didn't ride the rides, but I got to play in the park at the Fair!

Check me out on this one!  It's a USS rocket ship!!  Don't I just "rock" it?!!

So, without fail - I think everyone can see it has literally been one thing after another this past month for this family.  The photos show we've been busy having fun, but honestly with a renovation of our bathroom, a downed Air Conditioner that had to be fixed right in the hottest of days, and our newest problem - a leak coming from the newly renovated bathroom destroying our ceiling in our dining room... (which required our contractors to return and attempt to fix the leak....) it's been one crazy month.  Somewhere in there I have had little to no time to prepare for our new little addition - Hayleigh.  But one thing we are proud to announce is that we have (finally) finalized her full name:  Hayleigh Ciarra Kaelan McWade.   So, as this week ends and the new week begins, I am sure I will become more anxious for her to arrive.  In my next post, I plan to zoom in on how Hunter has been handling all the recent changes, the milestones and newest behaviours!