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Friday, March 31, 2017

Swallow Study

Earlier this week W had his swallow study.  When I scheduled it I didn't realize it was a no school day so the whole crew came with us!  We couldn't find a parking spot at the Children's Hospital so we ended up parking the next hospital over and walking.  It wasn't too bad outside so they enjoyed the walk.

W was absolutely fine until we got to the room and he saw the tiny hospital gown--perhaps he had flashbacks to last week's ear tube surgery?  The gown was just to slip over his clothes so he didn't dribble barium on his clothes but he didn't care--that thing was NOT going on him.  A nurse helped me get Flailing Baby into the chair and strapped in and we draped the gown over him.  He finally calmed down when he realized they were getting him a drink and he was fine after that.  Unfortunately, he failed the swallow study :\  He had a penetration all the way to his vocal cords very quickly on nectar liquids (his current level of thickening) so we didn't even get to try thins *sigh*.  The speech therapist conducting the swallow study said to keep him on nectar until we hear from GI.

So when GI called, they said that when he took small swallows, he seemed to do fine on the video, that penetration was a big gulp so they want him to use a sippy cup or straw cup with a valve to limit how much liquid comes out at once.  Unfortunately, we have both and he will not drink out of either.  He's stubborn, too--when he decides he's not going to, he will just not drink for days.  So they recommended we got back to using the very thin straws he used to drink out of instead of the bigger ones he was finally agreeing to use :p  We will wait a few months and then do another swallow study and see if he's made any progress but she doesn't feel another round of NMES will be helpful since this last round didn't make much difference for him.  So we wait and continue to thicken. 

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Last OT of March!

Apparently this is W's week to shine in therapy because he has been so focused and has participated beautifully with all of his therapists this week :)

He and Miss M worked on some fine motor skills first--last week she introduced the motions for twisting a cap off and on and off all week I have been practicing it with him and he just would not do it on his own.  Miss M arrives and he was showing off his ability to twist the cap and make the toy pop out :p  Little stinker.

They did some strength exercises where they affixed little suction cup toys to my freezer and then pulled them off--the harder you push on them, the harder they are to pull back off.  At first, he pushed them on and they barely took any strength to pull back off but by the end, he could push them on hard enough they made popping noises when you pulled them back off.  He thought that was hilarious.

They did some puzzles, too, and he is getting much better at rotating the pieces to go in plus he did a lot of crossing the midline (the reason they were doing puzzles).  At the very end he swung in the blanket--he kept his head out and apparently that was today's key for an enjoyable swing instead of him crying and trying to get out.

Miss M is going to come up with some activities to help with the resurgence of sensory avoidance that has him stripping every chance he gets again :p

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Last speech therapy of March :p

Poor W went from super happy to super cranky so he took a little nap before Miss H showed up.  And then she showed up early and he missed the last ten minutes of nap so he was slightly disgruntled at being woken up.  He bounced back quickly, though, and he did an excellent job of attempting to repeats words and sounds.  They read a book, played with a racecar set, and put together puzzles.  He's trying so hard to please her!

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

This week's PT update

Miss C brought her roller skates again today--the last time, W wanted NOTHING to with them but today he was all for strapping them to his shoes and attempting to "skate." She held his hands and he shuffled around and had great fun :)

She's been trying to teach him to hit and catch a ball with a little kiddie plastic bat and ball but he doesn't "get" it.  In his mind, she hits the ball with the bat and he does a little dance, claps, and laughs a lot.

Miss C didn't get to do the other thing she had planned because W went and got the skates back out and tried to put them back on--since its a good activity to help with balance and all, she helped him put them on and they spent the rest of their time shuffling through the house :)

Iz was supposed to have PT this afternoon as well but the scheduler told me one thing and then scheduled it earlier :|  Wouldn't have been so bad but instead of telling me right away, they left us sitting in the waiting room for twenty minutes before telling me.  :\

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Does it still count as homeschooling?

Miss Iz spends so much of her preschool day trapped in her anxieties that she hasn't really been getting much out of it academically.  I mean, she's not missing out on everything, she has learned lots of songs and some of her letters and numbers but the planned academics versus what she is retaining are not matching up.  We picked up a kindergarten curriculum book a while back and a new big box of crayons and she was so excited about it!  We keep them locked in the pantry so no one can take her stuff :p  She likes that she is doing schoolwork a year ahead of all her classmates.

She goes to preschool in the morning, I pick her up, we come home and have lunch, and then she does her worksheets.  Sometimes we sit together, sometimes I do some cleaning in the kitchen so I can help her if she needs me to (she very rarely does).  Right now it is easy stuff, colors and shapes, practicing fine motor skills like tracing, drawing, and cutting, a few words to learn, some counting.  Its starting to get a little more complicated so the number of sheets she does in one day is dwindling but she still thinks it is so much fun.

There are days we don't get to do worksheets because of appointments or errands but we still get some schooling in.  On appointment days she gets to play on a tablet and she almost always choosing the learning apps.  She will practice tracing letters, adding, sight words, math games.  She has a couple of "just for fun" apps but rarely plays them.

Other days she runs errands with me.  The other day we were at the grocery store and she wanted to buy dessert.  She found some whole fruit frozen bars and pointed out how healthy they would be (and she was right--a mix of pureed fruits frozen on a stick).  I asked her how many came in the box and she very seriously examined it until she found the number and was able to tell me what it was (4).  I ask her if it will be enough so she counts out everyone who will eat one (me, you, S, B, one, two, three, four).  What about W? I ask.  She says the bars are too big for him and that I usually let him have a bite or two of mine so we don't need to buy a second box because we would have too many. My boys would have tried to convince me to get two boxes so W could have one and they could have two LOL  She pays attention to how I grocery shop and knew I would not have chosen to buy two boxes so W could have a bar way too big for him :p 

Saturday, March 25, 2017

This week's OT update

Baby W seems to have gotten over his case of Mr. Crankypants and is back to normal toddler meltdowns and power struggles so his OT session went really well.  He has decided he is terrified of Miss M's blanket, though, so getting him to lay or sit down to swing is so hard.  Its great input for him, though, and helps work his muscles so we keep trying to get him back to enjoying it.  Neither of us can figure out why he's suddenly so afraid of it.  He wasn't that fond of it at first but then seemed to like it but now he doesn't even want to touch the blanket.

Miss M brought her pop out tunnel today.  We were laughing at how he would NOT go near that tunnel the first time she brought it and today he was helping her undo all the Velcro straps to open it up and he could hardly wait to zoom right through it.

He did a lot of fine motor work today.  He's been using just his pointer finger on one hand to manipulate things so she was getting him to use both hands and more of his fingers to push and turn and slide things on the toys.  We also built a caterpillar with some pop beads that were pretty tight so he needed help at first to get them on and off but by the end he was doing it on his own.  You could just see his arm muscles flexing trying to get those beads off, though!

Friday, March 24, 2017

My Busy Little B was a proud little pig!

My Busy Little B's mainstream class has been busily preparing for a musical event :)  On the day of the performance, they did two concerts, one during school hours and one in the evening.  They had to change B's transport time so he could participate so he got over to his special needs classroom late that day but I'm told he did great with the extra time (in fact, we have a meeting soon to discuss increasing his transition time again so he's in the mainstream classroom longer) and had lots of fun performing.

After dinner we loaded everyone up and went to see his evening performance.  It was during bedtime so the littlest ones were kinda cranky but they held up fairly well.  Iz and W were so ready for bed by the time we got home, though LOL

All the songs were about the farm and B got to play a pig!  He kept telling me he wanted to wear pink but I couldn't find his pink shirt so he wore red instead.  It wasn't until we were pulling into the parking lot for the parent performance that he told me he had wanted to wear pink because he was going to be a pig!  If I'd known, I would have looked harder for that pink shirt :p  I just thought he was in the mood for pink!



Thursday, March 23, 2017

The Day After

The case of Mr. Crankypants W caught during surgery hung around the next day!  He would have stretches where he was in a fairly good mood but every little thing made him lose his tiny mind :\  That sure was fun for his speech therapist!  But they made it through the session and we eventually made it through the day :p  I was awfully glad when he fell asleep early, though ;)

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Baby W's First Surgery

Yesterday was the Big Day.  Baby W and I got up really early and headed over to the Surgical Tower for a 7am checkin.  He was a little sleepy and slightly grumpy that I didn't feed him before we left but he decided we were having an adventure and was pretty happy to go for a drive and then take a walk in the dark across the parking lot with me :p  He played shy peekaboo with the other people checking in and was happy to walk with the nurse escorting us through the hospital.  And, then, we got on the elevator.

Normally elevators are fun for W but this one was filled with strangers and he completely freaked out.  He's coming into the stranger anxiety phase of toddlerhood and while strangers in a big open room are okay, crammed into an elevator apparently is not :\  That set the tone for the rest of our check in and he fought every step of the way--weight, height, temp, heart check, all of it.  He even fought changing into his tiny set of scrubs.  When he finally started to settle, he held onto me tight and gave the Sad Face to everyone stopping by:







After a while of it just being me and him in our little room, he got up the courage to explore:




Of course he was drawn to the giant glass door :p  He stood there watching everyone in the hall and waving at the other kids he could see.





And then he saw some grownups coming and he ran for it!


Turned out to be the anesthesia team arriving to take him back to the OR.  They brought a little red wagon for him to ride in but he wasn't having it so one of the anesthesiologists sat in a wheel chair and cuddled him.  He hugged her tight but still cried his way back to the OR.  Poor little bug.

Ear tubes took less then ten minutes to go in and then he went to recovery to wake up.  Dr. M said they went in quick and easy and they suctioned out all the fluid still trapped in there. He has some ear drops to use for the next five days and then whenever he gets sick enough to get ear discharge (from fluid draining) but other than that no restrictions.

He came back from recovery shortly after and was sleepy and super clingy but when the nurse brought him milk he downed all eight ounces in just a few minutes and then ate a (dry) bowl of cheerios.  Dad arrived (he did school drop off) right as we were getting ready to be discharged :p  W spent the rest of his day slightly wobbly and with a wicked case of Mr. Crankypants but otherwise was completely normal  :)

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Words, words, and more words!

W has become quite the little chatterbox lately and not just babbling--there are words! Words that I recognize and that go together :p  Between his limited vocabulary and his new found charade skills, he can tell me little stories and memories :)  Of course, to the rest of the world, he is just babbling incoherently ;)

He had speech therapy and the therapist could only pick out a few words here and there and he was getting frustrated that she wasn't understanding him or answering his questions so I spent most of the session translating for her so she would know what he was saying and asking.  He's trying real hard but he's just not quite there yet!  However, I've long been in the habit of repeating back what my kids say because the very first speech therapist we met with, way back when S was not quite two (nine years ago!), told me that one of the best ways to improve speech in little ones is to repeat modeling correct pronunciation and grammar.  Once I figure out what W is trying to say and can echo it back at him properly, he starts to try and copy how I say it and slowly his pronunciation shifts to something more people can understand.  We'll get there eventually :)

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Again, my day was talking about poop

Of course, the fact that we were seeing GI probably had a lot to do with it :p  Even though Baby W sees GI for reflux and aspirations, we still talk about poop an awful lot.  Pretty sure GIs are just hardwired to talk about it LOL  Baby W has a different GI than Iz so we spent some time with Dr A this time around.

Baby W is officially off Prilosec! WooHoo!  Dr. A lowered his dose last time we were in (Dec 1) and I asked her about doing a trial completely off to see how he did since even on days when he fought and spit and didn't get a dose, he wasn't really spitting up. She said no problem, see how he does so he hasn't taken any in months :)  At first, we had some minor spit up, maybe once or twice a week but its been a few weeks since he's spit up so he has officially outgrown his reflux and the meds are removed from his "currently taking" list.  His reflux was so very severe that we didn't expect him to have such a sudden turnaround.

Scheduling didn't work to get his swallow study before our visit so she can't change his thickening consistency or decide if he needs more NMES therapy.  Swallow Study is March 27th so a couple weeks to go and then she'll either call or email after she gets the results with the game plan.  We go back to see her in 4 months.

Oh, and he was a bit over 22 pounds today and moved up several percentiles on the growth chart :)  He's still below 15th percentile but this time last year he wasn't even on the chart so yay for progress, eh?

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Ear Check!

Baby W saw the pediatrician for his ear check after the last round of antibiotics.  The ears are still full of fluid. *sigh*  On the bright side, though, there was no infection and he hasn't been showing signs of illness so we were finally able to go ahead and get the vaccinations that were due back in December.  The doctor kept postponing them because he didn't want to give them to W sick.  We did have one clear visit last month but it was the "all clear" visit for the MRI and Doctor M didn't want to do vaccinations and then have W develop a fever or something and then have to cancel the MRI yet again so we decided to do them after the MRI.  W, of course, got sick right after the MRI, though, so it took another month to get to this point :p

*fingers crossed* that we make it to ear tube surgery without more infections!  It would be our luck to have to postpone ear tubes due to another ear infection ;)

Monday, March 13, 2017

App Monday!

I feel like writing about Apps is becoming a thing :p  Three weeks in a row!  And I could probably go once a week for months with all the apps on my phone--perhaps that is a sign I rely too much on them?  Or a sign that at least one part of life is somewhat organized ;)

This week's app is a really simple one but I have used it for years and it can be a lifesaver. Its is Childrens Countdown--visual countdown timer for preschoolers.  I first started using it for my Busy Little B and have continued to use it for Iz.  They both really struggle with transitions and this is an easy way to get them prepared because they can glance at it at any time and get a visual on how much time has passed and how much is remaining.  B also used it a lot to understand taking turns--he can be very impatient, especially before we discovered his seizures, and the visual countdown was an easy way to help get him past the "I WANT IT NOW" mindset.  When the timer is done, it was his turn and he could have whatever it was he was waiting for.  It has also been great for timeouts--it can be hard for them to sit still when they don't have a sense of time passing and this timer solved that problem and helped them calm down and stay calm so they could finish time out and be able to think about why they were sitting there and how they should behave next time.

The app lets you choose minutes and seconds:


You start out with a solid color and as time ticks down, the color disappears and reveals the picture beneath:


You can choose a specific "standard" picture to use every time, let it choose from a set of standard pictures at random so you can get a different picture every time, or you can upload your own photos (useful if you are counting down to a transition--for example, once the timer is done, a picture of your car appears and the child knows they have to leave).  Most of the time we leave it on random because mine enjoy being surprised by a "new" picture:


B and Iz's favorite part of the app comes at the end--when the entire picture is revealed, it spins around and throws confetti and then stops and shows the entire picture standing still:


The free version runs a little ad banner along the bottom but you can also make a one time purchase of 99 cents to get rid of the ads.  

Hot & Cold

Duck greeted us with a picture of his gloomy weather down in Texas.  Of course, gloomy for him was still warm!


Princess Duck joined us today to show off the weather we had today--cold and snow:



While Duck had the warm weather, he did have a very long day while we snuggled up at home :p  We watched a movie, everyone did their chores, played some games, had a nice dinner, everyone off to bed.  All while Duck was still working away:






Poor Duck :(  At least he's back in his room now and off to bed!  I, however, am not because the whole Spring Forward thing is messing with my ability to sleep by the clock :p

Sunday, March 12, 2017

W sitting

One of the first things we started working on when Baby W started OT was W sitting.  He was young and it can be common and the OT said most kids grow out of it.  However, we have a long history of continuing to W sit long after peers have stopped (ahem, its certainly possible I still did it into my twenties and only stopped after I first dislocated my knee and the W sit position would then throw the never-quite-the-same-knee out of place) so she wanted to work on it with him.

He will go long stretches of time without doing it but will periodically revert back to it.  During his "off" times, I've corrected his seat so many times that I don't even have to physically move him anymore, I can just give him a reminder and he'll move himself into a better position :p  He kept W sitting during his last OT session and his therapist asked what I normally say to him to keep him consistent.  She was going to say what I normally say while moving his body into position.  But as soon as I said out loud "W, sit on your bottom", he moved into the correct position without her help--she was really impressed that he followed directions so quickly and correctly :p  Kid may be stubborn but he is resigned to the fact that sometimes, you just have to do what Mom says!

Today was a lazy day for us but Duck was hard at work

Today is cold and snowy so we snuggled down inside and watched tv, played with W's new train, got out the dollhouse, and frankly, just be lazy ;)  The morning started off as all mornings should--with coffee!  Army Duck needed a big cup:






Duck is in Texas today and he was super busy with work but he did find time to take one picture for us, out near Pecos, Texas:





I must admit, we were a little jealous of his wide open blue skies and warmth.  We watched it snow most of the day and the kids fought over the blanket on the sofa :p  We were so lazy today, we didn't even cook a full on meal!  We made a salad bar, which was a bigger hit than I thought it would be.  They don't mind eating a salad as a side dish with dinner but while I will eat an entree salad as my complete meal, I've never tried it with them:




Excuse the dark lines on the table.  Someone *cough*Iz*cough* found a sharpie one day and those marks never did come completely off.  We are so used to them we don't even think about it but every once in a while I really notice them and think, hmmm, that looks bad.  Ah, kids.  Its always something!

I think if I had just dumped everything in the salad bowl and served it up they would have been resistant but putting all the toppings out for them to make their own was a lot of fun. Plus they could leave off the things they didn't like.  I thought for sure that bowl of cut up fried chicken tenders would disappear first but it was the grilled chicken that emptied out almost immediately!  Baby W ate multiple servings of veggies, chicken, and boiled eggs but barely touched the avocado--he's always been hit or miss with avocado.  He will eat it if its spread on buttered toast every time but plain?  Only once in a while.

Saturday, March 11, 2017

If you don't clap for me, I'll just do it myself

I am pretty sure Baby W is addicted to praise ;)  It has become second nature to tell the kids they are doing a good job on simple things as a way to encourage them to continue making good choices, whether its being kind to one another or picking up toys without being asked.  As our youngest family member, Baby W gets praise from everyone and he LOVES it.  Picks up a shoe and puts it away, someone tells him what a good boy he is.  Puts recycling in the bin, someone claps for him.  He gives a hug or kiss, someone tells him he is awesome.

Today he apparently felt he wasn't being praised enough because he'd do something he felt was praiseworthy, yell to get the attention of whoever happened to be in the room and then he'd clap and say "Yay, Wum!"  It was so cute. And perhaps a sign we should maybe back off on some of the praise ;)

Friday, March 10, 2017

After a few days at his North Dakota home, Duck is on the road again!

It is kinda crazy how many types of weather Duck can see on his travels--we will get pictures that look cold and gloomy and later that day it will be all sunshine and blue skies!




Miss Iz decided Army Duck should share our gloomy skies, too.  She said this time he's just napping up there ;)


Where's Baby W?

We had a GI appointment for Izzy today (just her regular checkup visit to touch base.  Every three months, nothing exciting) and as always, Baby W was fascinated by the cabinets.  In some rooms, there are empty cupboards, usually where the sink is, and the staff have assured us they keep them empty on purpose because kids love to get in them so if there is an empty cabinet, W is so there :p






Usually he climbs in and will sit or lay in and watch us from his own private little cubby


Today, though, he took it a step further and closed the doors to hide from us!





And then he pulled his hands in and we could hear him giggling--he thought he was completely hidden from view.  He never considered we could still see his feet!





We played along, of course, and said things like 'oh, no, W is gone!  Where's W?  I can't find W anywhere!"  His giggles increased and then his tiny voice answered us back with 'hea!' (his version of here). And he pushed the doors open and laughed and laughed :)

Thursday, March 9, 2017

He's all smiles!

Baby W has had so many grumpy days this winter because of all the ear and sinus infections so we are so happy when we hit that spot where the antibiotic has cleared up his ears and he's feeling good before the next infection hits :p


Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Another useful app

I find that my life is now run by electronics :p Once upon a time, I relied on paper calendars, to do lists, notepads, and post it notes. However, children have cured me of that habit ;)  They tend to walk off with portable things like pocket calendars and post it notes, they color in notepads because oh, don't they make pretty pictures?  So one by one my old ways have given way to apps on my phone.  The calendar app is my most used one--it tracks all of our appointments and checks the traffic for me as well and reminds me when its time to leave based on how long it will take to get there.

Last week I wrote about Our Home--the app we use to track chores.  This week my "pick of the week" is Every Dollar, a budgeting app.  I use an excel spreadsheet to track income and expenditures but that is tied to my computer and not very convenient if I need to see where I am at in the budget on the go or if Mr. Piper needs to see where we are at while he is away from home (he's a visual learner so me telling him the numbers doesn't work.  Pretty sure it sounds like a different language to him).  So I can access Every Dollar on my computer or through an app on my phone.  Unlike the spreadsheet, Every Dollar groups transactions by budget category so I can see at a glance if I've gone over on groceries or still have some left.  I've been using it for a few months now and I'm really liking it--it is helping me see where the leaks in our budget are.  Perhaps we will even get to take that family trip to Texas this summer than never happened last year :p

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Baby W has opinions!

Baby W's recent language burst means he is also able to express his opinions on things :)  Sometimes those opinions are contradictory but they are still his!

We had salmon tonight, first time for Baby W.  First bite he told me was "yuh" (yuck) but he kept chewing.  Second bite was "hmm" and by bite number five it was "moe" (more).  He will keep trying things he doesn't like to see if he changes his mind--the only things he will absolutely not eat have to do with texture, not the food itself since he will usually eat those foods in a different form.  Makes feeding him easier since if he doesn't like it, he will eat it anyway because he's determined that he'll like it!

He's also learned how to demand what drink he wants.  He told me tonight he wanted "joo!" (juice) and if he can snag someone's unthickened water he will hug it close and declare "wums!" (his version of his name is Wum).  This boy LOVES water but he won't drink it with the ThickIt in it (can't blame him there) so his main drinks are watered down juice and milk (sometimes with a tiny bit of chocolate powder because he won't always tolerate plain milk with the ThickIt). He wants so much to be like his big sister and get a straw cup with lovely plain water to carry around and sip from.


Monday, March 6, 2017

Cooking lessons

The past few months S has gotten really interested in learning how to cook so a few times a week I make sure he works with me in the kitchen to start getting down some of the basics.  Some of his favorite meals we make together a few times and then he flies solo (mostly--I'm still there when he needs a hand or if something is still too much for him to handle) and makes it on his own.  He doesn't have too many dishes yet that he can do on his own but he's getting there!  Tonight was a help mom and build your skills night.

One of the kids favorites that we do about every six weeks or so is nacho night.  We started making our own seasoning mix for tacos/nachos a few months ago but we haven't yet landed on a spice mixture we want to keep yet (feel free to spam me with your favorite blends if you mix your own! We'll try it :D).  We tried a new mixture tonight and S kept busy locating the different spices and herbs and helping me measure them out and pour them through our IKEA funnel and into our IKEA spice jar so we have some mix to last.  We tripled the recipe so we won't have to mix one up for a while and to give ourselves several recipes to try it out.  This mix was ok and we likely will mix it up again but I'm not positive it will be our "we always make this!" version.  It was kinda funny, though--the recipe called for crushed red pepper flakes and we did not have any but we did have a packet of them hanging around from one of our pizza nights and it was just enough for the recipe :p









Sunday, March 5, 2017

He's gaining some skills!

All of the OT and PT and ST is really paying off for Baby W!  He is gaining so many new skills it can be hard to keep up with him :)

PT started working with him because his balance can get so bad, especially when he looks up (he tends to fall over backwards).  Miss C has been working on strengthening muscles and practicing activities that make him lose his balance and while he still loses his balance a lot, we are seeing improvements and his ability to do ordinary things is getting better.  He can now stand on one foot while holding the other up so I can slip on his pants or shoes!  He could pick one foot up off the ground if he was leaning on me but without leaning he would fall and he could not do the other foot at all.  Now he stands up straight with just his hands on my arms and can lift both :)

ST started working with him because he only had half the words they expect by his age and he rarely tried to repeat what others said to him.  Now he babbles constantly with a bunch of new words thrown in and even short phrases and sentences!  He tries to mimic what we say and has picked up some new words that way as well.  Granted, he is pretty much unintelligible to everyone but me (and sometimes me, too!) but it is such great progress.

He's been working with OT the longest and he loves Miss M so much, even when she asks him to do stuff he doesn't like such as working on the ball or bolster :p  She started working with him for sensory stuff but added in fine motor skills, gross motor skills, core strength, crossing the midline, and working his hip flexors.  We most definitely see a big change from OT--he tolerates clothing and shoes, covers up with a blanket, his attention span improved, he can sit in his high chair normally.

Sometimes it can take such a long time to see the benefits of therapy--its nice to see so many positive steps in the right direction after just months of therapies.

Saturday, March 4, 2017

Oh, Duck, you're so silly!

When we got in our truck, the kids started laughing--they said it looked like our Duck was up at the windshield trying to eat all the snow off the windshield so we could see better and they couldn't wait to send Dad and Duck a picture






Duck sent back a couple pictures of his own.  It was cold and snowy and kinda boring :p





And then Duck got super silly and the kids giggled for the longest time ;)


First surgery

Baby W had his ENT appointment today.  He thought it quite fun to start with because he got to open all kinds of drawers and cupboards and see what was inside of them.  It actually highlighted how far he's come in his speech because he told me about all the things he found inside the drawers.  One drawer held a "big sta" (big stack) of green cloths, another held bags, another had "tings", one was "stuh!" (stuck, aka locked LOL).  He didn't enjoy the exams as much but was cooperative.  He did pass his hearing test but the exam showed that while his ear drums are moving and working, they aren't moving the way they should so there is still fluid back there.  I looked up his records and his first diagnosis of ear and sinus infection was all the way back in the middle of December--he was sick for about two weeks before he went in with what started as a cold.  Four ear infections, four rounds of antibiotics and the fluid is still there and if our pattern continues, he will probably end up with another infection.  So tubes it is to keep the fluid drained.  My Busy Little B also had to have tubes back in 2012.  Surgery is scheduled for later this month--fingers crossed that we don't get another ear infection before then and have to postpone!  He has another runny nose today so its possible we are gearing up again for another sickness :\

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Finally got the call

A few weeks ago, before we were even done with feeding therapy, one of the therapists submitted the request to get the swallow study scheduled.  She knew we were nearly finished with our prescribed number of sessions and wanted to get the ball running.  She and her colleague would periodically ask if I'd gotten the call to schedule but I never did.  Feeding therapy ended, still no call.  Finally, I called them last week to see what the hold up was.  They never issued an order for the swallow study so the clinic didn't know they needed to schedule one *sigh*

The GI was out for the week so I had to wait until this week for her to return and decide whether or not to order a swallow study.  Got the call finally but now all the spots are filled so March 27th is the date :\  I know the therapists were hoping for soon after therapy ending (hence why they sent over their request for the GI to write an order so early) so if he's ready he can finally come off the thickeners.

Ah, well, at least he's used to the thickeners.  Even if he is constantly trying to snitch unthickened drinks :P