Kids on the Move, Round 2

A couple months ago, before Declan was born, we finally had KOTM out to the house to evaluate Averie again for her speech delay.  As with the first evaluation in July last year, she was on track for social development and motor skills, her receptive speech was at the advanced level (95th percentile), and her expressive speech was practically nil -- 4th percentile, which means she only speaks as much as or more than 4% of her kids her age.

Chris and I have been wondering in particular about the possibility of speech apraxia as the cause of her delay.  Apraxia is a neurological disorder where there is a disconnect between the brain and the muscles that move the mouth to form a word.  One of the hallmarks of it is advanced receptive speech, and severely delayed expressive speech, which fits Averie to a T.  We still haven't reached an official diagnosis, so it may be apraxia, a general articulation disorder or something else entirely.

We've been meeting with a developmental therapist twice a month since April, and we've just started meeting with a speech-language pathologist and we'll see her twice a month as well. 

Averie is doing well with imitating sounds and even though the sound/word she produced can be wildly different from what she is trying to say (another common sign of apraxia), at least she is trying.  That's more than we could say a couple months ago!  Maybe dropping the binky habit will help, too. 

At the very least, she'll continue in the KOTM program until she turns 3 years old, then she will be re-evaluated by the local school district.  If she still qualifies for services, she'll be eligible to attend their special preschool where she'll continue to receive therapy. 

Some days are quite discouraging, and I wonder if it will be months, or even years, before she can say "I love you, Mommy!" or tell me about all the places her imagination takes her.  Somebody smack me if, one day, I complain about her talking my ear off because I need to be reminded to not take those words for granted.

Bye-Bye, Binky!

We won't have any more pictures like this!

There is no greater love than that between Averie and her binky.  Or should I say, was. She has taken a pacifier since night one in the hospital and if you've seen the pictures I post of her, I'm sure you've noticed the ever-present binky leash clipped to her shirt.

But Saturday morning, after the ride home from her Little Gym class, Averie voluntarily handed over her pacifier.  Chris and I have lost count of the number of times we’ve tried and the number of plans we’ve come up with to wean her from it, so we silently jumped for joy and put it up out of sight to avoid temptation.

To our surprise, she only asked for her "beeeee" a few times during the remainder of the day and when we distracted her or told her she didn’t need it, that was it. 

We were dreading putting her to bed without it, but again, after tons (TONS) of reassurance, and tucking her in with all five of her bunnies, she drifted off without the binky, and slept all night without a peep!  One nap and one more bedtime later, I think it’s safe to say she is officially weaned off the pacifier!

This is one baby phase that I'm not sad to see go, but  it’s just another sign that my baby girl is growing up into a little girl!  I'm so proud of her for doing it by herself!

Declan -- 2 Months!

Declan is 2 months old (a week and a half ago) – finding a minute (or thirty) to post “on time” with two kids is kinda tough!

He is still holding his head up just barely during tummy time.  We spoke to the pediatrician about it and it seems Averie likely just had advanced head control, but none of us are worried about it because his head is pretty huge in relation to his body, and he does have good control when “sitting” or being held.   He started smiling at the end of May, but it took until just the other day to get one on camera.  I couldn’t choose just one, or even two....  How can you NOT grin back?

Declan outgrew his newborn clothes lengthwise a few weeks ago, but the 0 to 3 months things are still swimming on him.  At least we have already run the clothes gamut with Averie and know what brands work for our long, skinny kids.

We could fit two of him in there, but his toes are almost at the end already!

He is in size 1 diapers (still big on him!) and drinking 4.5 to 4.75 ounces (yes, it’s that precise!) of formula every 3ish hours, except at night when he sleeps 9 hours (woohoo!!!!).  I stopped pumping at the end of May also and my frozen milk stash just barely ran out!  He is doing great on just formula now, which is a big relief. 

Declan hates his car seat, loud noises and tummy time.  He loves bathtime, music, and being cuddled (to which we happily oblige).

We have been trying to move up his bedtime but it’s slow going.  We’ve made it to 11 PM a few times now that we know his “tricks” – swaddle, feed last bit of bottle, lay down, turn on seahorse.  A couple nights ago, he fell asleep all on his own (we put him in his bed drowsy but awake) without his pacifier, so hopefully weaning him from it won't be the fight that it is/has been with Averie. 

2 Month Stats

Weight: 11 lbs, 2 oz (10^th percentile)

Height: 24 ¼ inches (95^th percentile)

Head: 41 cm (95^th percentile)