Tate-speech therapy...Rowan-new cast

So Taysen started Private speech therapy today. :) He hated it at first. Well let me re-word that...He did ok while we walked to the therapy room...then I left, thats when the screaming started. LOL...I figured that would happen though. So me and Rowan sat in the waiting room and waited because his appointment was only 30 minutes long. Not really funny, but occasionally I would just sit there and laugh under my breath because people kept making comments that the therapists must be torturing that little kid thats screaming...haha...yes you could hear his shrill screechy scream all the way out in the waiting room. He screamed for the first 15 minutes...then he finally quieted down and you could just hear a scream once in a while. Haha. Now, yes, I did feel bad for him for being upset...but at the same time, Tate is a screamer...so its not like I dont hear it every single day. But according to his therapist, he did quite well during the end of the class and warmed up pretty good. He even got a sticker for his shirt...he really liked that part. He was so happy about that part that when he got back out to the waiting room he ran up to Rowan to show her his sticker. :) Anyhow, I called this afternoon and asked if we could move his appointments to an hour instead of a half hour since we only get 20 visits per year...so I want to get the most out of this torture as we can. They were ok with that too. :) Im pretty happy...I figure if he screams for 15 minutes every appointment, he will have 45 minutes of productive therapy...instead of 15. So things are good on that front. :)

Next...update on Rowie. I took her to the Orthopaedic Doc yesterday to check over her cast. Instead they put us in the casting room to get a new cast. At the hospital they had just did a splint type cast, the bottom was really hard but the rest of it was just wrapped in the ace bandage type things. So she has a real cast now, and its hot pink. At least she gets to look cool. :) I wanted purple for her, but they only had pink, lime green, blue, or black...pink was the most fitting for her. I would have liked lime green too, but she doesnt really have much that would go with that. Haha...its her new accessory...it might as well match. She has to wear it until the middle or end of August. So looks like she wont be swimming when we go on vacation this year! (The 1st week of Aug...) Oh well, not like she really gets as much out of swimming as she will next year.

And Dena, when you were saying how we should be happy it wasnt her head...believe me, I was saying the same thing the whole time. I am very very thankful that her head was ok. She has a little bruise above her left eyebrow, but I think when she rolled out of the Bumbo, that her head hit the counter. At least that wasnt as far of a fall as the one to the floor!

At the Orth Docs office, the assistant who put us in the casting room said that she has 6 grandkids who all use a Bumbo...and she said when she saw the report, that she was wondering how the heck a baby got out of that. She said that either it must have been a really fat baby or else a really skinny baby...haha. But Rowan isnt either really....maybe a little skinnier than most kids her size, but she must just be a quick baby.

Anyhow...I guess thats it for now. I will try to get some pics up here sometime of both of them. I wish I knew how to post a video...because I have the cutest video of Taysen singing. :)

A really bad day!

Ok so today sucked...and really really bad!

This morning started like every morning, the kids are both making little noises so I go take a shower while they wake up. I get dressed, make Taysen's breakfast and set it in the living room, make Rowan's bottle and set it on the couch. I go upstairs and get the kids Taysen in one arm, Rowan in the other. I set them both up on the island like I do every morning. Taysen sits playing with a toy while I change Rowan and get her dressed for the day. I put her in the Bumbo seat right next to us. Then I change Taysen and get him dressed. I go to set Taysen on the floor and halfway down I see Rowan roll right out of her Bumbo seat and off of the counter, and she lands on the tile floor. It happened so quickly I didnt even have time to react other than to scream. Immediately she starts screaming at the top of her lungs, which is totally a normal reaction to what just happened. I scoop her up and try to console her. Nothing is really working, she is flailing her arms and legs and practically purple from screaming so much. I take her into the sunporch to give her her bottle because if she ever bumps her head or gets scared, a bottle always makes it better. She stops crying right when the bottle goes in her mouth, so in my head I was thinking "Phew!' But she didnt even get two ounces down before she started screaming again. I called my friend Meredith that lives down the street to come watch Taysen, and I called my friend Robin to meet me at the ER so I didnt have to be there alone with Rowan. I hated the thought of even calling Josh because I just broke our child! But we both always put her in the Bumbo every day, and never once has she ever rolled out of it...never once has Taysen ever rolled out of it or even Hayden for that matter! Ive used it with all three of them. I never imagined that would happen to me. Anyhow, I called Josh and of course he wasnt mad, but wanted me to leave now. I told him to stay at work just incase she is just still shocked. I would call him as soon as I figured anything out. Anyhow, we get to the ER and I go straight up to the desk, they took us straight back. It seemed like we waited forever (maybe 5 or 6 minutes in reality...) until the doctor came in. They checked her out, and of course she is screaming the whole time. I notice that she screams the loudest when I switch her from one arm to the other, so they ordered a cat scan for her head and an Xray for her pelvis. The only bruise she had on her was on her elbow and she was moving both arms so we knew it wasnt an arm. Anyhow her cat scan came back normal and so did her pelvis. The doctor checks over her body again and she is still screaming. They just want us to wait for a little for her to calm down. So I laid down on the bed with her on my chest and she fell asleep. We were in there about 20 minutes or so and they came in and said that she is probably really sore from the fall and probably still really shook up. So even though in my head I really feel like they are wrong and something is not right because of how she was screaming, I go with the flow and sign the discharge papers. They told us to take our time getting her dressed so she isnt upset from us waking her up. So I laid her on her back on the bed, we talk to her for a few minutes while she gets out of the grogginess and play with her with her bear...she is laughing and giggling and being happy. She is moving her arms around playing and rolling a little to the side to see Robin, and stretches out her right leg. She is happy as a clam. Then I go to put her clothes back on and when I moved her left leg she starts screaming in pain. Robin and me both say that we are not leaving. I go get the nurse and I said something still isnt right. So the doctor comes back in, she is happy again since we arent moving her leg, so I move her leg for him so he can see how she is reacting. Finally someone is listening and he orders Xrays for her leg. She gets her Xray and I feel so bad because they are moving her leg all over to get the pictures. Not even 2 minutes after we got back in the room he comes in and tells me I was right. She broke her leg. Her left thigh bone (femur). Luckily, its right above her growth plate right above her knee and not on the growth plate itself, so she didnt need surgery and they think it should heal pretty quickly. She has a cast and looks so pathetic. Luckily her little attitude is pretty happy unless you are moving her, she is still pretty sore I imagine. Anyhow, I feel like a horrible mother. But at the same time, I never thought that would happen to me. And whats worse is its not like I set her on the counter and left the room, she was right in front of me, but it just happened to fast to even grab her. Anyhow, hopefully 2-6 weeks and she can get her cast off. It was a clean break so they dont think that it will take long for it to heal. Cross your fingers it doesnt. Now the kids never going to crawl since I broke her!Oh and one last thing, I threw away the Bumbo seat.

Finally, the Ped. I wish we had for the past 2 1/2 years!

So today was the consultation with Taysen's new Pediatrician. (Rowans too, but today was just about Taysen.) His new Ped is Dr. Gladieux. His consult went very very well today, it was literally like a breath of fresh air. We (Josh and I both, and I think even Taysen) really really liked him a lot. Dr. Gladieux immediately noticed some of the things that Tate does, mostly because he did a lot of pacing in his office...and spinning his toy phone...plus I had brought my handy dandy notebook that has all my info in it, with my list of all of the things that Taysen does on a regular basis, quirks wise...haha, but he also noticed right away that he does have great qualities too like the eye contact with us (and he also looked at Dr. Gladieux and was giving him high 5's by the end of the visit...:) ) and the affection that he has towards us. He of course said he couldnt diagnose anything, but that he could tell by just being with him that he wasnt a classic autistic. He may be on the spectrum, but on the mild side. He mentioned Sensory Intergration Disorder (which Heidi, Taysens speech therapist at EI, talked to me about also...I am meeting with Heidi-speech therapist, Holly-occupational therapist, and Rhoda-his EI teacher tomorrow to talk with them.) Also, he mentioned that Aspergers is a possibility. I told him that Heidi-speech therapist- thinks I should hold off on taking him to a developmental pediatrician so that we can try a few other things first...and he said "I already like her!" Because I guess he was just going to say the same thing right before I blurted that out. Anyhow, I asked him, "well what about the language delay? Most kids with Aspergers dont have language delays"...and he said "With as many ear infections that he has had, he probably cant hear enough to have developed his language correctly." With Taysens track record on ear infections, he said that Taysen should have had tubes put in his ears a long time ago. (I so agree, and we asked his old ped. about it and he said it was too dangerous to do!! To which Dr. Gladieux said was bull****!) So we scheduled a hearing test (in the booth) for July 24th at 3:30pm and then at 4pm we meet with Dr. Merrill, and ENT specialist. So things are moving along! He did say that he agreed with me, that did feel like Taysen would be diagnosed with something eventually especially because he has a nice compilation of quirks and odd behaviors, but that we should give him a chance to talk before we worry about a diagnosis. BUT one thing he did say, was that the things that Taysen was doing (like lining up all of his books in his bedroom into pathways that he was walking on) was a "brilliant" thing for a 2 year old to be doing. We said, "We'll take brilliant!" He said that Taysen was doing some very smart things that most 2 year olds dont normally do, and that just made us happy. At least on the positive side-if he has to have something wrong with him, he gets to be brilliant. He used the word "brilliant" a few times when he was talking about Taysen. It was nice to hear. Anyhow, we also did get the prescription for private speech therapy too and gave me a few names of therapists who deal specifically with autistic kids, so he thinks that they would be able to really help him. At least that is who he recommended. So I am going to call them tomorrow to see if they take our insurance. I guess he (Dr Gladieux) is personal friends with those two therapists, so Im sure that he would know if they were good or not.

Anyhow, Dr. Gladieux seems like a great doctor who really has Taysens best intrests at heart, just as much as we do. We both felt so refreshed after seeing him. I think the consult lasted like an hour and a half! We werent rushed at all and he is just the type of doctor that we have been wanting for so long, one that is involved, and wants to be! He said that he wanted us to call him with updates on how things are going, and how his appointments with the ENT doc (tubes in ears) and how the speech therapy are going. That just made us feel so good that he wanted updates. He made a follow up appointment for September 3rd to see him again, to see what progress he has after the tubes are put in his ears. So now its just waiting a couple weeks for the hearing appointments. We are so anxious (in a good way) to get it all going!! :)

And girls, thanks so much for all the support. Its great to be able to get this all out, and just talk about it in general. The first few weeks that it really hit us (and after the denial finally left us) that we have a child that has something wrong with him, was very difficult and full of tears. But I think we have really come far already with dealing with it all and getting past that stage. Especially after today's appointment. It really felt like a good step forward. And I love that the doctor thinks that the things that Taysen is doing are "brilliant" and not just weird. (I really think brilliant is my favorite word right now. Seriously. :) ) We have a special little guy because someone must have known that we could handle it.



OH and Carmen...we have already started introducing Taysen to a gluten free/casein free diet. We just started about 2 weeks ago, and are gradually replacing things that he eats with GF/CF versions. Thanks for the link to that book though, because it really is proving difficult to find things that are both gf/cf and taste good! Ill give anything a try! :) Oh and Dena, Dr. Gladieux also explained to me that the vaccines no longer contain thimerisol. Which does make me feel a lot better. So I dont think that we are going to stop all shots. We are going to skip out on the unneeded ones, like the flu shot...just because its just an extra shot that the kids dont really need...but the other vaccinations I think we are going to keep on. At least thats what we are thinking for now. And Jodi, if I could hug ya back I would. :) Thanks for your comment, what I know for sure is that I am thankful that Taysen's problems are going to be manageable, and he will very most likely be able to grow up and live his life like any normal person, and that is what every parent wants. So we are thankful that its not any worse than it is. :) OH and guess what I found out today...Bill Gates has Aspergers. Isnt that dandy? :D Maybe Taysen will be the next computer genius!