Smarty pants! and teeth!

we had a HMG visit the other day an the SLP came out to do her assessment on kinsley. i told her to start we had no real speech concerns it was mainly the swallowing issues. and she confirmed we have nothing to worry about right now. kinsley did everything on the 15-18 month assessment and even had a few items score on the 21 month assessment. as far as swallowing they aren't really able to help with that either. both the SLP and the home teacher asked if we had thought about putting her in the preschool as a peer when she is 3. i said we would like to, but where her birthday falls they probably won;t take her till she is 4. there is another local preschool that seems great, i know alot of moms that have kids that go there and they are all happy and from what i have seen i think i would like it too, at least for her 3 yr old year. can you believe this time next year i will be signing her up for preschool!!!!!!

we have more teeth!!!!! we have the 2 bottom cuspids (the pointy ones) and one for sure molar on the top and possibly a second!!!!

HMG

we had 2 HMG meetings on friday. the first with our service coordinator and the second with the home based teacher. the SC came out to renew kinsley's IFSP. so it was a quick easy meeting and kinsley just loves her so it is always nice to see her. we just updated her goals, basically changing most from movement goals that were made back when the left side was still behind to new eating goals to work on with the therapists. the home based teacher came out because Kinsley finally got picked up for home services. so she will be coming out 1-2 times a month and an OT and SLP will also be visiting us to do an evaluation and then possibly more therapy here at home. it is nice that everything is finally starting up for her.

also exciting is that her GI appt got moved up to tomorrow. it was going to be in march but there was a cancellation so we got moved!!! so we will see what they have to say tomorrow.

HMG/Bridge program

a couple weeks ago we had another meeting for kinsley with the bridge program. they were very happy with her motor skills and speech progress. the ot told us that she is a high sensory kid, and need more vestibular input. things like swinging, and being upside down while swinging. she bangs her head alot on the floor and walls and with toys and her hand so hopefully if we get more sensory input into her she will stop doing that. she also said to keep rocking her at night and gave us a new chewy toy for her to chew on for sensory as well as to hopefully help curb her biting. so basically the appt. went really well. we are still waiting for the home based program to pick us up and have a full eval done again. she will prob test out unless the sensory issue increase. they don;t worry me to much right now since her other areas are progressing well.

phys med appt./lactose free milk/ argh!

ok so good news is that according to the team we saw today kinsley is completely caught up with her left side delay. she still folds her thumb but they seemed to think that was habit, because she is able to use full range of motion. they told us if something starts to fall behind or change significantly to call them and come back in but if she continues to gain skills then we have nothing to worry about. they have no answer for the "why" question, they said these things just happen but the fact that she caught up is great and that it is not a permanent problem, they do not think CP or anything like that was the issue ever. so good news there! he also commented that her speech was still in the normal range, which i do know, but she still doesn't say mama or dada which sucks! he said the HMG eval. was still a good thing to keep doing for now.

now the annoying news...i had the understanding, or misconception, that this was a dr that would be looking at the WHOLE child not just a piece. i was wrong. they only focused on the muscles and really only large motor, they didn't really even discuss the oral motor questions i had. Apparently no dr looks at the whole child you just have to run around to 50 different drs. ANNOYING!!!!!!!!!!

so anyways, we started lactose free milk, which was going so well till she threw up twice today at the drs. of course wrong drs. to do that at. i would have liked that to happen at the pediatrician or GI...but whatever. i am not counting it out yet, we have had such good days with no puke since we started it i am wondering if the early lunch was just too much food and she over ate today. so i will continue with the lactose free milk. if the puking happens again we will try the soy milk and then have a full report for the doc at her 15 mon appt. i figure by then we will know what is working and i can ask more about it.

as far as everything else goes i quit! yes i am done. it was great to hear the dr say today not to worry about her motor which i had known had caught up but wasn't going to cancel after waiting to get the appt in the first place. as soon as i would have cancelled she would have had a major set back or something. so anyways i am happy with that overall appt and am no longer worried about that after they said it was probably something that will not come back and is just done. as far as the rest i am going to focus on the puking and pooping and i am done with the rest. if i can just get the kid to stop throwing up on me and my house and have normal poop i will be happy. i think the speech will come along and if it turns out to be a language issue i don';t think they can determine that now or really do much anyways so we will see later. my gut tells me she will be fine with it and is just getting it at her own pace. so far she says hi, bye, cat, and i think she says stop. she also has good receptive skills and even without words expresses her self fine for her age. i am done over thinking this!

random good note: everyone just loved her at he office. they all commented on her big bright eyes and great personality and how sweet she was. nice to hear people you don;t know gush about your baby!!!! i of course agree with them!!!!!!

almost walking!

well kinsley is so close to walking. she is taking 8-10 steps but then when she gets close she throws herself at the person to object she is trying to get to. although she will catch herself walking in the middle of the room and sit down...almost like she has no idea how she got there! so hopefully soon she will be walking for good. i am glad the motor skills are coming along. i thought she would end up being slightly more delayed but she seems to have caught up. of course we have our phys med appt next week so i can take this walking child in and say she had delays...great!!! her puking has also gotten better but then today we realized she has not had milk in forever, so today she got milk and threw up twice. not as much as she used to but still...so i am wondering if it could be lactose intolerance or a slight allergy...i will be asking about that. i am not real sure though since she eats cheese and yogurt so well??? any one out there have info in that area??? i have been looking on line but i never seem to be able to find what i want and the computer makes me nauseous so i try not to stay on long! well anyways we will see what the docs say next week about everything, and then i will be calling HMG for another speech eval also to see if she is as behind as i think or if every other baby i know around her age is just advanced!!!

teeth

finally kinsley got that fourth tooth on the bottom to even her out!! she is now up to 8 teeth, and hopefully the crankies can now go away for a bit!

i know i need to post some pics and i will soon, we were out of town for the weekend so i am busy catching up on laundry and such! fun times!!!

also kinsley got a referral to a phys med doctor. of course she is doing better with fine motor and some imitation, like she now blows kisses...so cute. but i am keeping the appt. to see what they will say. she is still puking all the time so that alone is enough for me...i can not stand the smell of vomit anymore!!! today i found a pile on the floor i didn't even know about. she just crawls around puking...NASTY! doesn't it make you want to come over for a visit! :)

doctors appt!

we had her one year checkup yesterday. she was 30 in and 21 lbs 2 oz. she is now in the 75% in height and 50% in weight. he was happy with how she was growing. he seems to think she will grow out of the delays she is showing on the left side, but told me if we are still worried we can look further into it. i will probably do that if she is still behind by 15 months, or if any other delays becomes obvious. for now we will work on her skills and see how she progresses. she got 4 shots and was a troopers. she did cry but only for 2 of them, and she calmed down quickly.

not much else to talk about for that.

but the other day we did finally get to go to the bridge program for HMG. they also seem to think she will grow out of her delay and said once we get a home visit and a new evaluation she will probably test out. this sounds all good but i still don't like the delay on the left side. just because it is a small one and only her hand doesn't mean it is ok. a delay is there for a reason, could be small and no big deal or could be the beginning of something bigger. i just wish they would look at the big picture and put all the pieces together rather then a single thing at a time. they also mentioned she has a high oral sensory need a and suggested a few new toys for her for that. so her left hand is still behind, and now she has a oral sensory issue, but they still say no big deal. i will keep my eye on it!!! oh and the throwing up...the dr. thinks it could be related to the left side issue too, but isn't sure, it could also be mild reflux that isn't causing pain which is good.

so i feel like after these 2 appts. i still have no answers really. i am happy that kinsley is catching up, but i would like to have a reason for the delay in the first place. i know to much about these things to be ok with the things like this just happen answer, because they don't just happen there is a cause for a delay whether it is small or larger it is caused by something. so i will wait till the next bridge meeting and see where she is, if she is still where she is now i will be pressing for more info.

HMG

we had another meeting with HMG today. They went over her eval. results and we wrote her IFSP (individual family service plan). it is like the IEP (individual education plan) that kids 3 and up have. anyways. she ended up qualifying in fine and gross motor so she will eventually see an occupational therapist (OT) and a physical therapist (PT). she did qualify with the medical opinion however her scores were still low in 4 areas, just not low enough. i am happy with the med opinion because right now she is catching up and seems ok to people that don't spend alot of time with her, but on an every day basis you can still see her delays. this way in case they get larger we will already have help in place, and hopefully can work on strength now and not have to worry much later.

her lowest score was in fine motor. her left hand still doesn't use a pincer grasp. so that is pretty far behind the norm.

so now of course we are on waiting lists!! first for the bridge program and then for in home care. the bridge program we would take her to for 1 hr every 2 months and they will work with her there and then give me things to do at home. that waiting list is 2 months. i am not sure how often the in care will be but that wait is 6 months right now. i am ok with the wait, i feel like 6 months will be very telling for kinsley. she will be gaining so many skills over that time that if the delays is going to get worse it could very possibly show up then.

so for now i will keep doing the few small things i know to do here and we will wait for a phone call!

biting ouch!

oh joy, kinsley is now biting all the time, anything and anyone she can get too. any ideas out there??? she is also grinding her teeth which to me is one of the worst sounds ever. it makes my teeth hurt!

update on teeth: four on top..and still just 3 on the bottom!

tomorrow i have my meeting with HMG. they are doing her IFSP, which is an IEP for children birth to three. this means she has qualified but i am not sure in what, i think i get that info tomorrow also.

Help Me Grow evaluation

we had our HMG eval. this morning. two (EI) early intervention specialists came to the house and did a full eval on kinsley. they also asked me a butt load of questions from pregnancy to present day.

the eval went very well and kinsley did great. they definitely saw the low strength and lack of development in the left hand and arm as well as the leg. they mentioned that she has low tone (lack of muscle strength) in her core and gave me some exercises to do with kinsley when we play. she is over compensating with her arms and legs for this low tone and so she sits up oddly and moves differently. she also locks her knees when standing rather then engaging her abs. that would be why her legs always seems so strong. they also saw how she crawls oddly and uses the right leg more then the left.

so basically they saw everything i was concerned about, and validated those concerns. they will do the write up in the office and score their eval and then i will get a call with the results. she has to score 1.5 deviations from the norm to qualify but they have already told me they will do a medical opinion if she doesn't score right because they feel she is in need of physical therapy.

so now we wait for the phone call and then probably end up on a waiting list! we will see.

overall i was very happy with the meeting and i am glad they noticed what i have been seeing. they did mention that it could complicate walking for her but i think she will adjust to her body and figure it out like she has with everything else so far. she may be awkward but she moves!!