Good to Know People

It is great having such a wonderful photographer in the family - Thank you Steph!

Holiday Weekend

Taylor celebrated her first Holiday Weekend in style! We all went down to Beloit to help celebrate Carter’s 5^th birthday (can’t believe she is 5 already!) and they were able to spend some quality time together. You know Taylor is small when she still looks tiny in a 5 year old’s arms!

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

Good Evening Everyone!

Taylor is showing off her improved skills from all the tummy time and exercises we have been doing. Durring today's tummy time she rolled over 3 times! We were able to catch the last one on video. Take a look!



Birth to three update

Hello all!

Friday we were visited by a rep from the birth to three program. This program will follow Taylor until she is three, then set us up with the school coordinator who will take over until Taylor is 21.

Fridays visit was from the person that will be overseeing all the people that get assigned to Taylor, kind of like a regional manager. She spent about an hour at the house with Kelly, Taylor and Julie. She asked Kelly a ton of questions and then did some tests to determine Taylor’s current development level. This series of questions and tests are for children up to 2mo old. So it was expected that Taylor would not be able to do everything yet. With that being said, she did very well! The rep was very impressed with how Taylor has been doing so far. This is really great news because it affirms everything that we have been doing.

From here the rep will go back to the office and assign a case manager to Taylor according to the amount of help she will need. That case manager will then be our point person for her care. The case manager will coordinate all the efforts of the different therapists and other specialists that will be meeting with Taylor. She will truly be invaluable, because Taylor will be seen by several people a week!

The more we learn about this program the more we are grateful it is here for us. It will be our link to all the specialized care Taylor needs and our gateway into the different support networks and organizations.

Bustin' A Move

During today's tummy time Taylor decided to share her sweet breakdancing moves with everyone!

Erwin decided that he didn't want to be left out and shared his version of tummy time too!!!

Checking in

Hello All!

Hopefully removing the requirement to sign in has helped everyone stay current with the blog. I have enjoyed writing it probably more than you have enjoyed reading it!

Tomorrow is one of the first steps in getting Taylor specialized care. We will be visited in our home by a rep from the Birth-to-Three program. She will be assessing Taylor for the first time and going over an initial consultation with us. Sadly Brian will not be able to get away from work for this meeting, however, Julie has been gracious enough to be present with Kelly. Erwin will be going to work with Brian, it is about time that dog earns his keep.

We will surely have updates after tomorrow and will be sure to keep everything current here.

Thank you all for your continued support, well wishes and prayers! We couldn’t do this without all of you.

We are now public

Kelly and I talked about it and we have decided to take the blog public. You will no longer need to sign in or create google accounts in order to view the blog. I think this was discouraging some people from coming out and taking a look at it. So please feel free to share the link to anyone you like!

http://www.taylorlynnhorrell.blogspot.com/

Thanks!

2:02 am.

It's 2:02am. Three weeks ago today, Taylor Lynn Horrell was brought into our lives. This day, I shall never forget. It was a day full of elation and grief, joy and confusion, but overwellimgly a day of love, affection and total commitment to my little girl.

Three weeks old and she has already shaken my life to its core. She has changed me in ways I never thougt possible in so little time. She has made me a much stonger, compassionate, understanding and focused man. All for being her father. I always knew, and looked forward to teaching Taylor and shaping her into the wonderful woman I know she will be. What I was unprepared for is how much she has taught me and changed me for the better.

Happy 3 week birthday little one. I can't wait to see how we will grow together tomorrow.

Bath Time

After a rather aggressive diaper changing session, that felt more like a battle than a routine event, we determined that it was time for her to have another bath.

Now we have a clean baby

Grandpa Horrell's Advice

Taylor often gets hiccups after she eats. This video is of us trying to follow Grandpa Horrell's advice to get rid of them. We will keep trying....

New NIght Light

We recieved the coolest thing in the mail from UC and Brenda yesterday. I have tried to capture it in video but not too sure how it will turn out in the dark. It is a large lady bug that, when lit, shows 3 different patterns of constellations and colors. Very cool!

STOP........Tummy Time...

Some videos of Taylor's tummy time tonight. It is important that she get tummy time each day. This helps her build strength in her neck, arms and legs all on her own, naturally.

We do this and the exercises that the occupational therapist showed us every day. We are going to have one buff baby!

Dr. Appointment Update

Taylor had another follow-up appointment today. She is doing great! She is officially over 6 pounds, up from her birth weight of 5lbs 5 oz. Her doctor did another eye and nose check and everything is looking good.

One of the big questions for her doctor today was about daycare, and if Taylor would be ok with standard daycare or if she would need something specialized. She confirmed that Taylor would be fine in a standard daycare setting, so the last hurdle to clear for that is to talk to the provider (Kim) to be sure she does not have any questions or objections.

We will be contacting the Children’s Hospital this week and will be getting a lot more familiar with their offering and what we should be doing. The Milwaukee Children’s Hospital here has a specialized Down Syndrome Clinic, which I am sure will be an outstanding resource.

Taylor’s doctor will also be contacting the rep for the Birth to 3 program and they will be coming out to our house to give Taylor an initial assessment as far as muscle tone and development goes. They will help us with the exercises that we are going with Taylor to be sure we are doing everything properly and that we are doing all that we can.

So all good news and we are starting to get the ball rolling on everything else Taylor needs.

Share the Blog

Hello again everyone!

Right now the blog access is limited to those people I have invited to view the blog. However, I do not have everyone's e-mail addresss that may want to follow this blog. If you can think of anyone please give me their e-mail address and I will be sure to add them!

Thanks!

Back To Work

Today Brian had to go back to work. First time since Taylor was born that he is apart from her for more than 30 min. It was a tough morning! Taylor took it much better than her father did.


Taylor and Kelly continue to get stronger together everyday. Kelly is up and moving like normal and almost off of all pain meds. Taylor is still eating, sleeping and growing! Erwin has now figured out that Taylor is not somehting he gets to play with, but something that will someday play with him. He loves to snuggle with her when we let him and he always runs into the room if she is crying to make sure his little sister is ok.




My goal is to keep this blog updated so everyone has a place to gather that is a little more private and personal than facebook. As soon as Taylor was born we also became instant photographers. You can find all the most recent pictures of her at the following link:

http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f182/horrellbt01/Taylor%20Lynn%20Horrell/
Password: taylorbunny

That is all for tonight. Talk to you all soon!

With Love,

Brian, Kelly and Taylor

Welcome!

To our Family and Friends:
 
 Hello all!
 As most of you know by now, Kelly and I welcomed our little princess into the world on Easter Sunday morning! She was born at 2:02am and was 5lbs 5oz and 19in long. Early on she had some problems breathing and keeping her oxygen levels up, so she spent her first several days in the neonatal intensive care unit. Good news is that she came home with us yesterday with
 a cleared bill of health!
 
 Throughout the week we were able to provide updates to our families on how she was doing, and I am sure some of these updates found their way to some of you. However, there is something that we had kept out of the updates that we would like to share with you all now.
 
 Right after Taylor was born the doctors told us that they suspected she may have Down Syndrome. They drew her blood right away and sent it out for testing and we had to play the waiting game. That game ended on Friday afternoon with a call from Taylor’s doctor. The results came back positive for the extra chromosome that causes Down Syndrome.
 
 As you can imagine, this last week has been a pretty difficult one for us.

 The range of emotions that we go through on a daily basis is enough to make your head spin. However, the most important thing now, and always, is Taylor is home with us where she belongs. That call on Friday changed quite a bit, but what it did not change is how much she is loved by us and all of those who have been able to meet her (and many who have not yet). At the end of the day, our mission as parents is to provide the best life we can for our daughter. That mission has not changed, just the path we will take to get there.
 
 I am confident that, with the support of our families and friends we will be successful in our mission! Having Down Syndrome does not define who Taylor is, it will just be a small part of who she is and who she becomes.

I apologize for not sharing this information with each of you individually and in person, but the thought of having to do so with so many is just too much for me right now. I am sure in time we can have lengthy conversations about it, but for now we would like to focus on having our little girl home with us.

What we need now is love, support, and prayers. Something I know our group of friends and family has plenty of!

With Love,

Brian, Kelly and Taylor