Carterville, Illinois
I am the mother of a beautiful red-headed, 13-year-old daughter named Lyndsay. This is Lyndsay's story.
Lyndsay is my first child. She decided she wanted to make her entrance into this world 3 weeks before my due date. I was only in labor about 5 hours. Everything went fine with the delivery, she weighed 5lb. 5 oz.; however, when they brought her to me, she wouldn't eat. They took her back to the nursery to put her in the warmer because she wasn't maintaining her temp.
Lyndsay is my first child. She decided she wanted to make her entrance into this world 3 weeks before my due date. I was only in labor about 5 hours. Everything went fine with the delivery, she weighed 5lb. 5 oz.; however, when they brought her to me, she wouldn't eat. They took her back to the nursery to put her in the warmer because she wasn't maintaining her temp.
The next day, they released me from the hospital; however, they kept Lyndsay in the special care nursery because she wouldn't suck and she still couldn't keep her temp. At this point they decided she was probably only 35 weeks and things would turn around in a day or so. At the end of the first week, the doctors came to me and said they would like to do some blood testing to rule out some possibilities because things were about the same. They were tube feeding her and she still wasn't maintaining her temp. A few days later she, started to come around and I got to take her home when she was 2-weeks-old. She had her regular 2-week-old baby check the day after she got out of the hospital. At that time the doctor said everything was fine. I asked her about the testing. She hadn't heard anything but called the special care doctors from her office. When she got off the phone she told me the Lyndsay was mosaic translocation trisomy 21. I don't think at that point I really knew what she had said to me. My mom was with me and when we left the appointment, we went to see a friend of hers that was a nurse. During the drive to see the nurse, I was starting to cry, but I really didn't know why. I loved my daughter no matter what. When we got to the nurse she hugged me and told me not to cry. That there was a beautiful little girl that was going to make it in this world, but she was going to need the help of her mom.
I made an appointment to see the doctor a couple of days later. The doctor then went over what the blood work had revealed. They tested 20 blood cells, 16 were normal and 4 were translocated to the 14th chromosome. She put me in touch with the local birth to 3 program. Lyndsay was evaluated at 6 weeks and was then enrolled in the home-base program. Lyndsay was reaching most of the milestones, a little behind on some, but pretty much on target.
At about 13 months she moved from home base to center base. She continued to do very well. About this time, well actually after she turned 2, I got married to Ken. Ken had 2 children from his previous marriage. Sean, who is almost 2 years older than Lyndsay, and Sarah, who is 5 months younger than Lyndsay. Just before Lyndsay turned 3, Ken adopted her.
Back to Lyndsay's story. At 3 she was in the early childhood program in our county. When it was time to start school, Lyndsay went to regular kindergarten. She then went to regular first grade, about half way through the year, she started receiving resource help with reading. At the end of first grade, we didn't feel like she was ready to go on to second grade so we had her repeat first grade again with resource, hoping that a second year in first grade would be easier for her. The next year she was in regular second grade with resource for reading, spelling and phonics. At the end of second grade we had a decision to make. Lyndsay really wasn't ready for regular 3rd grade and the resource program could only have a child less than 50% of the time. I had always told myself that I never wanted Lyndsay in a self-contained classroom. However, the topic of the staffing was that Lyndsay needed to be in a self-contained room, with some subjects with a regular classroom. The people at the staffing convinced me to just go and talk to the teacher of the self-contained room. She was absolutely wonderful!! I think I had built something up in my mind that a self-contained room was giving up and the wrong thing to do. I was soooooo wrong. Lyndsay did very well in the self-contained room. She was in smaller groups and received more attention in classroom work. She continued to feel good about herself and school.
She is now in the 6th grade. She has PE, music, recess and lunch with regular 6th graders. Her reading level is between 3rd and 4th grade level and so is her math. She reads very fluently and loves to write. She has very beautiful handwriting. Actually hers is probably better than either Sean or Sarah's. Math is OK for her adding, subtracting and multiplication she can handle with no problem. Time is something else she handles very well, in fact, sometimes I think too well. She is a very time-oriented young lady. She tells me when basketball practice is, what time she thinks dinner should be, etc... Her big down fall is money. She really has a problem with the concept. Reading-wise, I think she actually sometimes reads beyond her comprehension. Science is probably the hardest class for her. She just really doesn't understand parts of a flower or why she needs to know them.
She actually loves school and always looks forward to a new school year. She tries really hard and we get nothing but praise from all of her teachers. Lyndsay also has 2 other siblings. Ken and I had a son, Kyle, who is 4 years younger than her and a daughter Dana, who is 8 years younger than Lyndsay.
The only medical problems Lyndsay has had is with her ears. She has had 6 sets of pe tubes (the first set being put in at 6 months); however, I think she has finally outgrown the need for them. It has been 3 years since the last set fell out. Her hearing is on the low end of the normal range. She does have some speech issues. When she gets upset about something, I sometimes cannot understand what it is she is saying, but for the most part you can understand her. She is also farsighted and has had glasses since she was 2-1/2.
Lyndsay is a very well adjusted 13-year-old. She participates in girl scouts, our church youth group, plays community-based softball and basketball. She absolutely loves basketball. She also loves video tapes and listening to music. She likes Britney Spears and the Dixie Chicks. She has an advantage in that Sarah is so close in age. They are very good friends and do a lot of social things together. Most of the kids they hang around with accept Lyndsay for who she is and if they don't, well then Sarah wants to know why. Lyndsay is there for Sarah and Sarah is there for Lyndsay. I just hope that as they grow older they continue to stay as close.
I think I am very lucky to have the family that I have. Everyone in the family is special, and we try to treat the kids the same. Lyndsay doesn't get any special favors. She has chores just like everyone else. We have never treated Lyndsay differently or accepted that she couldn't do things for herself. We are so proud of Lyndsay, as well as the other 4 children that we have. I do look at her sometimes and am amazed in what she has accomplished and can't imagine her being any other way. We have our share of difficult times, but you know all of the kids have difficult times now and then. Actually, Lyndsay has fewer than some. She is her own person and she likes who she is. That I think is half the battle.
I made an appointment to see the doctor a couple of days later. The doctor then went over what the blood work had revealed. They tested 20 blood cells, 16 were normal and 4 were translocated to the 14th chromosome. She put me in touch with the local birth to 3 program. Lyndsay was evaluated at 6 weeks and was then enrolled in the home-base program. Lyndsay was reaching most of the milestones, a little behind on some, but pretty much on target.
At about 13 months she moved from home base to center base. She continued to do very well. About this time, well actually after she turned 2, I got married to Ken. Ken had 2 children from his previous marriage. Sean, who is almost 2 years older than Lyndsay, and Sarah, who is 5 months younger than Lyndsay. Just before Lyndsay turned 3, Ken adopted her.
Back to Lyndsay's story. At 3 she was in the early childhood program in our county. When it was time to start school, Lyndsay went to regular kindergarten. She then went to regular first grade, about half way through the year, she started receiving resource help with reading. At the end of first grade, we didn't feel like she was ready to go on to second grade so we had her repeat first grade again with resource, hoping that a second year in first grade would be easier for her. The next year she was in regular second grade with resource for reading, spelling and phonics. At the end of second grade we had a decision to make. Lyndsay really wasn't ready for regular 3rd grade and the resource program could only have a child less than 50% of the time. I had always told myself that I never wanted Lyndsay in a self-contained classroom. However, the topic of the staffing was that Lyndsay needed to be in a self-contained room, with some subjects with a regular classroom. The people at the staffing convinced me to just go and talk to the teacher of the self-contained room. She was absolutely wonderful!! I think I had built something up in my mind that a self-contained room was giving up and the wrong thing to do. I was soooooo wrong. Lyndsay did very well in the self-contained room. She was in smaller groups and received more attention in classroom work. She continued to feel good about herself and school.
She is now in the 6th grade. She has PE, music, recess and lunch with regular 6th graders. Her reading level is between 3rd and 4th grade level and so is her math. She reads very fluently and loves to write. She has very beautiful handwriting. Actually hers is probably better than either Sean or Sarah's. Math is OK for her adding, subtracting and multiplication she can handle with no problem. Time is something else she handles very well, in fact, sometimes I think too well. She is a very time-oriented young lady. She tells me when basketball practice is, what time she thinks dinner should be, etc... Her big down fall is money. She really has a problem with the concept. Reading-wise, I think she actually sometimes reads beyond her comprehension. Science is probably the hardest class for her. She just really doesn't understand parts of a flower or why she needs to know them.
She actually loves school and always looks forward to a new school year. She tries really hard and we get nothing but praise from all of her teachers. Lyndsay also has 2 other siblings. Ken and I had a son, Kyle, who is 4 years younger than her and a daughter Dana, who is 8 years younger than Lyndsay.
The only medical problems Lyndsay has had is with her ears. She has had 6 sets of pe tubes (the first set being put in at 6 months); however, I think she has finally outgrown the need for them. It has been 3 years since the last set fell out. Her hearing is on the low end of the normal range. She does have some speech issues. When she gets upset about something, I sometimes cannot understand what it is she is saying, but for the most part you can understand her. She is also farsighted and has had glasses since she was 2-1/2.
Lyndsay is a very well adjusted 13-year-old. She participates in girl scouts, our church youth group, plays community-based softball and basketball. She absolutely loves basketball. She also loves video tapes and listening to music. She likes Britney Spears and the Dixie Chicks. She has an advantage in that Sarah is so close in age. They are very good friends and do a lot of social things together. Most of the kids they hang around with accept Lyndsay for who she is and if they don't, well then Sarah wants to know why. Lyndsay is there for Sarah and Sarah is there for Lyndsay. I just hope that as they grow older they continue to stay as close.
I think I am very lucky to have the family that I have. Everyone in the family is special, and we try to treat the kids the same. Lyndsay doesn't get any special favors. She has chores just like everyone else. We have never treated Lyndsay differently or accepted that she couldn't do things for herself. We are so proud of Lyndsay, as well as the other 4 children that we have. I do look at her sometimes and am amazed in what she has accomplished and can't imagine her being any other way. We have our share of difficult times, but you know all of the kids have difficult times now and then. Actually, Lyndsay has fewer than some. She is her own person and she likes who she is. That I think is half the battle.
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