Speech Therapy

Today, the Speech pathologist from Early Intervention came. It was the first time she was by herself...sometimes she'll come with OT or PT. We had a great session...she stayed for an hour and a half. We were teaching Jaime how to communicate better...unfortunately, she said that he is more like a 5-6 month old in that department. :( She gave me some great homework, though! His "speech" is behind due to his lack of a full diaphragm...he doesn't haven't the muscles to produce volume and some sounds. She was, however VERY impressed with his eating skills. They are getting better everyday. He does have more endurance. His jaw is still very tight though, so we have to put pressure on his tongue with the spoon, otherwise he just "sucks" the food off of it like a bottle. She showed me a different way to approach spoon feeding. Who knew it could be so difficult?!? She tried to use some vibrating stimulation of his jaw and lips...he didn't tolerate this very well. He let her use the brush on the outside of his mouth, but not the inside...he "glued" his lips shut for that! We did use the "Nuk brush" for inside oral stim, he doesn't love that either. I wasn't able to get far with him, but Yvonne was able to get some massages in. I'm going to look for a vibrating teether for Jaime to get used to that feeling. Yvonne explained that massaging the inside of his mouth and jaw will help with chewing when we get to that point.
Speaking of "food," you'll notice the crumbs on Jaime's clothes in the picture of him in the high chair...that's because Jaime was eating his "crushed" sweet potato puffs. He loves them, but again, only if I crush them first. Feeding that boy is so time consuming. My sister asked me if I feed him all day...yep, pretty much! HA!
Anyway, that was our day. Another awesome, informative session with EI.

Just to take a mini walk down memory lane for a minute....it was one year ago today that we were told Jaime only had a 20% chance of survival. WOW! Can you believe it? Look how far Jaime has come with only having a 20% survival rate! Even though we have a LONG road ahead of us...we're so proud and thrilled to have Jaime as part of our family! He's so worth everything we've been (and continue to go) through! We have absolutely no regrets and at 9 months old...how could we? Look at his sweet little face! :)

Jaime's spinning top, courtesy of the Wickliffe "Secret" Santa.
(Thank you, he really enjoys it!)

Ahhhhh, attack of the blow up Lion!
(Actually, Jaime was trying to bite it, I said "no" and then snapped the shot! Guess he got caught red handed, tee, hee!)

Here's a miscellaneous picture....it's of our bushes in the front yard. You'll notice all of the broken icicles on the back of it...these fell from my roof today during our "heat wave." It's January in Cleveland and it actually broke 40 degrees! I even took Jaime for a ride to Walgreens to get his prescriptions because it was so nice out.

Before I go, I'd like to wish, my friends, Ed (Jared's buddy, Connor's dad) and Sue (LCDH-Emily's mom) very happy birthdays today! Hope you both enjoyed your day! Big hugs to both of you!

Time for me to hit the hay...BOTH boys woke up in the middle of the night last night..Jaime twice and Jared once, but then he got up really early, too, I'm whipped! Some night, I'll get a full night's rest! (I figure about 10 years from now...HA!) Good night, All!