PT, OT, SP...Oh My!

Jaime sporting his new outfit and toy from Grammy. (the mailman said Jaime looks like he's ready to go hunt Bambi...awwwww, I think he looks cute!)

Jaime's day was full of visitors. His morning started off with Theresa, OT from Early Intervention. She's great! She got Jaime to roll over, just by holding his hips, more than once. When he got "tired" he would roll himself to his back. This was HUGE! It's all about the baby steps...and they are only baby steps!
Next visitor was Yvonne, Speech Pathologist from EI. She watched him drink a bottle and listened to him "talk." We have lots to work on in the feeding department...mostly coordination stuff. Jaime is so uncoordinated and tires very easily because of it. In the way of "talking," Yvonne is the first to mention his "soft" cry. He rarely cries hard and loud like a "normal" baby. She said it's because he doesn't have half of his diaphragm (the right side was created with 2 Gortex patches) to "force" the sounds out. She also is the first one to tell me that this may initially be an issue when Jaime starts to "talk" for real. Being a trained musician, I should have figured this out for myself, but honestly, it didn't even dawn on me. I teach my music students how to use their diaphragm to project sound all of the time, I never thought I'd be the one learning about sound projection from the diaphragm. :)
Next visitors were Kathy and Miriam. Kathy is EI's PT and Miriam evaluates social and cognitive development. The girls had some really great "cause and effect" toys. Jaime really liked them. The toys they use are special and very expensive, however they said there are grants available for patients to purchase therapeutic toys. They are going to research this for me and next month we are going to try and pick out some good toys for him. YEA!
The girls have charted Jaime for his adjusted age which is 6 months (he's really just about 8 months). Miriam thought that he was cognitively appropriate, above his adjusted age. Jaime is starting to get "stranger anxiety," he let the girls play with him for a little bit, but then he started crying and needed "Mommy breaks." Totally normal for a baby his age. :) As for his gross motor skills, he's still behind, but honestly slowly improving each day. It's funny all 4 of the girls who came today said that Jaime looks much worse on paper than he does in person. I don't think anyone who didn't know his history would realize how sick he is. The EI girls prefer to call him "medically fragile." I like this term! I love the EI girls! I'm so sad that they can't come more often. They did tell me that when Jaime is about 2 he can start to attend Broadmore school's toddler program (it's a school for physically or mentally challenged children from age 6mos. to 21 yrs.). That way, he'll get to see the SP twice a week and PT/OT once a week. It will be great for him. If he wasn't "medically fragile" he'd be able to go now because he is technically over 6 mos. It's a very nice place, I did my student Music Therapy teaching there back in the early 90's. Unfortunately, they are no longer budgeted to have a Music therapist on staff, that stinks! Those kids benefited from the M.T. program so much! :(
Back to Jaime, about half way through his PT session, he petered out. He fell asleep in my arms during a "Mommy break." Before that, Kathy was able to get him to roll over, too. YEA! Jaime napped for about an hour, then Jared came home from school. After Jared came home, Tom came home. Then, my friend, Norma came over with her son Andrew. Tom teaches Andrew trumpet. The funny thing about Norma is that she's an OT. Yep, another therapist was in my house today! If you lost count, that was 5 therapists in one day! Norma didn't evaluate Jaime, but we were talking about his skills and development. She was giving me some ideas, too. It was nice to see Norma, I haven't seen her since before I delivered Jaime. Norma was an old neighbor of mine, I used to baby-sit her girls who are now both in college. Her girls have baby-sat Jared before, too.
Speaking of Mr. Jared, tomorrow night is his very first elementary school concert! Tom and I are so excited to attend! I just hope he sings and acts nice. You know it's always the teacher's kid who acts up during things like this. The theme of the holiday concert is "Bears." All of the kids get to "dress up" like bears. Jared is going to be a black bear. Hopefully I'll have some good pics to share on "Jared's World" tomorrow.
Well, that just about sums up our day! Tomorrow starts all over again with home care PT. At least Jaime will be well rested, the little guy went to bed at 8:30 P.M. No doubt he will wake up at least two or three times before morning, but hey an early bed time is good either way!

Good night, all!