All Things Haley: Journal #25 - First Therapy Session

Very exciting day with Caleb's first therapy appointment. It was actually the assessment to see if he qualifies for the state's Early Intervention program, but we didn't have too much of a concern about that. They brought out the occupational therapist who also does the feeding therapy as well as a physical therapist. The session went great!

They gave us some really good ideas for how to get him more acclimated to the crawling position. He has a "wide" body (hehe) and his inclination is to keep it on the floor, so he needs some serious coaxing to keep his belly up and his legs from sprawling out. But this therapist was a rockstar and got him up onto all fours in no time. Granted, she had to hold his legs in a bent position and keep them from sprawling out manually, but he was actually up on his arms and would raise one arm so he was bearing all of his front weight on just one!!!

He was very skeptical of the therapists at first and wouldn't give them a smile. He just stared at the PT for the longest time, it was pretty funny. She gave him some toys and he played with them, but cautiously.

They discussed with us the concerns about his "pawing" things instead of using his fingers, but felt that would come sooner rather than later now that he's sitting (and he's doing awesome at sitting now!). One of our main concerns is his lack of attention to our voices. If we call for Grace or even talk in the same room as Grace, she turns to look for us. Caleb doesn't respond to our voices at all really. We're going to get his hearing checked at his next doctor's appointment, but they're going to do some therapy to help with that. They told us that he definitely qualifies for the program and likely the step up from the Early Intervention program because he has more than one 50% delay. We'll find out more on Monday.

The babies stayed home with Ben today so I could go to work and have back-to-back meetings literally all day long. Her fever was down all day below 100, but creeped up just a tad tonight. Not enough to keep them from going to daycare tomorrow though. I so, so wish that we didn't have to take them but I just can't miss work right now with some of the stuff I have going on and Ben can't miss another day. With the fever down, we'll need to take them, even though they're both sick with colds and have horribly runny noses and coughs. If we kept them home whenever they had coughs though...I think you know where I'm going with that. Are we the only ones with this problem???

I can't wait to get a nanny!!!

Last night's interview wasn't so great. It was good to see the difference though between nannies and it highlighted how much we liked the one from Monday night. Hopefully she returns my call and wants to come back for a second interview to meet the babies! The last interview we have scheduled is on Friday and I really like this one so far, so we'll see.

I was on baby duty last night and it was unreal. I was up every 30-45 minutes with Caleb crying. He kept coughing and then couldn't fall back asleep. He has to be just as exhausted as I am. I fed him at 3:45 and he finally fell asleep. Then Grace woke up at 5 or so and Ben brought her into bed with us. She fell asleep there but woke up at 6. I'm running on almost no sleep right now, as is Ben. I wish I knew what to do, how to handle this. I'm hoping that it's all just the new virus they have and they'll sleep again when they're feeling better.

The babies did pretty well today. They had mangoes for lunch and then chicken with brown rice and carrots for dinner. I tried to get Caleb to pick up some puffs tonight, which he did, but he can't figure out how to let go of one into his mouth once he has it in his hand. There's a lot of pawing at the high chair tray and then trying to get his entire fist into his mouth with the puff locked inside. :) Grace is still picking up the cheerios, putting them right on the edge of her mouth, sort of gumming them a bit, and then spitting them out with a disgusted look on her face. I mean, they're just cheerios. She does the same thing with the apple flavored puffs!

She was incredibly fussy when I got home if I wasn't holding her. As long as she was in my arms, she was fine. But if I was in the room and not holding her, she wasn't happy about it. That gets taxing, that's for sure, especially when I want to give Caleb some attention. Definitely pulled in separate directions sometimes!

So we've been reprimanded for having these jumpers even in the same area as the babies, let alone allowing our children to actually use them. Apparently they really contribute to a lack of coordination and can confuse babies about cause and effect- they need to learn that if they sit down while in a standing position, they fall- but this just teaches them that sitting down while standing is ok...something like that. Ben and I say that if we have two babies and this thing keeps one of them happy for a few minutes so we can do something with the other...it's pretty much a necessity. Plus, look how cute when they both play on it together!