The Mom Crowd

This past week, our whole family attended the National Down Syndrome Congress’ (NDSC) annual conference. This is the third year I have gone. This year’s convention was held in Boston, Massachusetts. I can’t say enough great things about visiting Boston. The Boston area is so rich in American history! The kids did so well on the trip. My fears were Connor on the plane, Connor going to sleep at night, and Darah becoming overstimulated. Connor LOVED flying and went to bed like a champ. We didn’t have to put his crib in the bathroom like I thought we would, and we even got to keep the television on while he slept right through it! Darah did have one really horrific day and didn’t do so well on the plane trip home, but all in all, she did 100 times better than I expected! On a scale of 1-10, Connor got a “10″ and Darah got a “6.5″ after all was said and done. That’s not too bad!

The NDSC put on a great conference and I came home with a lot of information. I attended a workshop about gross motor skills post walking led by Pat Winders. Pat is a physical therapist who has done so much research on children with Down syndrome and how their gross motor skills develop. Another workshop I attended was all about Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). Dr. Sally Shott is an ENT physician from Cincinnati who specializes in children with Down syndrome. She spoke about treatment options and other related issues to OSA. I am excited to share all the information I have learned on OSA, but that will be saved for another post! This is just a glimmer of the education I received while I was in Boston, and I’m anxiously awaiting for the audio of the workshops I wasn’t able to attend.

Another cool thing that happened in Boston was meeting again and talking with Denise from eReadingPro, which is one of The Mom Crowd’s sponsors and the reason Darah is doing so well with her reading. It was great talking with her one-on-one and meeting her other half. We left the day she had her workshop, or I so would have been there! She’s a ton of fun!  Actually, I spent most of my time with another one of our sponsors, Bethany, from The Polkadot Platypus!  In the picture above, she is the second from the left.  She’s my twin!

The very best part of my trip was meeting up with old friends and making new friends! I have made a lot of online friends through an online forum for parents of children with Down syndrome. This group has been the most amazing family and has given me so much support and encouragement. I have formed some of my closest friendships from this online group and it’s been great to reunite with these friends in person! I was able to meet some people in real life for the first time. It was so great to see these pictures and personalities come to life! Darah’s extra chromosome and the internet has connected me with a very special family!

If you have a child with Down syndrome, I strongly encourage you to attend one of these national conferences. You will walk away with a wealth of information and will have made new life-long friends. Here’s some points to consider:

• Book your hotel early! We had to stay at a hotel across the street because the conference hotel fills up fast!
• Check with your local group to see if they provide scholarships or grants for families attending the conference. Some groups will pay a grant in exchange for you writing up an article for their newsletter on what you learned. Other groups will send their top volunteers to the conference! That is how I paid for my first two conferences! President Bush’s stimulus check paid for a chunk of this year’s conference!
• Make it a family vacation! There are grandparent workshops, a whole separate conference for individuals with Down syndrome and a separate conference for siblings of individuals with Down syndrome.
• If you are not able to attend, think about purchasing the c.d. from the conference and listening to the workshops!

2009′s conference will be in Sacramento, California from July 31-August 2. I’m booking my hotel as soon as they post the information!

Have you ever met any online friends IRL (in real life)? What was that like? Did you attend this year’s conference? What did you think?

Darah and Connor are into everything! They’re incredibly nosy and love snooping in trashcans, couch cushions, and cabinets. When we went on vacation, I knew I was going to have to be a few steps ahead of them if I didn’t want to constantly be saying, “don’t touch that,” “put that down,” “out of your mouth,” “leave that door shut,” “honey, can you please keep that away from him?” Taking a few extra moments to plan for the very un-baby proofed hotel room we were going to be staying at worked to everyone’s advantage.

Baby Level

• Get down at your baby’s level and crawl around your entire hotel room looking for choking hazards, sharp edges, or anything that may be dangerous for your child. You’d be surprised at the odd things left behind from the previous guests in your room under the beds, in the chair cushion, and in the drawers. If you have a child who can open doors, bring along a couple of doorknob covers.

Duct tape

• Duct tape will seriously be your best ali in baby proofing your hotel room. Cover outlets, tape up cables and cords, keep those closet doors that don’t have latches shut, and latch those drawers shut all with duct tape!

Balconies and Windows

• Make sure that your child cannot open the door to your balcony and that the window coverings do not pose a danger to your curious child. Cords hanging from the blinds can be extremely dangerous, so make sure they are not in your child’s reach

Restraint

• Make sure you call ahead and request a crib for your child to sleep in, or pack your pack-and-play. My three year old is in a big-girl bed, however we made sure she had a pack-and-play crib to sleep in at night. Not only did this keep my children safe at night, it also served as a great time-out for my three year old when she was acting naughty.

Bath-time

• I brought my own comet and sponge to clean the bathtub out for my kids. You don’t have to be that crazy like me, however you do need to make sure you keep an eye on the bathwater temperature! Hotels sometimes do not set their water heaters to the same level yours is at home, and so the water can get extremely hot very fast!

Common Sense

• Never leave your child alone. You can take all the precautions you want, but you will never have a completely baby proofed room. Don’t forget the lock the deadbolt on your door as well to keep anyone with access to your room OUT!

What baby proofing tricks do you use when you’re on vacation?

I am currently in Oceanside, CA traveling again with my baby. I have written before about traveling to the Philippines with my baby when she was seven months old. Now she is ten months old and mobile. Here are some tips that I have learned and done this trip that has helped our family. Hopefully this information will help you the next time you travel with your little one.

Bringing the Big Stuff

We did not buy an airline seat for the baby this trip, because the flights were short enough that we could hold her the entire time. We checked in her car seat and base. I was worried about losing them, but my friend said that they did not have any problems when they checked in their car seat. Continental Airlines made us put the car seat and base in a large plastic bag.

We used the stroller around the airport to hold our stuff and occasionally our baby. We checked in the stroller at the gate and it was ready for us right when we got off the plane.

Borrow or use the hotel’s pack-n-play if you can. We are in a nice Motel 6, so they don’t have offer a crib. We are able to borrow one from our friend to use while we are here. My friend also borrowed her neighbor’s pack-n-play to keep at her house to use for naps.

Buy Food and Diapers When You Get There

I packed enough jars of food, snacks, and diapers to last us two days to save space. Then we got here and I made a run to the local grocery store to buy all the food and diapers we needed. I like to buy Beechnut when I buy jars of food and they have them here too. Bananas and unsweetened apple sauce cups travel well. We also keep a package of diapers here with us in the hotel and take as many we need for the day.

Snacks, Snacks, and more Snacks!

Yes, every mother carries snacks for their little one. This is an age-old trick, but it is completely true! I am not sure how I feel about Gerber’s wagon wheel snacks, because they seem so unnatural and chemically created, but they don’t make a mess. During the trip I am being a little more lenient about her snack consumption. I give snacks to Ace when she gets fussy towards the end of the flight and while we are trying to eat at a restaurant. Mostly in public places!

Transferring From One House to Another in the Middle of the Night

Ace’s normal bedtime is at 6:30 p.m. We certainly did not want to be back in the hotel for the night at 6:30 p.m.! We opted to put Ace down at her normal time in a pack-n-play at our friend’s house and then transfer her when we were ready to go back to the hotel. Transferring did not go well the first time we moved her. The second night we got a routine that worked. We bring the car seat to the pack-n-play and move her as quickly and smoothly has possible. Then we get her to the car as fast possible. When we get the hotel room one spouse holds the baby while the other gets ready for bed. She doesn’t sleep if we lay her down with all the commotion going on. Then I nurse her and it is lights out and quiet time. We lay her down and everyone goes to bed. This process works well for us. It is nice to be able to go out with a baby and not feel tied down to the hotel room.

Traveling to a Different Time Zone

California is two hours behind our Central time zone. There are two schools of thought on moving time zones. One method is to pretend that you never left your time zone and stay on the same schedule that you always use. I think this would work well for babies who are very scheduled oriented. The other method is to try and adjust your baby to the new schedule by keeping them up later or putting them to bed earlier. Ace is a flexible baby so we chose to keep her up and get her on Pacific Time. It only took her about two nights to get adjusted. It will be a challenge to get her back on Central Time, but we are prepared and know that it is coming.

Staying calm and keeping an easy-going attitude has kept this trip a success. It also helps not to be in a hurry everywhere. We know everything is not going to go smoothly, but everything can be dealt with. Knowing that there is a grocery store around the corner has also been a big relief. Sometimes it is nice staying the States!

How about you? Do you have any travel plans coming up? How do you handle moving between time zones with your little one?

I researched flying with a baby a few months ago and enjoyed reading the stories of other parents’ experiences. So I decided to write my story about my first experience flying with a baby.

In August of last year I had to decide if I my baby and me were going to the Philippines with my husband and 10 other people in December. Part of my concern was traveling with a 7 month old. I researched flying with an infant and spoke to many parents. They all agreed that this would be a great time to travel with Ace, because she would not be crawling yet. So we bought the tickets and in December we left to travel to the other side of the world.

Security

Getting through security would have been a bigger challenge if I had to do it by myself. Luckily my husband was with me to help Ace and I get through the lines. Between the three of us we had five items: a car seat, a car seat frame stroller, a diaper bag, my backpack, and Daniel’s bag with a laptop computer. Almost each time we had to put everything through the security ex-ray machine, including breaking down the stroller. In addition, we had to take off all our shoes, even Ace’s little knock-off Robeez. The first time we went through the line my husband thought he lost his mobile phone. He found his phone, but we agreed to get through the line slower next time and not care about the people behind us. Going slow through the line may not have made the people behind us very happy, but we were much more relaxed and less stressed.

In the Los Angeles airport there was a special line for strollers and wheelchairs. We zipped right through the line while we waited over thirty minutes for our friends to get through the regular security line. In the Hong Kong airport before Daniel and I went through the security line a nice security man with clean white gloves held up his hands and asked for my baby. I handed him my baby thinking, he just wanted to see her. Then, on the other side of security we saw three security personnel crowded around my baby trying to get her to smile. They had sat her sitting up in her car seat. I wasn’t sure what to think about all of it, I was tired and just glad that my baby was okay after passing her off to a security guard.

Finally On The Plane

My husband, baby, and I did not always have our three seats assigned together. Imagine if I had left my baby in the row behind me next to two unassuming passengers! Every time we would not completely settle into our seats until we made sure that the seat next to us was empty or until after we asked someone to exchange seats with us. Everyone we asked politely obliged to move seats even though they did not have to.

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1. Lots of Diapers

I packed diapers in every bag that we brought. Knowing that I had a lot of diapers saved me a lot of stress from worrying that I didn’t have enough or I would run out.

2. Huggies Travel Wipes

I LOVED these packets of wipes. They had them at my grocery store on sale at 5 for $5 right before I left. The plastic closing keeps your wipes dry at all times. These wipes are easy to get out in a hurry and are very durable. I used them for diaper changing, wiping off toys that fell on the ground, and for my hands. After the bag was empty, Ace loved to make crunching sounds with the bag and chew on it.

3. My Nursing Cover

I used my nursing cover everywhere I went. I practiced using my cover a lot before I left, so I would be comfortable breastfeeding in public. I also used my nursing cover as a blanket over the bassinet on the plane to keep the light away. It was light enough that she could still get air and still block light at the same time. One time Ace spit up all over herself and me and I had no wipes or blankets with me. I used the corner of my cover to clean it up. Next time I am going to bring two, so I can use one while I am washing the other.

4. Graco SnugRider Infant Car Seat Stroller Frame

We used the stroller frame to carry our luggage and car seat through the airport. It was easier to carry Ace, than to carry our luggage. The stroller was our ticket to board flights early and get through special security lines. We never used the stroller at our destination, but it was certainly helpful in three different airports.

5. Baby Bjorn

My husband and I could both use the Baby Bjorn, because it is manly enough for him to use. As soon as Ace was big enough to use the carrier, we got her used to being in one, knowing that it would be handy on this trip. It is fast and easy to put on. I love my Moby Wrap, but it was too hot to use in a hot and humid climate. The Baby Bjorn was a lot cooler. We used the carrier on a boat, at our destination, and through the airport.

6. Favorite Toy

Trina commented on a previous post to bring a favorite toy along. I am so glad I listened! “Fishy” was a lifesaver when Ace’s ears were popping on descents and when the plane was just sitting on the tarmac. Anytime she saw “Fishy” to bring her a kiss, she immediately smiled.

7. Huggies Disposable Washcloths

I brought a few samples of Huggies Disposable Washcloths to bath Ace whenever I needed. I could have brought a washcloth and soap, but for this trip is was convenient to have an all-in-one that I could throw away. I bathed Ace at the Hong Kong airport and in the sink in the hotel. They worked great.