Graduation to Penguin Room

Paige spent her first week in the Penguin Room, the 12-24 month toddler room. She actually did really well. I had a lot of anxiety around the transition since they sprung it on us with little notice and I really didn't feel she was ready, considering the fact that she's already lagging behind in her language and gross motor skills. On top of that, I was concerned about the large amount of change she was already experiencing having just moved the week before. I spoke to the Goddard School about it several times and they assured me that it was be more of a transition because she would start and end her days with the infants before all of the rooms combine.

I called to check in the first day and they told me she was doing quite well and was so excited when she went outside with all the other kids. Apparently they try to take the infants out but it's not a consistent part of their schedule whereas this group goes out twice a day, weather permitting. She's the only one in the room who isn't walking but she scooted on her butt down the hall and was so excited to join the team. At the end of the day, the brought her back into the infant room and she screamed until they finally brought her back to the Penguin Room...I guess I didn't need to worry!

She only took one nap there although I'm still putting her down twice at home. I think she's almost ready to drop the morning nap officially. While I like the additional time I have to myself, it will be nice to open up my schedule since there's so little that can be done between two naps and three meals. I'm really hoping that her move to this room will also help her advance with her gross motor skills. She just started cruising on the furniture a bit which is really encouraging. I'm thinking she may hit the walking stage right at the average age of 14 months which would be fabulous. Even Diana, the EI therapist, admitted on Friday that it is unlikely that she'll ever crawl. Glad we're all finally in agreement on that one. So we'll see how things progress but I'm definitely optimistic about her improvement.

Officially a toddler

Wow, it's been almost six weeks since my last post...shame on me. We've had tons of drama going on with our move to the new home so this hasn't been high on the priority list recently. But now we're in the new house so I thought I'd catch up a little on Paige's updates.

We had Paige's first birthday party on August 16th and it was a very small affair, only family in attendance. My parents, Hannah and her family and Martha came down for the festivities so we hit double digits if you include Paige. We were surrounded by moving boxes but it didn't seem to get in the way of Paige enjoying her day. She was really cute with the presents, loved ripping the paper, especially the tissue paper. I made the mistake of tearing a huge piece off of the very large present from Hannah and this seemed to scare Paige and sent her into a meltdown. That was really the only thing that bothered her the whole day. As I suspected, she did not touch her cupcake so we have no cute pictures with frosting all over her face. Oh well, that was to be expected. She had on a really cute dress and looked adorable. I'll try to post pics on the blog in the next few days for those of you who haven't seen them on Facebook.

She also went to her 12 month appointment at the pedi and all was well there. She was almost 22 pounds (63%), 30 inches (79%) and I forget the head size but it was 85%. I had no idea her head was that big. The dr was shocked to hear that she's such a bad eater given her size so I guess I have nothing to worry about there. She had her worst reaction yet to the shots, spiking a 103 fever the next morning and was completely inconsolable for most of that next day. Other than that, it was a pretty standard appointment. I guess the other good news were her ears looked great, with no fluid or anything else to report.

I guess that covers the recent events since my last post. We're settling into the new home and Paige loves to scoot all over the huge amount of space we have now compared to the old house. She constantly climbs the stairs from bottom to top so I have to keep a close eye on her as soon as I see her heading in that direction. Time to get some gates up! Well, stay tuned for updated pictures and I'll try to update more frequently now that we have all of this other drama behind us.

A successful appointment

Paige had another appointment with EI on Friday. I was very anxious about having this session because I had some concerns that had been eating away at me for the past several weeks. Because of her lack of responsiveness to her name, I started to get paranoid about other things. I was worried about the fact that she hangs out in her crib and never cries when she's awake and I also feel like she sometimes "spaces out" mostly when she's in the stroller. I spoke to her occupational therapist at the start of the session and she didn't seem concerned, especially about the crib issue. She said this was likely to be part of her personality. After working with her for an hour I asked her what she thought about her from a development standpoint. She said she had absolutely no concerns at all, not even a slight one at the back of her mind. She did say she would be honest with me and tell me if anything ever did concern her which is really important to me. Phew, a huge weight lifted for now!

Overall Paige is at a really fun age. She's changing every day and it's so much fun to watch her learn things. She now loves to play peek-a-boo and constantly covers her face to start the game. She waves, claps and even "dances" while sitting down if fun music is playing. We thought she had started saying kitty but now it seems like she says cat...either way, she seems to be getting close to saying some words. She definitely understands things and can point out a cat in a book or her butterfly and tiger at her high chair. She still isn't really picking up on the sign language so I'm not sure if that will ever progress. I really cannot believe she'll be a year in less than a month!!!!

First EI appointment

Yesterday we had our first appointment with Early Intervention. The vast majority of the hour and a half was dedicated to paper work that we needed to complete for the services. We discussed the goals for the next six months and answered all sorts of other questions about Paige, our family, etc. Our occupational therapist, Diana, did spend some time with Paige and gave us some good tips. In terms of her gross motor skills, she's having us do some "sit ups" with her because the main concern seems to be her lack of core strength. We basically lie her on her back and hold her legs down between our knees. Then we put our hands out for her to hold and she just automatically pulls herself up. I thought she was pulling her until she had me try it but Paige does all of the work. We also have her sit on the floor in a different way which she hated so that probably won't be much fun doing that on a regular basis.

We also talked about her lack of imitation with the language. I recently had noticed that Paige was completely unresponsive to her name and we discussed this as well. In the evaluation they had noted that she had responded to her name and the Goddard School also says she turns when she hears it. However, when Diana was here I showed her how, no matter how many times I said it, she didn't respond. She found it strange but wasn't too worried about it. She said she sees so many kids and she doesn't think she has any major problems, just needs a little push in both of these areas. She also suggested that her chronic ear infections this winter could have temporarily impacted her hearing which may also be the cause of her being behind in this area.

Overall I felt pretty good about the appointment and I think it will be really good for Paige. We're going to meet every other Friday and she may also do an occasional visit at the Goddard School which would be really helpful as well. While I'm still a bit worried about the name issue I think it will probably be fine since she's so social, happy and interactive otherwise.

Other than that, we've been plugging along through this terrible summer weather. Paige did well on the Cape despite the fact that it rained almost every day and there was little for us to do but sit in the cold damp house. She didn't really know what to think of the beach and wasn't a big fan of the sand. She also hates wearing a hat which makes it challenging to be in the sun for any length of time. Hopefully the weather will turn around soon so we can spend some more time outside and at the playground!

Early Intervention

Almost a week has passed since Early Intervention came for their assessment of Paige. The entire appointment was very overwhelming for me so I can only imagine how Paige must have felt. Three women arrived (a nurse, a PT and someone else) with clip boards, bags of toys, etc and started doing all sorts of things with her. Although they came to evaluate her gross motor skills, they actually tested her in all areas. While they told me not to listen to what they were saying to each other about how she was doing, it was hard not to start feeling paranoid when they were constantly commenting on the various things she wasn't doing. They did assure me that they were testing both above and below her level so they expected her to be unable to perform some of the tasks. After about an hour of poking and prodding her, they were finally finished with the testing and I was able to put her down for her nap, a well earned one since she seemed exhausted and fussy after this rigorous hour of tests.

They concluded that she did qualify for services in the areas of both gross motor skills and expressive language. Although she makes the various consonant sounds, she doesn't repeat them if you do that at her so that was why she was behind there. They said that it's very common for someone who is behind in gross motor to also be behind in language since they're concentrating so much on the motor skills so they fall behind in language. In order to qualify she needed to be two months behind which they said that's about exactly where she was. However, they considered her a 9 month old even though she was only 3 days away from being 10 months which means she is closer to three months behind in these areas. So I'm a little disappointed that she is so far behind but I also know that it is not indicative of any long term problems and it will be nice to give her that extra boost she needs so she can catch up. We are supposed to hear from them in the next week or two and then we'll start appointments, probably every other week.

Other than that, she is doing really well. She is down on the Cape with Jake for the week so I'm flying solo up here in Franklin. She hasn't been sleeping really well down there for her naps so she's been a little bit fussy but overall she's doing fine. He took her to the beach but she wouldn't keep her hat on her head so apparently it was a very short visit. They were there the other day and she didn't know what to think of the sand. She put her thumb in her mouth after touching it and didn't seem to like that result! Otherwise, we're just plugging along, getting close to her one year birthday already...wow!

Early Intervention

So a woman from Early Intervention called last week to discuss Paige's gross motor skills.  After asking many questions, she felt she should be assessed.  She didn't necessarily think she would qualify for services since she would need to be three months behind to qualify.  Part of me is disappointed that they think that she may even be close to three months behind but if they do feel she needs a little help, I'm happy they're coming in to check her out.  She still isn't moving on her own at all, other than some scootching in circles on her butt.  If I try to put her on all fours, she just falls to her belly and immediately rolls over onto her back.  Anyway they come in next Friday so we'll see if that goes anywhere.  They did say if she didn't qualify they could give some tips on how to help her which is good to hear.

We did take Paige out in the bike trailer after I last posted.  She did so well and really seemed to enjoy it.  We rode for 20 miles on the bike path and she didn't make a peep the entire time.  I would ride up beside her to see how she was doing and she was just hanging out, sucking her thumb and looking around.  I think that's what we're actually going to do with her this weekend when we have the open house and need to vacate the premesis.  

She's made great headway with the food.  She loves her Cheerios and chunks of string cheese.  We haven't gotten much further than that but it's still a huge improvement over just a few weeks.  Now I just need to figure out more things to give her that she might like.  She doesn't seem interested in anything that's slimy at all...grapes, pasta, etc.  She won't pick them up but if I disguise them in hummus or something else she will usually eat them.  We still get the occasional gagging.  

I do believe she's about to get her top four teeth.  The pedi said she could see them coming in and she was very irritable tonight so I think they must be about to cut.  She's really been very easy going through this phase which has been a great relief.  Now I'm looking forward to how she'll do with two weeks away on the Cape!

9 months already

Lots to report since my last post which was several weeks ago. Paige is doing really well and seems to be changing on a daily basis. She had her nine month appointment earlier this week and is doing well on the charts. She weighed in at 18.12 (50%) and 28 inches (75%). I don't know her head size but it was between 75-90% which she said was a good thing because it indicates that her brain is growing, something a mom always wants to hear about her child! We talked quite a bit about her gross motor skills and the fact that she's not crawling, pulling herself up to stand, pushing herself into a sitting position from lying, etc. She wasn't overly concerned but did offer to call Early Intervention to set up an appointment since it takes a while to get one. She felt like she should be doing these things by 10 months and if she was we could just cancel the appointment. I haven't heard from her so I'm not sure where that stands. Paige does move herself around quite a bit in the sitting position so I guess that's something.

We also discussed her eating situation and she encouraged us to move her to three meals at regular meal times that we have and also to cut back on her formula. She suggested focusing on Cheerios for finger foods and adding pastina to her baby food to add texture. I haven't tried the latter yet but she did start eating the Cheerios today. It's really hilarious watching her gum them and I was able to capture it on video, one of many reasons why she'll be cursing me in years to come.

We also had her ENT appointment yesterday so it was quite a busy week with the doctors. We went to Children's in Waltham and they were wonderful. She had a hearing test which was quite interesting to watch. She sat in my lap and music came out of speakers in the corner of each room and it also lit up with a stuffed animal in a case by the speaker. She almost always reacted and she did well even when they put headphones on her, even though she fought those a bit. So given the fact that she passed that test and it's the end of cold and flu season they recommended waiting on the tubes and just keeping an eye on her. I'm assuming we won't have to consider tubes until next winter, if at all. Fingers crossed that we won't have to go down that path at all.

Other than that, we're enjoying the spring weather that has finally arrived. Jake bought a ridiculous jogging stroller so he has taken her out in that a few times. We actually plan to take her in it today on the bike path because it also hooks up to a bike. We'll see how she does with that but I think she'll enjoy it. I can't believe I'll need to start thinking about her first birthday soon...where does the time go?