Trying to push forward.

And I have already derailed my promise to myself.  I think of writing, often.  I just don't follow through.  Any other parents do that?  Do you often fail to produce on promises for yourself?  I find I do it more often than not. It is frustrating.


Here on out, I have to be better about this.  Too much on my plate to drop any of it.  


I admit, I am stressed and worried.  A lot going on.  


DS had his arena assessment with the local government school system.  He turns 3 next month, and that ages him out of the EI services he has been receiving (if you are not familiar with EI,  Early intervention services are concerned with all the basic and brand new skills that babies typically develop during the first three years of life: ie speech, listening or walking.  DS has been receiving speech services since October.  EI is available to qualifying children based on having or being at risk of serious developmental delays ).


DS hasn't had the easiest of roads.  I have posted his birth story previously.  It was not a good experience for me.  He likely wasn't quite done baking.  A lot of this is covered in that post.  The first ear infection we caught was at 5 months.  It took two rounds of oral antibiotics and three IM shots to break it.  and that started our months of constant ear infections.  Rounds upon rounds of anitbiotics and the probiotics to prevent thrush in him and me, as we are a breastfeeding household.  Finally, at 18 months of age, we were sent to the ENT, because we were already seeing language issue due to DS not being able to hear.


The practice has 6 doctors on staff.  One of them is a DO, and I prefer to be as conservative as possible, so we went with him.  (note: I thought about chiropractic, but was worried had we spent another 3-6 months doing treatment that may or may not work, we would be ooking at further hearing/speech issues that we were already facing) DS was examined, audiology testing done and results given... my son was hearing the teacher from Peanuts while sitting under water.  Considering he had had fluid in his ears nonstop for 13 months at that point, and we were seeing the manifesting of issues due to it, we went with PE tubes.  Tube date was set, we did pre-surgery hearing test and got everything set up. 


Ironically, April 1 was the date to have the placed.  I was ~5 months pregnant with our DD.  Thankfully, they allowed me to carry DS back to the OR, and stay with him until the "Vadar" mask worked to let him sleep. It is literally a 5 minute procedure, but it is the longest 5 minutes in the world.  When the Dr. came back to the family room my MIL and I were, I was ready to jump out of my skin.  We were able to go back and join him about 10 minutes later.


I held him, and once he was drinking we were able to head out.  He was hungry, so we stopped for food. For the first time even, DS complained about the noise of a restaurant.  From there, we headed home.  About an hour later, I heard DS hum for the first time ever.  I about cried! I heard 'Mama' about a month later.  We went for his post-op appointment in May, where hearing showed normal!  Set up a follow up appointment for November and continued forward.


We fast forward to August, and I give birth to DD.  DS adores his baby sister.  This is almost five months after the tubes, and DS's vocabulary was not growing.  So I called the children's program in our state.  September and October saw us going through intake assessment and his evaluation.  The evaluation team had notes, these notes stated that DS was borderline for services.  What they saw and what they gathered from us, pushed DS's need from 'wait and see', to 'needs services'.


The SLP (Speech Language Pathologist) who was on our evaluation team ended up as DS's ST (speech therapy).  And it was obvious they clicked.  Oh, not to say that DS would fight at times, but he trusted her, and he worked hard. We dealt not only with speech issues, but lack of oral awareness as well as handling the fact that my son is hypo-sensitive to touch.  He needs heavy touch to give the right response.  Sadly, we moved in February and had to switch areas.  This meant a new SLP for DS.  And we get things rolling there. 


The summer saw us hit an OT assessment as well as his assessment with the school system, as he ages out of EI soon.  Sensory issues are confirmed, and speech looks like it will be continued.  I attended his IFSP  meeting (goal setting) with his SLP and his case manager.  


Now, we wait for the IEP meeting with the school that would be his, if he gets pre school services.  


Challenges, we'll face you and overcome.  I just want what is best for my little boy.  We continue to work with him and move forward, ever forward.