Baby Isaiah Update!

I LOVE Romans 8:39. NOTHING can separate us from the love of God. NOTHING. Paul and I just LOVE this verse. It’s part of today’s Jesus Calling and it’s so meaningful to us.

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So our sweet Isaiah had several doctors appointments on Monday. First, he met with his pediatrician and one of our favorite people, Dr. Bonnie White out of Ponte Vedra Beach.  The little guy weighed in at 7 lbs 3 ounces, nearly one pound heavier than he was the day he was born! He’s gaining in every appropriate area, and is currently between 50-75th percentile for weight on the Ds scale. What’s that, you ask? We asked, too! Rather than measuring children with Down Syndrome against a “typical” child at the same age, kids with Ds are measured on a growth chart specific to children with Ds. He’s 75th percentile in height (clearly gets this from his Daddy!) and 75th in head circumference (he has a ways to go to catch up to his best friend, baby Eli!).

This morning when Paul was changing his diaper, he told me he was sure Isaiah had just rolled over on his own. He said “I’m not going to tell anyone else because they’ll think I’m nuts, but I promise you, he just rolled over.” Well, can’t keep that a secret anymore… in the middle of his appt with Dr. White, Isaiah rolled right over like it was nothing. It’s so much fun to watch Dr. White get as excited as we do!

In addition to showing off his ab muscles and rolling over, he also did a great job “tracking” us (following our voices and other sounds with his eyes), being alert and aware of what’s happening, and responded exactly as a typical newborn his age would expect to respond. In fact, he’s actually ahead of schedule for several areas vs. typical kids at the 2 week mark. Again, our little miracle.

After his appt, he got a little rest and some lunch, then we headed to Hope Haven for his initial consultation. Laura was amazing. We were blown away by the information and prep work they had in advance of our arrival. We are moved by the focus and the mission of the Down Syndrome team to focus on the “CAN’s” rather than the “CAN’T’s” for their clients. They encourage family involvement. They work to proactively prepare the children under their care for milestones they know are coming, rather than waiting and reacting to non-successes and then working on those, which oftentimes is too late and children end up behind in the learning category because there was a wait to identify the need.

Paul and I LOVE this proactive approach. We know God, through isaiah, will reveal to us what areas are strengths for Isaiah and which need some extra attention. We LOVE everything Hope Haven stands for and we’re really excited to work with them moving forward.

We meet with Dr. Perszyk, Isaiah’s geneticist, on Thursday to walk through the remaining results from his Chromosome testing. Tomorrow, we have the honor and privilege of meeting with Dr. Bridgham, the Chief Medical Officer at Wolfson Children’s Hospital. We want to share with him the superb care we received by every single staff member under his watch at Wolfson. We want to walk through some gentle suggestions we had for ways our Foundation can help partner with Wolfson to make some of the accomodations for parents even more amazing. We’re so grateful he’s willing to take the time to talk with us.

Also tomorrow, we’ll receive the pictures back from Isaiah’s photo shoot latte last week. We’re so excited we can hardly stand it.

Wishing you an amazing Tuesday. Don’t forget today’s bible verse: Romans 8:39!

We love all of you very much! God bless each of you!!!