Camping...Sort Of

One of the gazillion thoughts that popped into my head when I found out Camden had Ds was, "We will never get to go anywhere or do anything." I know it's silly, but I thought it. I was completely wrong. In fact, I'm planning more vacations and stuff to do for the year than I probably wouldn't have originally. One of the things we do every year is go camping for Memorial weekend. This is a tradition that started with my husband long before I came along, but now I get to be part of it. We used to do the "true camping" with tents and all. Over the last couple of years I have come to not love sleeping on the ground so much. Even with air mattresses, it's just not that comfortable. We had a camper for a couple of years, but we no longer have it now. Pout. I knew that a tent wasn't an option for me this year since I had Camden. Carter and Richard slept in the back of the truck with a camper on top. My mom, Camden and I slept in a hotel. Yep...a hotel. I know that's not real camping, but it sure was comfortable and the air conditioning was awesome! The hotel was about 15 minutes from our friend's place on the river so it wasn't so bad. We only stayed one night compared to the usual 3 because we just had so much to do. I hope next year we will be more settled and can do the full weekend. Each year as Carter gets older he starts to enjoy camping that much more. He had a blast! He could have stayed for days. As I get older I realize that it's all about seeing the kids happy. That's what I live for. It rained for half the day on Saturday, but it didn't phase us. The sun soon came out and it turned out to be a beautiful day. It was good food, good company, a beautiful atmosphere, and just a good time!

                                    He did not want to get out of that river!

                                            "Mom, stop taking pictures!"

        The lovely ladies that we are blessed to have in our lives!

  Daddy thinks he's all cool with his tank top and hat!

                   These two ran non stop!

We had Camden's six month check up on Wednesday and I was nervous about the weight issue. I just wanted that scale to show he gained something. Well...he did! The boy now weighs 13 lbs 5 oz. He gained 7 ounces since we saw the dietitian two weeks ago. It's slow weight gain, but it's a heck of a lot better than 5 ounces in a month! I guess the fortifying is working. He is also 25 and 1/2 inches long and overall is doing great. We got a referral to GI for the reflux issue and had to get labs drawn to check his thyroid. Thyroid issues are very common in kids with Ds so they are tested at birth, 6 months, 1 year and then annually after that. The office called me today and all the lab work looks good. He got three shots and we were all done. Unfortunately he has not been feeling well since the vaccinations so we had to reschedule our therapy session for today. Hopefully after today he will be good as new! 

        Oh son, you are smiling now. Just wait!

I'm a little worried about his hearing so I can't wait for his ENT appointment in June. He passed his newborn hearing screen, but that's not always indicative of hearing issues later on. He startles at loud noises so I know he can hear some, but if I rattle a toy by his ear or talk in it, he doesn't turn toward the sound. It's not like he doesn't do it sometimes, he never turns toward it lately. I want to get this figured out as quickly as I can as hearing is necessary for speech development. Hopefully it's just fluid or something simple, or it could be nothing at all. Maybe he just gets tired of listening to me!