The story continues....8 years later

Aaaah I re-read these posts last night and had a pinge and twinge of regret for not continuing these tales.
I won't try summarise too much - that is not the point but perhaps there can be snippets of memories that come through in my tale telling.

So Kayla is 9.5 years now.  She walks, talks, sings (loudly and with her soul and completely out of tune!), runs in a funny lob-sided manner (that can be very fast in a shopping centre), giggles at farts and other inappropriate things, isn't wild about doctors, loves her grand-parents and has very different relationships with them.

She goes to Unity College  and is in Junior 3.  Her reading is coming along beautifully and fairly slowly.  Her vocabulary has increased wonderfully, her maturity has progressed and she has confidence in herself.  We were going to school her in a mainstream school and kept her back a year to aid her.  But one afternoon I went to fetch her from playschool and she was sitting playing by herself.  She was rocking and humming and it struck me so solidly that she would not cope in a mainstream environment.  We re-assessed and re-looked and re-agonised and decided to place her in Unity College.  We love the school and believe in it.

Sammy, Lesego, Shariek, Kayla end of year assembly 2013

Prizegiving 2013

Winter 2012

Sports day - Lesego, Sammy, Ntsika - 2013

There will be plenty more stories from school but for tonight this is it.

This journey as this Pixie's mom is difficult, is funny, is special, is filled with laughter  and tears and frustrations and anger and jokes and special moments and rage and tickles and laughter.  I question many many many times why I am THE mom.  Many times I rant at God and many times I say thank you for my many blessings.
And on that note - good night.

18 months

20 April 2006 – almost 16 months

Gosh a year down the line and what a beautiful year.  Kayla – alias Miss Chaos Factor – is simply beautiful.  She is the happiest most content person I have ever come across and she is absolutely thriving.  She is crawling now and started doing so in Feb.  She is so fast now and so independent.  She goes all over the house.  She crawls up the stairs to leave our bedroom but hasn’t quite got the gist of coming down the stairs.  She loves exploring all the rooms and all aspects of the rooms.  One of her favourite activities is to pull all the magazines from the shelves and sit in a pile of print.  This journey on the communication channel is so exciting.  She is starting a few signs – bath, more, milk and understands many commands – blow bubbles, splash, clap hands.  She clearly shows her displeasure by growling like urghurgh sort of noise. 

We started Aquatots 2 months ago which she loves.  She is confident in the water and wriggles around like a little tadpole.  The Aquatots is basically teaching the children how to get in and out of the pool, how to float and I guess just how to be comfortable and as safe as possible in the water.  We have signed up for the next classes so we’ll see what we learn next.  We also do Kindermusik which is stimulation through movement, music, beats, textures, socialising.  I chose these 2 activities because Kayla loves the water and music so much.  She dances often when she hears music – just jigs her little body up and down and often sings in accompaniment as well.

She generally feeds really well but clearly spits out the food that she doesn’t like with a wrinkled face clearly showing her displeasure.  She loves egg and I make her scrambled egg with herbs (basil, parlsey and oreganum) quite often.  She also loves liquorice as you can see!

Memory did not in fact end up working for us but we have another angel instead.  Lydia started with us last year May.  She was the only lady I interviewed besides Memory and she got the job because when Kayla sneezed she leaned towards her and said “bless you baby girl”.  Lydia is wonderful and loves Kayla very much.  She has her own little boy – Thabo who is about 3 months older than Kayla.  He is walking and talking quite a lot and is very sweet with Kayla.  Often when he comes into the room Kayla gives a shout of joy and bolts over to him as fast as she can crawl.

I am more convinced that she is saying Dada with more understanding and tends to say Nana for Mama.  Although for the last couple of days she has been saying more Mama noises.

She slept over at her Nan and Grandad’s 3 weeks ago because Doug and I were doing an adventure race.  I was quite upset all night (although I did sleep through the whole night!) and she slept most of the night there.  When she woke up in the morning she was apparently a little upset and kept on turning her little mouth down and there were silent tears running down her cheeks.  But apparently by lunchtime she recovered her cheerful happy self.  She made up for it the next night by waking up loads of times in the night – I guess to check we were still there.

She had a tummy bug a few weeks back for about 15 days and she seems to have fallen into a habit of waking up a few times in the night now looking for her bottle.  She was doing that while she was sick I guess because she was hungry coz she didn’t want to eat much at mealtimes.  She is still sleeping in our room in a camper cot.  I am ready for her to move to her own room but we are still in negotiating stages with Doug over this.

She has been so healthy – only having a couple of colds and a tummy bug.  I breast fed her solely until she started on solids at about 5.5 months.  Then at about 8 or 9 months she started getting formula as well.  We stopped breastfeeding at 12 months.  She barely noticed we had stopped (although we were only doing a morning feed at that stage) but I definitely noticed.  My breasts were very hard and sore for a few days and I was quite sad to stop.

We did start with the vaccinations and started them when she was 1 year.  She had no funny reactions and was generally very brave with the injections.  Kayla has a pretty high pain threshold and tends to only cry when she bangs herself hard.  Shame, with learning how her body fits in space she falls and bangs herself and pulls things on top of herself regularly – poor pumpkin.  That is the learning process though.

22 April 2006

My days are much slower but so full with this little girl.  I haven’t been working since February and it has been so wonderful to have this rate opportunity.  I don’t really miss the work – the money and sometimes the challenge perhaps – but not the stresses and the results of the work.  So much time is spent on Kayla and this family and myself.  Perhaps I should put myself first.  It is Saturday today and Doug went off for the morning on a long cycle at Hartebeespoort Dam.  Kayla was very restless last night and woke up about every 30 minutes or so from 22:00.  So needless to say Mom was quite tired this morning.  We woke up at 07:30 and had a shower and some tea.  Then breakfast and then I tided the house and then we eventually made it out the house at 09:40.  We only went to 3 shops – hardware, vegetable and fish shop and then back home again.  She fell asleep in the car.  I love watching her sleep.  I wonder if she plays with her angels in her dreams.  Then when Doug came home we had tea and made a fire.  I read and watched my little daughter play with her toys in the lounge.  She was putting the blanket over her head and squealing with delight.  She also bangs things together and puts them in buckets and talks to them and gets this high pitched excited noise at times.  It is priceless to watch.  So much so that I put down my very good book and this rare time of reading during the day and sat on the floor with her and played.  Her face just lights up.

She is like a blossom that attracts all the insects.  At the shop this morning there were about 3 people who came immediately over to her with such purpose to be in her space I guess.  She is so friendly and cute with them and so engaging.  I am so blessed to have this child in my life – even if I did not get more than 3 hours consecutive sleep last night!!

07 June 2006 – 17.5 months

It is amazing and wonderful to watch her little personality develop.  She is a happy child, content with others and by herself.  She displays stubbornness – “stubbornness!” I say with disbelief, “it can’t be! Now where on earth would she get that trait from?”  It is so rewarding watching her little thought-processes work.  She climbs up the stairs from our bedroom very easily but not so going down.  She was sitting on the floor in our room and found an empty toilet roll (no doubt from the dustbin she loves to go digging in).  She was squealing with delight at her precious find.  Now she couldn’t get it up the stairs coz she needed her hands.  So the clever pixie puts the toilet roll one stair up then climbs up to meet it and puts it another stair up until she got to the top of the stairs.  She squealed again in sheer delight and joy to have her precious find with her.  I was in awe at her thought processes.

She learnt to point about 3 days ago.  It is quite a cute sight to have this tiny little finger pointing at everything and the mouth saying “ba ba” to everything.  Due to having gotten this pointing thing right she is now able to do the “more” sign which is a finger tapping the centre of the other hand.

She also understands to lift her arms up when we are taking off her clothes and to lift them up to put them in sleeves.

We are back at physio working on the walking.  Di, as always, is so positive and fabulous with her.  Kayla favours her left leg and doesn’t generally put too much weight on her right leg although she appears to be right-handed.  She shows her stubbornness when trying to do the various exercises so needs to be distracted.

She is coming on beautifully with the swimming.  We do quite a bit of back floating and today she floated so well.  I hold her in front of me and look down into her face.  I just see this little face with these little button eyes looking back at me.  It nearly always tugs at my heart and as soon as she can she tugs at my costume.  In fact I have had to change swimming costumes because she pulls so hard at my costume (heart!?) that I pop a boob out – lovely!

28 June – 18 months today

Wow a year and a half has gone by.  Somehow 1.5 years seems significant.  We had a couple of days with so much communication from Kayla – it was such fun and so exciting.  She did the signs for bird, dog, more (lots of that), cat.  She also got down the stairs (the 2 in the lounge) at Dave and Shirley and did it quite often.  Sher loves “barping” our noses and laughs hysterically if she is given a fright with a LOUD barp or bark or something.  She is quite “mummified” at the moment and likes to be near me and climbing on me and talking to me.  She hasn’t wanted to go to Lydia but if Lydia comes to her without me being in the room then she is fine.  She cries more now than she used to.  It is like she understands a little more to show her dissatisfaction.  We bought her a doll a few weeks ago which she enjoyed for a while – playing with its hands and nose and feet.  

 I made a bowl of jelly for her and put her out in the garden with no clothes on.  She had a ball.  At first she touched it quite conservatively and then just relished in it – the taste and feel and texture.  She was sticking her head in the bowl and gasping with the coldness of it.  

She is also trying to feed herself more now.  She takes the spoon away from me but will allow me to dip the spoon on the bowl.  It makes for longer and MUCH more messier feeding times.  Sometimes I have to remind myself how important it is for her to do this and learn to feed herself coz I get impatient with my dirty clothes and how long it takes to have a meal.  I am constantly reminding myself how blessed we are that she can do these things and keeps on learning.  These things are not taken for granted.

Up to April 2006

I am using writing I did all those years ago. As I get more up to date then I will write "live action".

02 April 2005

The time with Mom and Dad was really special for everyone. They were able to spend lots of time with their granddaughter. It was an easier time for me there compared to the last few times I have been home – somehow simpler. Dad expressed so many times how much he loves Susie and I. He has been doing that a lot recently – it is lovely. We went down to the beach with Kayla and dipped her little feet in the sea. She didn’t really seem to mind it one way or another. I went for a swim in the water which was lovely but not as much fun as when I go with someone else. Mom wasn’t going to swim and Dad couldn’t swim with his healing shoulder (he had an operation to rejoin back the tendons to the bone – he damaged it when he fell and then again when he put his hand out to stop Eunice hitting the dash board when he had to break sharply).

I sometimes just watch Kayla for ages. She is so precious and I can’t believe she is part of my life. Her smile is just too beautiful and comes quite frequently now. She was 3 months on 28 March and weighs 5.1kgs and is 59 cm long. Her head is getting so strong and she often holds it up for a duration. I am reading a book called Invincible Spirit – Liz Wickens. She is a South African lady with a child with Downs. Wow she had some really hard times with her son. I am so grateful that Kayla is so healthy and that we haven’t had to have her in hospitals with drips and things. We had a bit of a traumatic afternoon 2 days ago. She hadn’t pooed for 3 weeks except 2 when I gave her suppositories so we went to see Dr Leschner – the paediatrician. He said it could be because of the low muscle tone or low thyroid. He put his little finger up her bottom – oh the poor little mite – she screamed. Anyway she didn’t have a block because she pooed immediately. I calmed her down and then we had to have blood taken from her. She screamed again. She was so upset that whole afternoon and I couldn’t put her down. I understand now about parents wanting desperately to take the pain away from children and rather have it themselves. Anyway the next day she was fine and to my GREAT joy she made a huge poo in the afternoon. I have never been so happy to see so much shit in all my life!!

July – 6 months – bubble noises. Makes big mess when eating. Laughs when stimulated verbally is not just when kissed or tickled

Mid Aug – 7.5 months – noises are di di di da da da

20 April 2006 – almost 16 months

Gosh a year down the line and what a beautiful year. Kayla – alias Miss Chaos Factor – is simply beautiful. She is the happiest most content person I have ever come across and she is absolutely thriving. She is crawling now and started doing so in Feb. She is so fast now and so independent. She goes all over the house. She crawls up the stairs to leave our bedroom but hasn’t quite got the gist of coming down the stairs. She loves exploring all the rooms and all aspects of the rooms. One of her favourite activities is to pull all the magazines from the shelves and sit in a pile of print. This journey on the communication channel is so exciting. She is starting a few signs – bath, more, milk and understands many commands – blow bubbles, splash, clap hands. She clearly shows her displeasure by growling like urghurgh sort of noise.

We started Aquatots 2 months ago which she loves. She is confident in the water and wriggles around like a little tadpole. The Aquatots is basically teaching the children how to get in and out of the pool, how to float and I guess just how to be comfortable and as safe as possible in the water. We have signed up for the next classes so we’ll see what we learn next. We also do Kindermusik which is stimulation through movement, music, beats, textures, socialising. I chose these 2 activities because Kayla loves the water and music so much. She dances often when she hears music – just jigs her little body up and down and often sings in accompaniment as well.

She generally feeds really well but clearly spits out the food that she doesn’t like with a wrinkled face clearly showing her displeasure. She loves egg and I make her scrambled egg with fresh herbs (basil, parlsey and oreganum) quite often. She also loves liquorice and we have a beautiful picture of her in the bath with a face covered in liquorice.

Memory did not in fact end up working for us but we have another angel instead. Lydia started with us last year May. She was the only lady I interviewed besides Memory and she got the job because when Kayla sneezed she leaned towards her and said “bless you baby girl”. Lydia is wonderful and loves Kayla very much. She has her own little boy – Thabo who is about 3 months older than Kayla. He is walking and talking quite a lot and is very sweet with Kayla. Often when he comes into the room Kayla gives a shout of joy and bolts over to him as fast as she can crawl.

I am more convinced that she is saying Dada with more understanding and tends to say Nana for Mama. Although for the last couple of days she has been saying more Mama noises.

She slept over at her Nan and Grandad’s 3 weeks ago because Doug and I were doing an adventure race. I was quite upset all night (although I did sleep through the whole night!) and she slept most of the night there. When she woke up in the morning she was apparently a little upset and kept on turning her little mouth down and there were silent tears running down her cheeks. But apparently by lunchtime she recovered her cheerful happy self. She made up for it the next night by waking up loads of times in the night – I guess to check we were still there.

She had a tummy bug a few weeks back for about 15 days and she seems to have fallen into a habit of waking up a few times in the night now looking for her bottle. She was doing that while she was sick I guess because she was hungry coz she didn’t want to eat much at mealtimes. She is still sleeping in our room in a camper cot. I am ready for her to move to her own room but we are still in negotiating stages with Doug over this.

She has been so healthy – only having a couple of colds and a tummy bug. I breast fed her solely until she started on solids at about 5.5 months. Then at about 8 or 9 months she started getting formula as well. We stopped breastfeeding at 12 months. She barely noticed we had stopped (although we were only doing a morning feed at that stage) but I definitely noticed. My breasts were very hard and sore for a few days and I was quite sad to stop.

We did start with the vaccinations and started them when she was 1 year. She had no funny reactions and was generally very brave with the injections. Kayla has a pretty high pain threshold and tends to only cry when she bangs herself hard. Shame, with learning how her body fits in space she falls and bangs herself and pulls things on top of herself regularly – poor pumpkin. That is the learning process though.

I must try be more regular with this coz I think it will be full of forgotten things. Just reading through the 1^st few months brought back so many wonderful memories . But for the moment - ciao for now.

22 April 2006

My days are much slower but so full with this little girl. I haven’t been working since February and it has been so wonderful to have this rate opportunity. I don’t really miss the work – the money and sometimes the challenge perhaps – but not the stresses and the results of the work. So much time is spent on Kayla and this family and myself. Perhaps I should put myself first. It is Saturday today and Doug went off for the morning on a long cycle at Hartebeespoort Dam. Kayla was very restless last night and woke up about every 30 minutes or so from 22:00. So needless to say Mom was quite tired this morning. We woke up at 07:30 and had a shower and some tea. Then breakfast and then I tided the house and then we eventually made it out the house at 09:40. We only went to 3 shops – hardware, vegetable and fish shop and then back home again. She fell asleep in the car. I love watching her sleep. I wonder if she plays with her angels in her dreams. Then when Doug came home we had tea and made a fire. I read and watched my little daughter play with her toys in the lounge. She was putting the blanket over her head and squealing with delight. She also bangs things together and puts them in buckets and talks to them and gets this high pitched excited noise at times. It is priceless to watch. So much so that I put down my very good book and this rare time of reading during the day and sat on the floor with her and played. Her face just lights up.

She is like a blossom that attracts all the insects. At the shop this morning there were about 3 people who came immediately over to her with such purpose to be in her space I guess. She is so friendly and cute with them and so engaging. I am so blessed to have this child in my life – even if I did not get more than 3 hours consecutive sleep last night!!

A real live angel in my arms.

Long over due - but begin at the beginning.

There are not many things in life that I wish I had gotten to but this is one of them. Being a mother is unlike anything else I have ever done or been challenged by or been blessed by in my whole life. And I think its time I wrote a little of this journey. I can promise to make you laugh, to make you say "aaawww sweet", to make you shed a tear or 2 (or as in my case quite a few), to get angry with me, to share my laughter and joy, to maybe even say "ag shame". I will have to go back some steps to get to present day. I had written stuff years ago so have pasted them here:

Wed 12 Jan day 15

The precious pixie was born on 28 December 2004 at 12:10. She was born about 2 weeks early, eager to make her appearance in this world as I guess she has some important things to teach. I birthed her out of the pool and then Doug and I got back in the pool with her and just gazed in wonder and love at this little squirming bundle. She was perfect and we loved her immediately. We were given 2 days of bonding and loving and learning. Then a bombshell was dropped on Friday morning. I remember feeling so fragile and tearful. Sharon ever so gently told us that Kayla has some very interesting features and suggested that there was something that we should investigate regarding her chromosomes. I felt really fuzzy and felt that I was not understanding something really basic. I was sitting on one side of the bed closet to Sharon who was holding Kayla and Doug and Michael were sitting on the other side of the bed. I asked the disbelieving question: “do you mean something like Downs Syndrome”. She looked down at the baby and then at me and said yes. My eyes just filled up, this could not be true. I reached over and took my baby from her and just held this little body close to mine. She carried on talking but I don’t remember much of what else was said. She mentioned something of talking to a genetic councillor and blood tests. I felt numbed and in a cocoon where reality was fuzzy. At some point she left and Theoni arrived to give us each a massage. Doug took Kayla while I had my massage. There were some points in the massage when I lay there – the tears pouring down my cheeks. This is such a cruel world and to not have all the faculties and wits and looks makes for a very difficult journey. As I lay on the bed gazing out of the window I became aware of some many butterflies coming past the window. There was this continuous flow of white wings fluttering past. Doug came into the room when the massage was finished. He stood in front of me – so calm and gentle and seemingly at peace. “I love her no matter what” he said and his eyes filled with tears as he held me. “I am so sorry, I feel like I did something to make this happen while she was inside me. Maybe it was because I wished so hard for a little girl…”. Doug just held onto me saying it was not me who did anything wrong. I don’t really remember the rest of the day. I held her a lot and I am sure we slept together in the afternoon. Michael had gone with this mom for new year. Doug spoke to him on the phone and he was quite distressed and couldn’t talk to his mom about it. We wanted to make sure before we started saying anything to anyone. I

We had a quiet New Year. Sushi, champagne and beautiful sunset and then a dvd with a box of chocolates. We would be ok. One step at a time, one day at a time. Right now she is a little baby, just like any other that needs love and care and feeding and changing.

Sunday was a bad day for Doug. He had no energy and was listless and tired and emotional. I said I would look after him. He has been working so hard all week looking after me. I told him to rest and I would get lunch. I went up to Woolworths. It was a slow horrible shop. I felt awful and exhausted. I kept having to rest in the aisles and bend over my knees. I tried to buy dinners and stuff for the week so that Doug wouldn’t have to worry so much about dinner. As I drove away I realised I hadn’t bought anything for lunch – the prime reason I had gone up to the shop. Oh dear. I got home tearful and exhausted and so hot. My internal thermometer seemed to have gone haywire and I couldn’t cool down. We swapped roles. Doug regained his strength and mine disappeared. Michael and Michele came around. Sharon had put us in touch with them. They have Elijah who is 11 months old and a Downs Syndrome child. They were such wonderful open people. I kept my face neutral and listened and asked questions. But I felt so sore. He looks funny. His little eyes are squint and his face is a strange shape. As I walked down the passage I just wanted to sob and howl out loud. I am so terrified. They lent us a book and said we would keep in touch. Doug’s mom and dad arrived while they were here. We pretended they were friends.

The genetic councillor is large and energetic and warm. But even with her name like Merlyn could not ward off the bad news for us. She gave us the low-down and I barely took it in. All I can see is fear. Michael seems better about the whole thing. We went off to the hospital so that Kayla could give blood. We first went to the lab but they seemed reluctant to take blood from such a little titch. So Merlin bullied her way into the paediatrician squeezing us in. I felt claustrophobic with everyone there and Merlin being so noisy and demanding. Dr Leshner asked if I was ok with holding Kayla while he took blood. I replied “I can’t promise not to cry but I promise not to thump you.” He was so gentle but she cried when the needle went into her arm. Her little arm was so small you couldn’t even see the veins in it. And the tears spilt down my cheeks. Dear God…..

We went to see Dave and Shirley later that day. We need the support and they need to know. Of course they were wonderful and the first thing they said was she was still the same little girl and they would love her. Then we phoned my folks. My mom had this stunned silence on the phone and my dad just kept on saying “oh shit”. They both said it didn’t change anything and that she was still the same little girl, the same little granddaughter. Everyone is so shocked. Then we called Susie. I was afraid of scaring her with her being pregnant. She was so pleased we had told her. She was unafraid and full of love for us.

Thur 16 Jan day 16

Shirley called the next morning. She was in tears and upset and angry. My Mom called later in the afternoon with the same reaction. She hadn’t been able to go to work. There are days when I feel very strong and capable and then there are others where I am so fragile. Doug is an incredible pillar of strength. I feel like I am in a grieving process – grieving the little girl we don’t have. I am not sure what those grieving stages are - denial, anger, disbelief, sorrow, acceptance – something like that. I think Doug has bypassed the grieving. He has accepted what is and seemingly unconditionally.

My folks came up for the weekend. It was so wonderful to have them here. We all went along to Sunninghill Hospital to meet with the cardiologist – Dr Kenny. It was quite traumatic for Kayla and I had to feed her to try calm her down. He said we are very lucky as her heart seems to be fabulous. There is still a hole in the heart which all babies are born with and this should have closed by 2 months. We will go back to check this is the case – but he is happy. Apparently 60% of these little ones have heart defects so we are very fortunate.

I was getting desperate for some alone time. Michael has been with us virtually non stop since Kayla was born and together with all the visitors I was reaching a screaming point. I am an unsociable bugger at the best of times but with this little pixie around now and all the new things I am dealing with – I am getting desperate to climb in my cave.

I am not able to do much. She feeds frequently and the last 2 days has wanted to be held a lot and sleep either on me or with me next to her. I so love the breast feeding. To see the frantic crying and very busy kicking moving into a lunge for the nipple and then big striding gulps to the little eyes getting heavier as the tummy gets fuller it is so beautiful. Sometimes it is hard and I have had a couple of weeps where we couldn’t get the feeding right. Also my nipples get very sore and tender at times. I hope I am not doing something wrong.

My Mom called again yesterday morning – so upset and in tears. She is so angry with God. She feels I have had enough to deal with in my life and why was he making things so hard for me. I said that I don’t feel I have had too much and all the difficult things I have come out of on the other side stronger and wiser and certainly not broken. I feel that she is feeling impotent in her own life because things are hard for her now and now seeing her child face difficulties is making her feel helpless. I also think she is fearing the future, because really those difficulties are in the future. Right now I have a little baby girl who needs love and feeding and changing and cuddling – no different to any other baby. I know my fears are also future linked, but if I dwell too much on that for Kayla then I won’t make it to tomorrow. I believe she is going to teach me about remaining in the present – something I don’t do very easily. Mom also hasn’t been able to tell anyone about Kayla having Downs which I think would help her if she could tell people. There is just so much positive affirmation out there about these special little people. I have told every single person I have spoken to. As much as I spoke these words to my Mom I found I was upset for the rest of the day. I guess that I have still a little way to go along the healing process.

This was an email between Susie and I and she just worded things so beautifully.

Hi sweetie

You eat your veggie soup first and then I’ll eat mine! Come on big sissie – set an example please!

No one will ever understand why God chose you to do this incredibly difficult job. Ann (Paul’s sister who is a nurse and a midwife) said that one thing she saw in all her times as a nurse / midwife was that only really special people are asked to look after Gods Angels on earth. And that is what Down Syndrome people are: because if you think about it, they never lose their innocence or massive loving ability. Throughout their adulthood as we all get a bit bitter or selfish or mean or dishonest, while their integrity never falters for a moment. They love and laugh their entire life and are innocent children throughout their lives.

Another thing that you have to think about is that you were asked to do this special role – you weren’t ordered. You chose your route of not taking every test going because basically – when it came down to the crunch – this was your baby – yours that you and Doug had been blessed with. You chose not to take the tests because you know you would never do anything to hurt or kill your unborn child. Because maybe you don’t know you know it yet but deep down you and Doug are one the rare couples on earth that can make a difference to this little girl. You guys are strong enough, kind enough, patient enough but more than any of that – you both have so much love for each other and Kayla that you guys are going to cope – and cope exceptionally well.

I can see huge things coming out of this Aileen. I can see you making massive grounds on developing Kayla – things that you and Doug can pass onto other people around the world. I can also see you having other children, children who will grow up in your environment who will help Kayla as much as you can or maybe even in other ways that we will not be aware of.

Also know that any family dilemma like this, brings all your family and friends around you so very tightly to help you through this. And By help – feel free to kick shout and cry when the responsibility gets too much at us but also know that we are there for all the beautiful stories, photos and magical moments to share through Kayla’s Life.

I know you are not religious but this is part of Gods Plan for you guys – I just don’t know what it is yet. Another person who I think would be amazing to talk to through this would be Alan. What do you think?

Love you xxxx

From: Aileen Kennaugh [mailto:aileenkennaugh@mweb.co.za]
Sent: 12 January 2005 13:40
To: Greenhalgh, Suzanne
Subject: RE: Jabu

Hello

We are fine here. Am having a little bit of a wobbly day today. Guess they can’t all be strong days. Kayla hasn’t wanted to sleep without being in my arms or on my body. She has eventually drifted off now in the spare room once I lay with her for a while. Mom was really battling this morning. She called me in tears. She feels so angry that this is happening to me and feels that I have had enough kak in my life. She was so afraid of the long hard journey ahead for us. I am too but just try focus on every day and living in each day instead of trying to imagine what the future holds. She does that a lot – imagine the future and fear it to some degree. I do the same but if I try do that too much now with Kayla I won’t make it to tomorrow. I don’t feel I have had too much kak. I think for everything that has happened to me I have come out the experience a little stronger and wiser and not broken or weaker. And I trust that at the end of the day (and through out this journey) it will be the same again – a little more wisdom, more gentleness, more patience, more courage and more strength will hopefully be in me.

I know for all me lecturing to you about eating I find that now I am battling to eat during the day and find nice things. This doesn’t do well for strength building. I was hoping to start a little bit of gentle exercise. I so miss what exercise did for me and for my head. I am still bleeding and Sharon says this is directly related to how much I am doing. So this week I am focusing on staying still and trying to stop the bleeding.

Love you madly. Keep eating your veggie soup!

xxxx

22 February 2005

Well the little Pixie is 8 weeks today and just doing so well. She is about 4.5 kgs and thriving. I can distinguish her cries (for the most part) and it is so rewarding to be able to soothe her whether it is through picking her up or feeding her or rocking her back to sleep. She sleeps so well through the night, going to sleep at about 7pm and waking up at about 3 am and then sleeping again until about 8 am.

The wave and trough emotions have eased off considerably. In fact I can’t remember the last time I cried - quite a relief after all the emotions during my pregnancy. I do have some moments of fear but so long as I continue staying in the present then those fears ease away. My days are pretty full with looking after Kayla. When she sleeps for an hour or more it is so exciting for me to get to hang out the washing or clean the kitchen! I have become such a home bunny. I am trying to do a bit of advertising work which is very tricky. We have employed someone to help in the house and with Kayla and she will start at the beginning of April. Her name is Memory. I have been dreading sharing the house with someone else but now I am quite excited at having a bit of help and also getting rid of the spider webs on a more frequent basis!

We went to a Down’s meeting on Saturday which was with other parents and their little ones. The idea for the meeting is to share information and get some support. It was great to meet other people. I am not so afraid of what the children look like now, not like when I met Elijah. From that we linked up with a physiotherapist, Dianne who specialises in children with problems. We went to see her this morning. She says Kayla’s muscle tone is pretty good. She has shown us some exercises to do to help with her neck strength and using her tummy and core control. I liked her a lot – she is gentle and of course she said great things about my gorgeous daughter.

I am going to Mom and Dad next week for 10 days. I am not looking forward to being away from Doug for such a long time but am so looking forward to spending lots of time with them.

Not all the post will be this long - but those beginning days were just so memorable for various reasons.