So, now that we have a new baby on the way, it's time to move Ben out of the nursery and give him his first big boy room. Unfortunately, we'll basically be starting with nothing, except a room full of furniture and stuff that didn't have a home.
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First step... clearing the room.
Yesterday was a long day, and a bad day...
I took my baby boy to the ENT yesterday and asked for his hearing to be checked. It turns out that he once again has partial hearing loss. Every time we get over one hurdle, it seems like five more are put in our way. I am devastated but am hopeful that the hearing loss is only being caused because his tubes have begun working their way out. We should know within the next six months if this is the actual cause of his hearing loss and whether my sweet baby will need to undergo another surgery to have his tubes removed or whether he will need a second set put in.
This may not seem like horribly bad news, but with the speech troubles we're still having, the fact that he has been evaluated by our local school district and they believe he may have more issues than with his speech, my concerns he may have some slight ADD and OCD, not to mention our fun with potty training, it is almost too much to handle.
Today was a good day...
What a gorgeous day! I took the day off and met my mom for some retail therapy at an outlet mall. I didn't spend much money, thankfully, but was happy to be away from all the stress and daily grind. AND I got bedding for my baby boy's new big boy room! My mom also treated me to lunch, some maternity clothes, and bought baby girl some CUTE CUTE clothes :)
Tomorrow is another day...
Round 2 of speech therapy starts tomorrow. It is during Ben's normal nap time, so we'll see how it goes... my fingers are crossed. It is also just going to be him and the therapist (a.k.a. without mommy) in the room. But, it is Friday!
I took my baby boy to the ENT yesterday and asked for his hearing to be checked. It turns out that he once again has partial hearing loss. Every time we get over one hurdle, it seems like five more are put in our way. I am devastated but am hopeful that the hearing loss is only being caused because his tubes have begun working their way out. We should know within the next six months if this is the actual cause of his hearing loss and whether my sweet baby will need to undergo another surgery to have his tubes removed or whether he will need a second set put in.
This may not seem like horribly bad news, but with the speech troubles we're still having, the fact that he has been evaluated by our local school district and they believe he may have more issues than with his speech, my concerns he may have some slight ADD and OCD, not to mention our fun with potty training, it is almost too much to handle.
Today was a good day...
What a gorgeous day! I took the day off and met my mom for some retail therapy at an outlet mall. I didn't spend much money, thankfully, but was happy to be away from all the stress and daily grind. AND I got bedding for my baby boy's new big boy room! My mom also treated me to lunch, some maternity clothes, and bought baby girl some CUTE CUTE clothes :)
Tomorrow is another day...
Round 2 of speech therapy starts tomorrow. It is during Ben's normal nap time, so we'll see how it goes... my fingers are crossed. It is also just going to be him and the therapist (a.k.a. without mommy) in the room. But, it is Friday!
Background
My sweet baby boy needed to have a sleep study done on him to see if he needs his tonsils removed. We've waited over a month to get in. And it finally happened last night.
The Saga Begins
Since it was a holiday weekend, Ben was not on his normal sleep schedule, which turned out to be a good thing. Then, because Ben wasn't supposed to nap after noon on the day of the sleep study, we squeezed in a short nap from 11:30-12:30. Luckily the day was uneventful, even though Ben was exhausted. We headed down to the hospital around 6:00 and I had to work hard to keep my little man from falling asleep. When we got there we had quite the trek, as the main lobby is on the opposite side of the hospital from the parking garage... and of course Ben wanted carried!
So they got one sticker on before Ben started kicking and screaming. I, and two techs, held Ben down while they put some of the stickers and monitors. Then the put him in the papoose, which unfortunately i couldn't get a picture of because I was holding him while he was in it. He hated it, not a big surprise though. It took about an hour to get all hooked up and ready to be taped. When they took the papoose off, I thought he'd go nuts, but he tried and didn't have the energy or the ability (see how his elbows are forced straight).
I asked him if he wanted to read a book and he said "Yes." We made it through one, although he wasn't willing to participate. Then we read a second and he was falling asleep sitting up. When I asked if he wanted to read a third, he said "Noooo." So we laid down and he all basically passed out from exhaustion. He has NEVER done that before, but it was so cute.
It was a really rough night for both of us. Every time he moved he would feel the cords, wake up, sit straight up and cry. Thankfully, I was in the bed right next to him and he immediately went back to sleep as soon as he heard my voice and I laid him back down.
We did successfully make it through the night without any cords coming undone or any long periods of time that he was awake. When the morning came (around 5:00 a.m.) we were woke up... me with the lights, Ben with a finger prick. This picture was right before the finger prick.
My sweet baby boy needed to have a sleep study done on him to see if he needs his tonsils removed. We've waited over a month to get in. And it finally happened last night.
The Saga Begins
Since it was a holiday weekend, Ben was not on his normal sleep schedule, which turned out to be a good thing. Then, because Ben wasn't supposed to nap after noon on the day of the sleep study, we squeezed in a short nap from 11:30-12:30. Luckily the day was uneventful, even though Ben was exhausted. We headed down to the hospital around 6:00 and I had to work hard to keep my little man from falling asleep. When we got there we had quite the trek, as the main lobby is on the opposite side of the hospital from the parking garage... and of course Ben wanted carried!
So they got one sticker on before Ben started kicking and screaming. I, and two techs, held Ben down while they put some of the stickers and monitors. Then the put him in the papoose, which unfortunately i couldn't get a picture of because I was holding him while he was in it. He hated it, not a big surprise though. It took about an hour to get all hooked up and ready to be taped. When they took the papoose off, I thought he'd go nuts, but he tried and didn't have the energy or the ability (see how his elbows are forced straight).
I asked him if he wanted to read a book and he said "Yes." We made it through one, although he wasn't willing to participate. Then we read a second and he was falling asleep sitting up. When I asked if he wanted to read a third, he said "Noooo." So we laid down and he all basically passed out from exhaustion. He has NEVER done that before, but it was so cute.
It was a really rough night for both of us. Every time he moved he would feel the cords, wake up, sit straight up and cry. Thankfully, I was in the bed right next to him and he immediately went back to sleep as soon as he heard my voice and I laid him back down.
We did successfully make it through the night without any cords coming undone or any long periods of time that he was awake. When the morning came (around 5:00 a.m.) we were woke up... me with the lights, Ben with a finger prick. This picture was right before the finger prick.
This may all sound mean, but it really wasn't. If he had understood what was going on, the restraints wouldn't have been necessary. And this is all because we're trying to make sure his tonsils need removed... we don't want him to have to go through another surgery unless it is necessary.
The Ending
Unfortunately the ending won't come for at least 14 days. Probably longer than that. And if he does need his tonsils out, this will only be part 1 of the saga.
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| Mr. Potato Head by Playskool |
Don't underestimate the power of learning through play. I bought Mr. Potato Head two weeks ago for my son, who has speech problems. Although he knew the body parts, he was only saying a few of them. Since we have started "playing" with Mr. Potato Head, he has started saying mouth, feet, arm, nose, ear, and eyes. It's amazing the new things kids can learn with new toys!
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| Fridge Phonics: Magnet Alphabet Set from LeapFrog |
Every Thursday my son goes to speech therapy (we think he has Apraxia). This week the therapist had the Fridge Phonics: Magnet Alphabet Set in her office and Ben showed interest in it, so she gave it a shot. While he drew, the therapist would put in a letter (B, for example), the toy would play a little tune (such as, "every letter makes a sound, b says buh") and he'd actually say the sound, no teeth pulling necessary. He did SO well, our BEST therapy session yet! So I broke down and bought one for home today so that we could do some work at home. Hopefully he'll work with it at home too, I'll keep you posted. Of course we are still practicing all the words he's already saying, focusing on trying to improve the two-syllable words like bubble (we blow lots of bubbles) and balloon (The Yellow Balloon by Charlotte Dematons). But every new word he says, my heart does a little pitter-patter.
I can hardly believe that Ben's vocabulary is up to 50 words! He may not be able to say them all clearly yet, but just the fact that he says them consistently and that I can understand him is amazing. My little boy has tried so hard to get words out and for us to understand him that this milestone of 50 words is one to be celebrated. I know we have a long way to go, but I'm just going to pause and be grateful for where we are now.
- juice
- milk
- blue
- red
- hi
- bye
- yes
- no
- up
- down
- go
- dog
- more
- please
- thanks
- eat
- cheese
- ball
- rock
- car
- balloon
- mom
- dad
- home
- shoes
- two
- peas
- me
- mine
- book
- Elmo
- bubble
- boom
- star
- away
- moon
- duck
- hat
- hot
- teeth
- plane
- spoon
- help
- truck
- chair
- bear
- tree
- boat
- heart
- bath
My twenty-six-month-old son Benjamin went to speech therapy today for the second time. First, let me say, that I am so glad that we got into the therapist so quickly after his evaluation. I had heard that it could take months to get in because of the demand, but it only took about three weeks to get a weekly appointment time set up.
So we were at the appointment, and I'm not sure if I didn't hear her last week, but the therapist thinks Ben has Apraxia.
From what I've been reading on the internet, the prognosis looks good, but only after a lot of intervention. I am already full of questions that I want to ask at next week's session, but I'm torn because I don't want to take time away from Ben's therapy to have the therapist answer my questions. I guess I am in for a lot of internet time this week so that I can be armed with as much information as possible. But I still think I'll have a ton of questions...
So we were at the appointment, and I'm not sure if I didn't hear her last week, but the therapist thinks Ben has Apraxia.
Apraxia is a disorder caused by damage to specific areas of the cerebrum, characterized by loss of the ability to execute or carry out learned purposeful movements, despite having the desire and the physical ability to perform the movements. – from Wikipedia.
From what I've been reading on the internet, the prognosis looks good, but only after a lot of intervention. I am already full of questions that I want to ask at next week's session, but I'm torn because I don't want to take time away from Ben's therapy to have the therapist answer my questions. I guess I am in for a lot of internet time this week so that I can be armed with as much information as possible. But I still think I'll have a ton of questions...
- Do we need to get him involved in an early childhood intervention program? And if so, how do we do that and where would we go?
- Is speech therapy once a week enough?
- Is this something that could be "cured," or will he have to struggle all of his life.
- What steps should we take next?
This is all so new, so overwhelming. Hopefully knowledge will bring clarity.
