Grace is a snuggle bunny, sweetie pie part of my day! I love her hugs, her laughs, and the way she pushes up on her legs and arms to giggle at us from upside down. I feel like I'm either excited or frustrated about her though.
First, she absolutely refuses food. As soon as she sees a spoon, cup, or food-smeared finger, her lips purse and she shakes her head. Even her therapist can't get her to eat a bite. So all we can do it try to get it on her lips and hope she'll eventually decide she wants to eat it. Um, so when do I get to stop nursing her?! Being her only source of food has not been my plan for them next six months! RD has joked maybe we should try ice cream (at least, I'm giving him the benefit of doubt and saying he was joking); we've tried so many things to get her interested.
Next, she seems to have issues with her ears all the time. In november she had a couple colds, and in the beginning of December could not even respond to loud noises a few inches from her head in her left ear. She still had an ear full of fluid and wax in the end of December. When I took her back to check her fluid again, she had too much wax to even see her eardrums. I took her to an ENT who took the wax out, and she still has fluid in the left ear. In another 6 weeks or so if she still has fluid she'll probably get tubes. It's so frustrating that the aids make the wax problem worse, preventing it from getting out, which make the aids not work as well.
Then, there's her language. I get so excited about the progress she does make, and struggle with not getting frustrated/down with what she's not doing. When I get down I feel guilty and overwhelmed, which doesn't really help her, or me. Yesterday was a good example. Her therapist came over, and gave me her every-three-months assessment; Grace scored minimal or adequate (2 and 3 out of 5) on all her different areas. Her therapist was positive and encouraging in the assessment, but it was hard not to feel depressed.
At the same session, we were working on her eating, and she was playing with her cup, spilling it. We were saying 'uh-oh', and suddenly she started mimicking the 'uh'. We kept modeling it, and it was so awesome to see her trying to figure out how to say the 'oh'! She tried a couple approximations with the intonation, then finally figured out how to move her lips and said "uh-oh", complete with the falling intonation we were using! YEAH!!! She did it over 8 times, getting better at it! Susan (her therapist) and I cheered for her and gave each high fives! Yeah! She now has three vowel sounds, aa, uuh, and ooh!
Anyway, thanks for indulging my venting!
2 comments:
hang in there! you are a great mom! I can't wait to hold her!
I know how you feel! Hang in there...
Rachel has another implant check next week. Her therapists don't think she's making enough progress, but she's come so far this year. W e're learning more about what she can do, as wel as what she can't hear. I'm still fairly jealous of your kids' aids.
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