I'm using one of Judith's favorite phrases for the title of this post, because today was a big day for her. We had a meeting with her service coordinator during speech because her coordinator wanted to touch base before her annual eval. We discussed her progress, and decided that since she met and exceeded her goal, we would officially discharge her from services! Speech was the last area she was showing delays in, so this means she is completely caught up, and the discharge is a total discharge from early intervention!
Of course we have the card and number for her service coordinator, and we can call at any time if we have a concern or want an evaluation for something, but unless she shows some serious regressions in an area we should be set and can close another chapter of her preemie story.
Showing posts with label developmental delays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label developmental delays. Show all posts
Monday, March 11, 2013
Friday, April 13, 2012
Breathing Treatments and EI
No guarantees that I can keep this post short - sorry! I'll break it into 2 parts though, because a lot has happened in the past couple of days!
Breathing Treatments
I gave Judith her first breathing treatment Wednesday night. That was an epic fail: Judith screamed through the entire treatment, and it was the type of fit she normally reserves for the doctors' offices. And since she had herself so worked up, she puked all over the place once the treatment was done. So not only did I have to worry about remembering what I needed to clean on the nebulizer, I had to clean up the vomit in the PnP and the Step & Play piano, plus change her and supervise her to make sure she didn't get into the dog water bowls. Fun times.
Thursday morning started the same way: she was refusing her treatment, was fighting me, and threw the mask with medicine cup attached on the floor... twice. Finally I had her sit on the couch (I was right next to her with a hand on her in case she decided to bolt) and tried holding the mask at her face instead of trying to strap it to her head. Throw in a little singing, and she was able to complete the rest of the treatment. I felt much more confident about things after seeing what would get her to respond, and I filed it in my mind for the next daytime treatment.
Thursday night, she slept through the entire treatment, which was my goal (it was my goal for Wednesday too, but she decided to wake up). Score!
This morning, she did well! Yes, she still shoved the mask away and wanted to play with it more, but we got the bulk of the treatment into her lungs since she allowed me to hold the mask against her face for longer periods.
Now let's hope that she continues to do that well for the remainder of the treatments!
Early Intervention
Judith's annual eval was yesterday afternoon, and I am very pleased with the results! Judith actually performed the majority of the tasks they were looking for, save for a couple things!
An hour and a half later, the paperwork was signed and we had the results. I can't remember what all of the specific numbers were (we should get the report in the mail soon), but I do remember that she's at a 16 month level in gross and fine motor, which means we're discharged from PT services! She's somewhere around 16-17 months for cognition, but is lacking in communication and speech - she scored around 11 months in those areas. As a result, she qualifies for speech services, and we will get those moving within a few weeks once we set up a time with the therapist and whatnot.
If you are unfamiliar with how EI performs these evaluations, they score the baby/toddler based off of their actual/chronological age, so for a preemie, it often looks like there's a bigger delay than what there really is. That's the case with Judith's speech and communication: if we adjust her age, she's actually within the normal range and would not qualify for services. But because they base it off her actual age, she qualifies. I'll do anything to help her get caught up to where she needs to be, and if speech services will be the final boost, so be it!
I was just thrilled to hear how well she's doing in so many areas, and to hear that she's almost completely caught up! At this rate, she will be caught up by age 2, and that makes me happy to know how far she's come in such a short time!
Breathing Treatments
I gave Judith her first breathing treatment Wednesday night. That was an epic fail: Judith screamed through the entire treatment, and it was the type of fit she normally reserves for the doctors' offices. And since she had herself so worked up, she puked all over the place once the treatment was done. So not only did I have to worry about remembering what I needed to clean on the nebulizer, I had to clean up the vomit in the PnP and the Step & Play piano, plus change her and supervise her to make sure she didn't get into the dog water bowls. Fun times.
Thursday morning started the same way: she was refusing her treatment, was fighting me, and threw the mask with medicine cup attached on the floor... twice. Finally I had her sit on the couch (I was right next to her with a hand on her in case she decided to bolt) and tried holding the mask at her face instead of trying to strap it to her head. Throw in a little singing, and she was able to complete the rest of the treatment. I felt much more confident about things after seeing what would get her to respond, and I filed it in my mind for the next daytime treatment.
Thursday night, she slept through the entire treatment, which was my goal (it was my goal for Wednesday too, but she decided to wake up). Score!
This morning, she did well! Yes, she still shoved the mask away and wanted to play with it more, but we got the bulk of the treatment into her lungs since she allowed me to hold the mask against her face for longer periods.
Now let's hope that she continues to do that well for the remainder of the treatments!
Early Intervention
Judith's annual eval was yesterday afternoon, and I am very pleased with the results! Judith actually performed the majority of the tasks they were looking for, save for a couple things!
An hour and a half later, the paperwork was signed and we had the results. I can't remember what all of the specific numbers were (we should get the report in the mail soon), but I do remember that she's at a 16 month level in gross and fine motor, which means we're discharged from PT services! She's somewhere around 16-17 months for cognition, but is lacking in communication and speech - she scored around 11 months in those areas. As a result, she qualifies for speech services, and we will get those moving within a few weeks once we set up a time with the therapist and whatnot.
If you are unfamiliar with how EI performs these evaluations, they score the baby/toddler based off of their actual/chronological age, so for a preemie, it often looks like there's a bigger delay than what there really is. That's the case with Judith's speech and communication: if we adjust her age, she's actually within the normal range and would not qualify for services. But because they base it off her actual age, she qualifies. I'll do anything to help her get caught up to where she needs to be, and if speech services will be the final boost, so be it!
I was just thrilled to hear how well she's doing in so many areas, and to hear that she's almost completely caught up! At this rate, she will be caught up by age 2, and that makes me happy to know how far she's come in such a short time!
Friday, March 2, 2012
15 Month Well Baby Visit
All I have to say is at least Judith's consistent! We had another fun-filled appointment, this time with her primary pediatrician for her 15 month well baby check. I'm super glad my dad was able to come and help me - it would've been next to impossible to talk to Dr. W. with Judith shrieking in my ear!
Judith was leery when we checked in, but as soon as she saw the nurses she started whining. The second we hit the exam room, she was in a full-blown pissed off state, and was clinging very tightly to my dad. It was an adventure undressing her and getting a dry diaper on her for an accurate weight!
She continued to shriek as the nurse measured her head, her length, and weighed her. Judith had herself that upset that once we got back to the room she puked all over my dad's shoulder and the floor. This was a new experience for us - not so much the puking, but her getting that upset that she puked. Lesson learned: don't feed her a lot before these appointments until she gets better about doctor visits!
The good news is she gained about half a pound since we were at the CF clinic last month, and she's back in the 3rd percentile for weight! She weighed 19 lbs and was 28" long (still not on the charts, but we'll get there eventually). I missed what her head circumference was because of her screaming, but I do know that she's still in the 10% for that. She's following her own curve, and her pediatrician is pleased with that! Granted, we'll have to wait and see what her CF team says at her next clinic visit, but I'm hoping that she's back on track for steady weight gain!
Everything else looked good too: her lungs were clear (yay!), her ears looked good, her joints are moving properly, and she's not showing really significant delays developmentally (at least nothing more than what we would expect because of her prematurity).
I knew Judith would be getting her next Synagis shot, but I didn't realize she would get 2 more shots. I thought we were caught up with everything and she would get more of them at her 18 month visit, but she ended up getting 2 more today. So she had 3 shots, but 4 needle sticks because of the pesky Synagis. My lack of realization with the shots is solely my fault - I forgot to check the CDC's recommended schedule before this appointment, so I need to remind myself to check it before her 18 month so I'm better prepared and not surprised!
Judith was leery when we checked in, but as soon as she saw the nurses she started whining. The second we hit the exam room, she was in a full-blown pissed off state, and was clinging very tightly to my dad. It was an adventure undressing her and getting a dry diaper on her for an accurate weight!
She continued to shriek as the nurse measured her head, her length, and weighed her. Judith had herself that upset that once we got back to the room she puked all over my dad's shoulder and the floor. This was a new experience for us - not so much the puking, but her getting that upset that she puked. Lesson learned: don't feed her a lot before these appointments until she gets better about doctor visits!
The good news is she gained about half a pound since we were at the CF clinic last month, and she's back in the 3rd percentile for weight! She weighed 19 lbs and was 28" long (still not on the charts, but we'll get there eventually). I missed what her head circumference was because of her screaming, but I do know that she's still in the 10% for that. She's following her own curve, and her pediatrician is pleased with that! Granted, we'll have to wait and see what her CF team says at her next clinic visit, but I'm hoping that she's back on track for steady weight gain!
Everything else looked good too: her lungs were clear (yay!), her ears looked good, her joints are moving properly, and she's not showing really significant delays developmentally (at least nothing more than what we would expect because of her prematurity).
I knew Judith would be getting her next Synagis shot, but I didn't realize she would get 2 more shots. I thought we were caught up with everything and she would get more of them at her 18 month visit, but she ended up getting 2 more today. So she had 3 shots, but 4 needle sticks because of the pesky Synagis. My lack of realization with the shots is solely my fault - I forgot to check the CDC's recommended schedule before this appointment, so I need to remind myself to check it before her 18 month so I'm better prepared and not surprised!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
9 Month Pictures & an Update
As promised, here are some pictures from our 9 month shoot this afternoon, and as a bonus, a couple from this morning!
Judith at 9 months
She LOVES to play the organ! (pardon the blurriness from my moving child)
Proud Daddy!
We may have a future organist on our hands!
As you can see from the pictures, Judith started sticking her tongue out at everyone...again. And now we have the added benefit of raspberries being blown at us constantly! I know it's not a real milestone, but I find it humorous, and I'm glad she's mimicking us!
I also learned very quickly how difficult it may be to take pictures of Judith, especially if I would like her to sit still. This is stemming from one of our newest milestones: Judith is very quickly becoming a mobile baby! She is creeping all over the place, and is oh-so-close to crawling - she just needs to figure out how to coordinate the movement of her arms and legs, then she'll be off! She's already taking a big interest in the dogs, and I can't wait to see what will happen once she can crawl after them. Of course we're starting to teach her how to be gentle with them, and monitor all of them closely while they interact. I am very grateful that our pups have been through the baby stages before - they had young children in their former home, so they are remembering what it's like.
Lady is very tolerant of Judith, and really loves her! I am shocked, because Lady is so active and doesn't like to sit still to receive attention from most people. She wants the attention, but is usually moving while receiving it. I took this picture the other day when both Judith and Lady were interacting with each other:
Naturally, about a minute later, Lady decided Judith needed some kisses:
I can always tell when Judith's sweating and losing more salt, because the dogs lick her more.
We had our Occupational Therapy (OT) evaluation on Thursday, and overall things are looking good. We are going to start OT services because Judith is a bit delayed with her fine motor skills, but the therapist didn't see anything overly significant or anything that's going to take a long time to correct. Basically we're staying on top of things and nipping anything in the bud before it does become a serious problem.
We may have a bigger problem to deal with, though: during the evaluation, the OT confirmed my concern about Judith's eyes. If you look closely at the first picture of Judith and Lady, you can kind of see what I'm concerned about. She is crossing them more often, and has to constantly reposition them to focus on something. If the muscles around the eye are functioning normally, the eyes will follow your movements and readjust themselves without us having to think about it. What the therapist saw with Judith is her muscles aren't doing this properly, and there's a lag with their movement - she's working and thinking to refocus them herself. I believe I posted before that we know she's far-sighted; however, since we're concerned and the therapist noticed something's up, we are not going to wait a year to have her checked. I am going to talk to her pediatrician at her 9 month well-baby check and ask for a referral to a pediatric opthamologist to see (haha) what's up. I wouldn't think this is caused by the ROP, but I could be wrong. I'm not even sure if this is a normal preemie thing, or if this is caused by the crappy vision history in our family, and I'm hoping the eye doc can give us some answers.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
NICU Follow-Up Clinic
A lot has happened since my last post, and I'll break it up into 2 separate posts to keep the length down.
Last Thursday we had an appointment with the NICU follow-up clinic. Judith met with Maureen (the NICU PT) and with Dr. Unger. It was great to see both of them again, and it was fun to show off how far Judith has come!
For the most part, things are looking good: her current weight is around 14 lbs 9 oz, and her length remains the same (they measured her around 24.5", but we got pretty consistent 25" before clinic, so I'm going with that and attributing the 1/2" less to the difference in measuring devices).
Judith was put through the developmental tests, and is measuring on target or ahead for most things: Expressive is at an 8 month level (on target for her actual age - yay!), Gross motor is at a 6 month level (on target for adjusted age), and there were 1 or 2 other things that are on target for her adjusted age but I can't remember what they are anymore. We found out that she has a pretty significant delay in fine motor, and I'm honestly not surprised - I've been watching Judith interact with things in the environment and noticing some small things that she should be doing but isn't yet, like holding her bottle on her own. She scored at a 3-3.5 month level in fine motor, so that means Maureen will contact Judith's early intervention service coordinator and arrange for an occupational therapy eval and services. Maureen noticed that Judith doesn't like to pick up certain things, and she said she is seeing some tactile defensiveness (I think that was the term...) and we have to get Judith to work through that. Hence the OT services. I don't doubt that the services will help her catch up to where she needs to be - PT has been doing wonders for her, and I'm sure OT will do the same!
Last Thursday we had an appointment with the NICU follow-up clinic. Judith met with Maureen (the NICU PT) and with Dr. Unger. It was great to see both of them again, and it was fun to show off how far Judith has come!
For the most part, things are looking good: her current weight is around 14 lbs 9 oz, and her length remains the same (they measured her around 24.5", but we got pretty consistent 25" before clinic, so I'm going with that and attributing the 1/2" less to the difference in measuring devices).
Judith was put through the developmental tests, and is measuring on target or ahead for most things: Expressive is at an 8 month level (on target for her actual age - yay!), Gross motor is at a 6 month level (on target for adjusted age), and there were 1 or 2 other things that are on target for her adjusted age but I can't remember what they are anymore. We found out that she has a pretty significant delay in fine motor, and I'm honestly not surprised - I've been watching Judith interact with things in the environment and noticing some small things that she should be doing but isn't yet, like holding her bottle on her own. She scored at a 3-3.5 month level in fine motor, so that means Maureen will contact Judith's early intervention service coordinator and arrange for an occupational therapy eval and services. Maureen noticed that Judith doesn't like to pick up certain things, and she said she is seeing some tactile defensiveness (I think that was the term...) and we have to get Judith to work through that. Hence the OT services. I don't doubt that the services will help her catch up to where she needs to be - PT has been doing wonders for her, and I'm sure OT will do the same!
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