Saturday, May 16, 2009

Children


I can’t believe my daughter is 3 years old already. Where did the time go? I spent time this weekend putting pictures in albums which made me look back at all the older pictures. I didn’t keep a written journal of the last 3 years but I definitely have pictures documenting it all. I love taking pictures. Gillian had a full photo album before she even left the NICU. I know she will be our only child so I like to make sure I have pictures from everything. The holidays, with family and just day to day activities so that when she gets older she can relive her life through what we saw.

I was very stressed about having a child. I had no idea if I was up for it. I had never heard anything fabulous about it nor had I heard anything too awful. I never thought I would have enough money to support a child and I didn’t ever think I would be able to go to work because I didn’t think I would ever be able to trust anyone to take care of my child. I have learned so much from Gillian. Right from the start she has taught me so much. Her NICU stay alone taught me sheer determination. In the past 3 years she has had obstacles and she has over come them without thinking twice. She had to be seen by a physical therapist because she wasn’t moving around. A very nice man came to our house for 11 months and worked with her and she was rolling, crawling and walking before we knew it. The same month she was discharged from PT, speech therapy started. A nice woman came to our house and at first Gillian was very frustrated with her…actually they were frustrated with each other. Normally the therapist breaks the child and gets them to follow the correct path. Unfortunately Gillian almost broke the therapist. I can say Gillian had a lot going on when speech therapy started. Gillian had just started daycare and Craig’s schedule had changed drastically so she had 3 major life changes going on at once. Her speech came along and by her 2nd birthday she was coming out with short sentences. The speech therapist was very surprised at how fast she went from not talking at all to talking up a storm. She obviously had a lot to say. About 7 months after speech therapy had started, PT started again because Gillian was very unstable on her feet. Running into stuff and falling constantly was part of her everyday life. By Christmas 2008, Gillian was discharged from everything. Gillian has been seen by so many doctors in the past 3 years and surprisingly she lets them do what they need to do without much hesitation. This past March she went for a follow up with the heart specialist and the dr was blown away by Gillian. She said it is rare for a 26 weeker to have the results Gillian has had. In 3 years this little child has taught me more than I probably learned my entire life. She has been determined from the start and if she sets her mind to something she does it. All my doubts were gone the moment I saw Gillian. Everything I thought about having a child was incorrect; I now believe it is the most wonderful experience. I don’t know what I would do with out my Gillian…

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