5 years ago

July 18th, 2006 my life changed for ever. My precious baby boy was born at 10:12pm, weighing 7lbs 9oz and 21" long.








Happy Birthday my booger head!

Saturday Snapshots: Listening Therapy/Therapeutic Listening

The main idea is to emphasize integration of the auditory and vestibular systems together. Since there is such a close connection with visual functioning, visual processing also will likely improve. Particularly spatial awareness, and the concept of time and space.

Sensory-processing-disorder.com

Brushing Technique

Today at OT we talked about listening therapy again, something that we've planned to start for the last 2 months but one thing or another prevented it. Seamus has tried the headphones and cd player a few times at OT but he doesn't like them and always takes them off complaining they hurt his head, or its too loud, or he doesn't like the music (part of his sensory issues.). We think the listening therapy will help Seamus progress and relax, but his OT brought up a different therapy/technique to try first.

Our OT brought up the Brushing Technique, and asked if I had herd of it, which I hadn't. She explained it to me, basically it should help calm him down and give him the sensory input that he needs. She wants us to try this before we go on to the listening therapy, right now she doesn't think he would do the LT because of how he acts with the music and headphones.

She gave me a run down of what to do. I thought Seamus would freak out when she was first explaining it to me. You use a surgical brush to brush down their extremities, and back, and I thought it would be a poky and hard brush. The brush is actually fairly soft and doesn't hurt (she showed me on me then Seamus how to do it). I have to brush down his arms first, applying pressure to give him the deep sensory input he needs, then his back and last his legs. After I'm done brushing I have to do his joint compression, which is pushing all his joints in his extremities together 10x's each joint (shoulder, elbow, wrist, hips, knees and feet).

I was amazed when she showed Seamus and I. When she was doing it on me to show me how to do it, Seamus ignored us, playing with 'his' Little People. When she told him she was going to do it on him to show me some more, he wasn't too sure about it, he kind of froze up at first, he had one hand raised prepared to push her away. After a couple seconds of her brushing his arm you could see him relax more, he still held pretty stiff but he wasn't ready to push her off. To my amazement it did help calm him down for around an hour. The thing with this therapy/technique is that it doesn't last all day, it has to be done every 2-4hrs, the closer to every 2hrs the better. (but he's in school from 8am-11:45am, 4 days a week so it won't happen at those times)

I'm excited to see how this goes and hope it helps him so we can move on to the listening therapy too.

Special Needs Blog Hop

I found this blog hop trough another JM mommy (Dotcomkari) and decided to link up too.
Its pretty neat, hosted by Autism Learning Felt and Super Mommy To The Rescue.

They have a Question on the blog so I will go a head and answer it.

Question for this Week: Introduce yourself and your Blog to us so we can get to know you:

I'm Justine, 23 and I live in North Idaho. I married Kenneth in 2006 after a year long engagement. Together we have 2 great kids.

My oldest, Seamus, is 4, born July 18th, 2006. Seamus just started preschool at Head Start and is loving it (and I'm liking the breaks too hehe). His life has been far from easy. When Seamus was a newborn he was constantly spitting up and throwing up, we went to a few doctors and NP's at our office and they all said it was normal. We finally found a doc in our clinic that told it it wasn't normal and that Seamus had GERD Reflux (he would vomit a foot or more a way a few times a day and was always spitting up after each meal), we tried a few medications before Previcad finally worked. When Seamus was 2mo old the Torticollis was caught and he started OT through Early Intervention, and a few weeks later we found the Plagiocephally (caught by the Tort.). While in OT we started realizing his delays and how far behind he was, he was anywhere from 3-6mo delayed on average, some things more. His doctor wasn't sure why he was delayed, she said that Tort doesn't usually cause kids to be delayed like he was. Seamus went through a couple tests, like a CT scan and a Cystic Fibrosis test, but they all came back normal. The CT Scan did reveal Macrocephally, which we sort of knew since his head had always been in the 95+%. When he was 6 or 7 months old he started PT as well as continuing his OT. At 15months they wanted him to start Speech Therapy too but we were moving out of state. The state we moved to said that Seamus was fine and they wouldn't offer any services to him. We moved back home 8months later and got right back into the swing of things. Seamus was now having behavior issues as well as his speech problems. His doctor is great and on the ball and listens to what we have to say. We started him on Melatonin in June of '09 because he was only sleeping for 3-4hrs a night and his behavior issues got worse with the lack of sleep. But the melatonin didn't help fully and in January he was started on Tenex to help calm him down (he's constantly moving and in motion), and she also referred him to a Counselor and hopped he would also be seen to get evaluated for Aspergers (what we thought for years he had), and she also put a referral in for Speech because his speech had gotten behind. Consoling was going great, but no one would see him for an Autism spectrum evaluation telling us to go to Infant-Toddler/Early Intervention (He was too old for EI and the others wouldn't see him till age 6). I was super upset with the run around we were still getting about things as was his doctor. Finally in July (almost 7 months after the referral) we got a call from the Speech Pathologist saying they had an opening and they wanted to evaluate Seamus. The day we went in was like a huge light bulb going off for us. Seamus was diagnosed with Articulation Disorder and a Minor Speech delay (its more how he says the words we can't understand), but during the evaluation the Speech Therapist asked me if he'd been evaluated for Sensory issues. The feeling when she said that was almost peaceful and wonderful, finally someone else was noticing things besides me and my family and it wasn't all in my head. She helped us get a referral from out doctor so Seamus could see the Sensory OT at the same place we have ST at. It took a month to get into the OT eval but that day was also a great day for me, finally figuring things out and a way that we can help Seamus. Seamus was diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder and a Fine Motor delay(his average score in FM was a 25%). Seamus has both Hyper and Hypo Sensitivities, but now that we know more about them and why he does some of the things he does its become very helpful.

Kieran is my second child, she is 18½ months old, born April 8th, 2009. Kieran is a lot different then her brother. She's always been more social then he was at similar ages and she loves to interact with people (with Seamus that's only started in the last 1-1.5yrs). She loves to dance and is starting to like to dress up. Kieran has hit the age of Separation Anxiety and stands by me when ever we go somewhere new (something Seamus has never done). Kieran is behind in speech but for right now they are just watching her, and I was told recently because of Seamus' issues Kieran may be behind since she models after him. Its been a whole different experience with Kieran and its "odd" seeing how children from the same 2 parents can be so different developmentally and physically.

Crazy Schedule

I should have prepared the kids and practiced our new schedule this week, but...well...I wanted to sleep in this week. :P
Seamus starts school on Monday. He goes from 8am-11:45am which means we will need to get up between 7-7:30, thats early for this mama! On top of that our weeks are packed, and this is why I can't figure out how to work out of the home!

Monday (our easy day)
Seamus school 8-11:45

Tuesday
School 8-11:45
Speech 2:30-3:00
Seamus PSR 4pm-6pm

Wednesday
School 8-11:45
Kieran playgroup 10am-12pm
Speech 2:30-3
EHS home visit 3:30-4:30

Thursday
School 8-11:45
OT 1:30-2:30
Counseling every other week 5-6pm

Friday
Free day! Which means bill paying day

Saturday
S PSR 12:30-2:30

Sunday
Free Day/Relax

My eyes keep going >.<, especially since Speech, OT, Playgroup and Counseling are all in the town next to us. So on Tuesdays & Thursday's its pick Seamus up, go home for a little then head to town, also on every other Thursday I don't want to drive back home only to turn around a half hour later to go back for counseling, so we'll have to stay in town and find something to do. Wednesday's are kind of a pain, my mom will pick Seamus up for me since I don't want to leave playgroup at 11 to get him on time, but after play group I'll have to come get Seamus (15-20min drive) then go back to town for speech right after.


Oh ya and be on the look out this weekend and next week I have 2 reviews and giveaways being posted :D

Its official

Seamus does have Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). To what extent and what sub category I don't know yet, Kieran was being a booger at the appt and I missed half the testing the OT did and we couldn't talk much after cause Seamus kept taking off and grabbing everything. We will go to OT once a week till the end of the year (after that his insurance will only provide 24 visits a year), along with his 2 speech visits each week.

Seamus also got into Headstart which I'm very thankful for. They are also going to help us with further testing, he still shows quite a few signs of Aspergers, which can go hand in hand with SPD. He starts school on September 20th, and is in the morning class from 8am-11:45am. I'm excited but sad at the same time, sad he wont be home but glad to get a little break from him 4 days a week.

Its taken over 3yrs to finally get to a point that things are making since with him, but I'm glad we are finally on the right track. I'm glad we will be learning better ways to help him learn and get him caught up(like learning ABC's, counting past 10, more then 3 shapes, how to draw more then lines, etc), and how to deal with his behaviors. I guess part of his behavioral issues are from SPD cause he doesn't know how to handle the emotions and will outburst instead.

My cute blinkie that Niamh on JustMommies made for me

Always fear the noises you hear...coming from a 4yr old...

((Warning pictures at end of post, not all will want to see))

Mr. Seamus is hyper, hardly ever stopping and non listening(teenager already?!). Tonight was full of telling him to stop running in our small living room (apx. 12'x12'). I went to the kitchen to do some dishes and get dinner made and the hubby was on his computer(which is in the kitchen looking into the living room. The kids were playing in the living room, running even after being told to stop. Next thing I know we hear a super thud, then the, "Owie, Owie, OWIE!!" screams. Hubby gets to Seamus first since he was less then 3ft away. As hubby went to give Seamus a hug, thinking it was just another bonk on the head, I notice the blood pouring down the side of his face. I know head injury's bleed a lot, but holy cow I didn't expect that much. I figured with how much blood and we needed to take him to the doctor. Our pediatrician's have 3 offices in 3 towns in our county, and I called to tell them we were coming into the one in our town...but they had just closed an hour before. Our only option was the main office in the big town in our county which was 15minutes away taking the interstate. The whole drive Seamus was fine, quiet for him, but fine. The bleeding had stopped on the way too. We had a 15minute wait after we got to the office, but Seamus did well sitting there and wanted to play (covered in caked on blood >.<).
When we get called back, the nurse wants to clean it up so the NP could get a better look at it. Just the sight of the water bottles set Seamus off and the blood started coming again. After the nurse got it all cleaned she said the NP would be in to see if she would close it with the glue or stitches. When the NP came in we were expecting her to say that she would glue it and we'd be on our way...not how it happened. The gash was too wide to use glue(its a little over an inch long and around 1/4-1/2" wide), and she said he needed 6-8 stitches. Poor Seamus, it was horrible holding him down while she trimmed his hair, he was screaming(they herd him out front in the lobby too) which was making him bleed worse. She couldn't do the 6-8 stitches because of how he was being so instead she did 3 or 4 and then a mattress stitch (which she said was a larger one to make up for the ones she couldn't do). He has to keep them in for 7 days then get removed. Hope the next 7 days go smoothly and he doesn't mess with them.

Warning Pictures are a little gory.




This was from hubby's cell phone at the doc's before the nurse cleaned him(after we'd wiped him down and held pressure on it before we got to the doc) so the picture quality isn't very good.




And after once we got home

My baby boy is 4!!

Where did the last 4 years go?! It seems like such a blur at points now, and it makes me kind of sad. Seamus is such a silly, goofy, helper(at times lol), wild and crazy boy. I love him so much and want him to stay little forever, makes me sad thinking that he only has 14yrs (which I'm sure will go fast) left at home.

Here's his birth story that I wrote back in 2006

Seamus Patrick Allen was born on Tuesday July 18th @ 10:12pm he weighed 7lbs 9oz!!!!!! so much smaller then they thought! and he was 21inches long!

July 18th, 2006

We went into the hospital on Monday night and they put something called cyododell(sp) on my cervix to help to dilate, they inserted it at around 10pm Monday night. The nurse told me that most people just dilate with the pill in place and nothing else, well I had been having contractions that I couldn't tell and the pill made them worse. I called my mom to come at 3am and the nurse put in the iv and group b strep medication, at 6am she came back and started the piticon at 2ml per hour, then in an hour upped it to 4 and a half an hour later upped it to 6 and about every half hour after that she upped it 2 more ml, at 8am the doc checked me I was 70% effaced adn at a 2 cm and station -3 so he broke my water, at around noon I was at 4 and about 90% dilated (at 9 they put in the epidural and I didn't have any pains from contractions at all! :) ) at around 8:30 pm I was in and out of sleep because of a horrible headache I had and they had giving me something for it, I started saying my bum was going to explode(sorry for the info!) and my mom laughed till I said it a lot and they got the nurse and Ii was 10cm and fully effaced and a +1 so pushing began at about 9pm Tuesday, I was very sick feeling from the headache and though I was going to faint but never did and I swear I was going to rip every muscle down there I felt the stinging and pulling and stretching and pushed for an hour shockingly only screaming a few times and the doc used the vacuum because I was getting weaker and then with 4 pushes and vacuum help he popped out! they placed him on my chest and I just grabbed him and so did df, and I cried and said that df needed to cut the cord, and the doc let him and then delivered the placenta which felt a little strange. they fixed my epsiomity I believe it was a 2 so they have 4 stitches0 on the second layer and 4 on the top. Seamus' apgars were 8 and 9. he layed on my chest for an hour bare on bare skin, and we tried to breast feed but he would take then. the nurse then took him and washed him and gave him his eye drops and vitamin k and hep b shots and did his blood sugars which needed to be above 40 and it was 58 so he was good and they took his picture and gave him to df. i had to wait for the epidural to ware off so they could move me to the post pardum room, but it was too strong at 2:30 the nurse came in and said it was time to move because my left leg was starting to have feeling again but when they stood me up I fell to the floor because my legs were too week, which was shocking considering my right leg never went numb from the epidural but my left leg was dead from it, so df had to lift me to a wheelchair and when we got to the room they took Seamus to the nicu because his breathing wasn't good. df then lifted me to the bed and the nurse sat ice under me, and I said I needed to pee and she said wait an hour or two and i said no I'm going to pee now, and they got a commode and lifted me to it and I filled the bucket with a ton of pee which was good since I didn't fill the cathadar very well that was in place earlier. At around 6am they brought Seamus back and he was good, later that day the pediatrician came in and said that we would have to stay because he was throwing up pretty badly. Then the lactation specialist came in and we found out that Seamus would take my nipples because they weren't big enough for him to take so I got a nipple guard plastic thing that I put over it for him to get milk from. He got severe jaundice(sp) and had to be under lights from Thursday after noon to Friday morning but is ok now!

(This is how I wrote it in 2006(though I did go and correct some spellings), I believe the day after we got out of the hospital so its not very fluid lol)

July 14th, 2006

On this day(though it was a Friday), July 14th, 20006, I was 39weeks 2days(or 3) pregnant with Seamus. I had one of my weekly u/s's to watch my fluid levels and his size. I was also miserable, nevermind it was mid July and in the 100's, I was still constantly having nasty headaches and seeing stars all the time. I thought this u/s would be no different then my other weekly ones. When I got back to my room one of my OB's came in(at the time I saw 2 different once cause either could end up delivering(now it's 3)) and said that we were going to have a baby! He told me the u/s showed Seamus as being 8lbs 15oz and that he needed to come out asap, and that because my BP and headaches hadn't gotten better it was best to do an induction(but I wouldn't have been allowed to go past 40 weeks anyway cause of the GD). My OB had one of the secretary's call the hospital hoping to get me in soon. The soonest they had was Monday night, July 17th, so it was set. Weird to believe that just 4 days after this appointment my 'TINY' little 7lb 9oz boy was born!


Appx, 15weeks pregnant, while in the ER in Texas



Around 20weeks



(had others but not sure if we have them here or in Nebraska still. I'll have to look)

The EYE Patch

Seamus now has a Pirate Eye! He wears an eye patch over his right eye for 4hours a day, and we were told to do it the same time every day, I choose 12-4 so that way Kieran is asleep for most of that. He's done pretty well the 2 time's he's had it on(just started Saturday, and Monday he took a nap a long one surprisingly). I'm going to make a blog post with each of his patches in a week, but here is a look at 2 of them so far :)

Day 1


Day 2

Busy week ahead

First off great news. I had posted a couple week ago about Seamus eye specialist appointment not being till the end of August, but then they were able to move it to July 14th and "Squeeze" us in, then last Monday I got a call from his normal eye doctor saying that the day has changed again. On Monday I got a call from his eye doc saying that another patient had gone to the eye specialist that Seamus was going to go to and they were not happy with this specialist after all, so they did some research and found a different pediatric eye specialist(PES). The new PES we will be going to, dh has even herd about, even before I did, a lady at work told him about this PES and how she loves her. The PES we will be going to now is part of Sacred Heart Medical Center, and that right there made me feel better, them being part of a top rated hospital. The best news about going to a different PES, they could get us in sooner without having to "squeeze" us in. Seamus' new appointment is Friday July 2nd!! We have to be there by 9:45 so that means we are going to have to be up at around 7am, and have Kieran to my mom's house by 8:30am then stop to grab some breakfast and head out of town. It takes about 30-40 minutes to get to Sacred Heart from here and that all depends on traffic. I'm excited they were able to get it moved closer and glad that we are going with a 'better' PES.

On Friday I got a voice-mail(I never answer phone numbers I don't know, but I had completely missed this call lol) saying to call back asap, that the speech therapist had an opening and a couple of people up next to get in and it would be who ever called her back first getting the slot. I ended up seeing the missed call about 30 minutes after she called so I was worried someone else had filled the spot. Luckily no one else had called back. We've been waiting for speech for Seamus since the end of January, thats how long the waiting list is, and finally after almost 7months we are in and I'm so happy. We go this afternoon, his appt is at 2pm and we have to be there at 1:45, the stinky thing is that hubby works till 2:30 so he wont be going and I'll be juggling both kids on my own(and its a feet to go anywhere with Seamus especially alone with both of them). I'm not sure what we will be doing today but I'm glad to finally be going.

All this is on top of our 2 normal weekly things, Kieran's Early Headstart home visit, usually on Wednesdays but this will will be tomorrow, and Seamus' counselors on Thursday.

Yay!

Quick Update:
I just got a phone call from Seamus' eye doctor and they were able to get the specialist to move his visit up to July 14th @ 1:30pm PST. Thank-goodness, a month away is alot better then 2.5 months.

Seamus' Eyes

A couple months ago(I think it was December, I can't remember for sure now), we took him to the eye doctor because Kieran's Early Head Start Family Coordinator(FC) did eye tests on both kids(after we said we were wondering about Seamus' eyes) and noticed how Seamus' eye looked. The eye doc we were seeing I guess was just a fill in and the lady that actually runs the practice was on leave for a few months. The first eye doc we saw said he didn't have a lazy eye that he was just very far sighted and would cross his eyes trying to focus on anything up close. Around March they had to change his script because the original one was too strong and gave him headaches. Well today we saw the eye doctor who runs the practice(and I guess the only one there now) and she wanted to start "Fresh" since she'd never seen us before.

The eye doc did a bunch of light tests with him and said his eye was one of the worst she'd seen. When he looks to the right his left eye looks like its almost sinking into his nose, when he looks straight he will sometimes cross(or get the lazy eye look) and sometimes not depending on how far or close the object is. Looking left is the worst, he can't look fully to the left without turning his whole head. Then came the surprising part, she asked me if he was developmentally delayed. I told her he had lots of problems when he was an infant and toddler and about the torticollis and plagiocephally, and also how he would drag his left leg and sometimes arm when he first started crawling and walking. The next part was shocking in a way, she said they were all connected somehow (we still haven't figured out whats going on with him). She said his eye is a "non-traditional" lazy eye and that lazy eyes are normally hereditary so that means probably from hubby's dad.

We have a new "game plan" now, before it was to try glasses for a few months then patch. Now the game plan is going to a pediatric eye specialist. The eye doc said with how his eye is, and how he can't fully look left that she is pretty sure one of the muscles in his eye will need to be cut/released. They called and set up an appointment but it's not till August 25th. The doc wasn't too happy about an appointment being 2.5months away, and said that they had another 3yr old in earlier today with something similar and they got her in next week and she's not anymore urgent then Seamus, so she said they are going to basically pester the specialist so they can get them in sooner.

Heres a couple pictures of him. We were trying to get him to look but it was hard to do since it was 7pm when we tried and he's had a long day.

This was an accidental shot but you can sort of see how his left eye is



And here we tried to get him to look left, you can sort of tell how he can't look to the side, he's got no side vision in that eye

A Year ago

This time last year I was doing the last few things around the house(laundry, and dishes) and making sure my bags were packed. It was also the last day as a mommy of 1, so I tried to spend most of the day just me and Seamus, even had him sleep with me in bed that night. Its weird to think a year has already gone by, it seems like Kieran has been here for ever but not at the same time.
Here is my last belly shot, 38weeks 3days, taken just after I got out of the shower. I had to wash with this special soap the hospital gave me to clean my tummy off to help prepare for the c-section.

So proud

For Christmas I bought Seamus some dry erase cards to practice his letters and alphabet with. We tried them and it failed so I put them away for a later time. Well today(Wed.) I took them out, 3 at a time, and showed him how to do it. After a couple times of me holding his hand and the maker he figured out how to follow the lines and figured v's and a's out, and even wrote an a on regular paper for me. He was very excited and would go trade his 3 cards for 3 more and try. Hes a little heavy on the marker though so he squiggles and scribbles a lot but its progress for him.

He's still not doing well on his letters though. A couple hours later I told him to get the Apple card again and asked him what letter A started with and he said "g" >.<

Seamus

Seamus has had some behavior and developmental issues since he was born. His gross and fine motor skills have improved greatly over the last 3½years but his behavior hasn't (and his speech was doing well but started to decline the last few months.) We've been working with our pedi for years to try to figure out what was going on.

He was born with Torticollis ("twisting of the neck") which resulted in Plagiocephally. Neither of the 2 would have cause him to be as delayed in the fine and gross motor areas, so we did lots of testing, blood work, CT scans (which showed nothing but Macrocephally). He was in OT from 3months old till 15months(we moved out of state for a couple months) and PT from around 8months till 15months. It was hard seeing him suffer through the therapies but they helped and now instead of being 3-6+ months behind developmentally like he was he is only at most 3mo in some categories.

Onto his behavior, he's always been more of a "I want to be by myself" kind of kid. When he was a baby he never wanted us to play with him, throwing fits or just not playing if we tried, if we left him alone he'd have a ball. Even to this day 75% of the time he prefers to play alone. We also cannot initiate things, like games, or counting, or play time, he has to do it or he will have nothing to do with you or what you're trying to do. I've been trying for over a year to get him to count past 10, and he wont, heck he wont even count to 10 if you ask him(but when he's playing alone he'll do it just fine) same with the alphabet, he wont say it if you provoke him but alone I've herd him say almost the whole thing (even lmnop in the the correct order). He's also very picky about things and how they have to be or all hell will break loose...speaking of that his temper its bad and so are this tantrums. One day Kieran's Early Headstart FC was here and she wasn't talking to Seamus and he threw a block at her so I put him in his room(he hadn't had quiet time yet so I said he needed it then) and for well over 45mintues he screamed....because he wanted the block (or FC was timing him till she left). He has to sleep with his light on, I've tried using a night light(taking it out of our room) and he freaked, tried a small lamp, freak out again, but at the same time he freaks out about the sun being too bright or flashes from camera's. Seamus is also overly friendly...scarily so, he'll talk to anyone and go with anyone without any fears and he's always been this way. On the topic of other people, hes not aware of others bubbles, touching people (hands, feet, face, etc.) even strangers, even when they tell him no. He's also horrid with listening, we could tell him to do something more then 6 times before he finally does it, or not to do something. Punishments have also been bad, we've tried spanking(I know...) it works for a little then he goes back to the naughty behavior. We've tried time outs that's a major fail, he just yell's and screams and then when its over he goes right back to being naughty sometimes even more so. I moved on to taking a toy away...resulted in major breakdown fits, so at this point we've had to put him in his room "grounding" him for 10-15minutes(depending on what he did) it seems to work some of the time.There's other "odd" quirks he has but right now I focused on some of the main ones.

Seamus' pedi referred him to a psychologist for counseling and to get the ADOS test done. The ADOS test is to test for Autism, something that we've brought up to our pedi since Seamus was about 15 months old but she said they couldn't do anything till he was 3. We've herd from a couple different people that they think he's high functioning Autistic(without us saying anything). Seamus has gone to one counselor's meeting, last week, and she said just by watching him(she had a sandbox) she saw some things that made her think possible Autism, and then when we told her about what he does she said that its a strong possibility. We are trying to get his ADOS test set up but the psychologist that does the test is busy(works for the hospital too) so its hard to get a hold of him, but the counselor we see is in his practice so hopefully she will mention something.

So right now its looking like he has Autism. I'm not trying to "label" my son, but I'm trying to figure this all out and learn how to be a better parent for him and actually be able to teach him right because right now I'm at a loss and so stressed with him I can barley handle him.

Been a tad MIA

This last week has been a little hectic, err well just the weekend really. I feel so thrown off still. Wedensday we went to my mom's to pickup her van. Why you may ask? Because she can't drive it for a couple weeks...again why? She had to have a hysterectomy Thursday morning(I have the van so I can drive her around or get her in the day while hubby is working if needed since we only have one car for now). She's been having some problems for just over a year now so this was something that we kind of knew would be coming, and its good that its done now. She went in for surgery Thursday morning and found out Thursday evening when the doc finally came to talk to her that they accidentally cut her bladder. Since they cut her bladder she has to have a catheter in until this coming Thursday (hopefully its healed enough to remove then). Mom was released Friday night and Kieran and I went to stay with her. I stayed with her until late Saturday night because she's not supposed to be doing much (shes got a dog and cat that need taken care of too) and shes lonely by herself.

Friday morning we also had Seamus' evaluation to see how he is. I'm so happy to say hes finally on track with his developments, averaging 65% (they were between 65-66%) on his gross motor skills. He did fail his hearing because he wouldn't cooperate with the lady, and they are wanting to keep an eye on his speech and want him re-evaluated. I'm going to pass on redoing the hearing because he's been tested quite a big and we know he can hear just fine, for the speech we will be talking with his pedi in a couple weeks. The 1 problem they all had with him...he wouldn't listen, got off track and didn't cooperate with the, the same issues we have at home. If we aren't in Nebraska he has an appointment on February 8th with his pedi to talk about his behavior and how its slowly getting worse, and about how his speech is declining. Kieran's Early Headstart FC (Seamus' old one too but he aged out of the program at 3) said that they had a speaker at the office a couple weeks back, and the lady was talking about her son. Our FC said the speakers son sounded just like Seamus, the speakers son has ADHD and Bipolar disorder. Both of those issues are very likely, Bipolar slightly more as it seems to run in hubbys family (His grandma, mom, him and brother all have it...its partially why he's up here and all his family is in Texas), and ADHD is in both of our families. From what my mom has told me there is a fine line between Bipolar and ADHD and something around 85% of people with ADHD also have Bipolar. We will be talking with his doctor about getting him tested for these. If we can find an answer I think it will help us all out.

Last Monday (12th) we had Kieran's 9 month appointment. She's doing well, still small in the 20-25% for weight and height at 17lbs 12oz and 26½" long. She's on track with all her milestones and seems to be doing great. The doc said to just skip the baby purees since she refuses to eat them and let her have big people food if thats what she wants.

Wordless Wednesday: 9mo and 3.5yrs

Seamus will be 3.5yrs on the 18th, and Kieran turned 9mo on the 8th. These were taken at JC Penney on 1/9

Wordless Wednesday: 1st Christmas

"I can't"

Where in the world did he learn this from. Everything I ask him to do I hear "I can't mom." Going potty, eating, sitting down, getting the remote off the floor, putting his shoes on, anything and its getting old real fast! I don't know how to get him to stop saying it, I tell him he can but he just says, "No I CAN'T!." Grrrrr