"Duck is 1, Ducks are 2. What do they say when they talk to you?"

Today at the Haven the feeding/swallowing group continued to work on improving the infant’s fine and gross motor skills in order to strengthen the babies’ muscles for feeding. We continued with the Beckman exercises, C-stretch, and the Z-vibe, which all have positive effects on the babies’ intake of nutrients. Whenever we do the above exercises it lessens the likelihood of any anterior liquid loss from the infants. Most of these infants our functioning at least 4 months below their chronological age. Our little man Choowle was thriving today, he was able to roll over and sit up for a good three minutes on his own. Bennett was able to roll over and sit up on his own as well. Darcie and Tegan were babbling and sitting up throughout the majority of the hour, except when we were trying to get them to crawl; which was unsuccessful today, but we'll keep trying!

My pretty girls Darcie and Tegan

Megan finally took to sucking on a pacifier, thanks to Catherine! Hamilton is improving every day and he is even fitting in his clothes now!

Baby Hamilton

Apparently feeding/swallowing therapy is exhausting to some of the infants...

Lushomo passed out!

The language class has the other babies at the Haven improving as well. We are hearing a lot more imitations from the kids and are able to elicit verbal responses from a few. It is only the beginning of week two at the Haven and we have already seen so much progress. I can NOT wait to see what happens over the next two weeks with the infants!

The power went out again for the second night in a row...this time for 3 hours! Everyone else aborted the living room and went to bed except for Lacey, Catherine, Rachel, and I. We read as much as we could take, then we got bored and just started talking by the light of our head lamps. oooh bonding in Africa! My poor bunk mate/giggle twin aka: Lace Face was sick after we returned from the Haven. I believe she caught the terrible stomach virus that has now swept through the entire group minus Caroline, Catherine, and D.T. But Lace seems to be doing a TON better. Please pray we keep this virus away!!! I don't think any of us can handle getting sick again.