Luke's Evaluation

Well, Friday morning we were a little overwhelmed by the OT, Speech Pathologist, Developmental Therapist and Nutritionist that walked in our door to evaluate Luke! They were wonderful ladies and had a ton of questions for us. After we talked and they watched Luke play and eat, and yes, he did open up his mouth to eat (of course, right?!?). It turned out that he technically did not qualify for a delay of more than 30% but they are going to mess with the wording in their paperwork in order to get him services.
He will receive speech 1 time/week, OT 2 times/month, nutritionist 1 time/month, and the developmental therapist will reevaluate him in 3 months. They also suggested a PT consultation as well as recommended us to take Luke to a GI specialist because of his constant back arching. We were both a little surprised when they suggested all of that. Obviously the big concern is the refusal of food but when they started saying everything else, we kind of think they went a little over the top. We believe that kids develop at their own pace, in no way is he behind as far as his cognitive or developmental milestones. For example, he is army crawling all over the place and they were concerned about that because he's not supporting his weight on his fully extended arm. Another thing that bothered them was that he wouldn't reach for a toy that was placed to his far right or left because he didn't put his hand down to support his body so he wouldn't tip over when he reached for it. I don't know, I think that will come personally but I guess they are the experts.
So now, we wait. We have to get a case manager to monitor all of these specialists and then we have to get assigned someone for all of therapies. This is where we could end up waiting for awhile. If that happens, we'll have to decide if we want to wait or have private speech therapy.
However, all of this may be unnecessary because yesterday and this morning he opened his mouth up wide and ate, not a ton, but he did eat almost a whole container of pears, an enormous record for him!!

Luke Update

Well, the ball is finally rolling with getting some help for Luke! After Luke's 9 month appointment I put a call into the state's Early Intervention program to get him evaluated for his eating issues. I'm so excited to say that they are coming tomorrow morning to our house to evaluate him. There going to be looking at his speech (for the eating), developmental (this is standard), OT (in case he isn't eating because of sensory things) and a nutritionist. We should get results immediately after the evaluation.
On a side note, I tried feeding him this morning and he opened his mouth right up and took 5 bites. Of course, they are going to come and think that we are crazy...we'll see!

Potty Training 101

Admiring the potty chart, naked of course
A completed potty chart, what an accomplishment!

So I decided the day after Christmas was going to be day 1 of potty training. We started with the big boy underpants on but soon moved to the naked version which proved to be a lot more successful. It is currently been 6 days and we've only had a handful of accidents. I'm so proud of Chase for being so excited to be a big boy like all of his friends and cousins. I'm hoping that we have continued success once we head back to the sitter on Monday when it is back to the reality of work! Our only problem now is that he wants to wear his Spiderman underpants everyday which is impossible because we only have 1 pair!

"Oh What Fun..." Christmas 2008

Our Family
Luke wasn't really into opening gifts but Chase was more than willing to help him!Santa brought Chase what he wanted, a Spiderman backpack with Matchbox cars!!
Casey and Chase enjoying gift opening together at Aunt Dana's house

This Christmas turned out to be everything that we had thought it would. Chase was so excited for Santa to come and was amazed that he had eaten the cookies and drank the milk. After he'd opened his stocking he told us that he "didn't need anymore presents, this is all I need." He was especially thrilled about his backpack and the batting machine that my dad brought for him. He couldn't get enough.

After our family Christmas, we headed over to Dana's for Christmas breakfast and opened gifts there too. The kids wanted to open every gift they got, it was crazy fun. We ended our day back at our house for Christmas dinner with my mom, Dom and my uncle. It was a nice time and we were all exhausted when the day was over. I'm already looking forward to next year when Luke can get in on a little of the fun.

Luke's 9 Month Check Up

We went for Luke's 9 month check up right before Christmas. I was really anxious because I wasn't sure if Luke was gaining enough weight. Well, he wasn't. His weight is 17 lbs. 2 oz, which does show a weight gain from his last appt. BUT he has now dropped to the 5 %-tile. So, this means he's not able to maintain his weight which isn't surprising because he still isn't eating any solids at all, not even rice cereal or stage 1 baby food.
The doctor says that she is now concerned so I have a call into the Early Intervention program that the state runs so that he can be evaluated. She says that she'd like to get him into speech therapy for feeding concerns but would like to have the evaluation first. I hope that we don't have to wait too long because I'm so nervous/anxious about him. I also told her about his inability to poop on a regular basis, typically going about 1 time/week. He is also arching his back all of the time so he's on reflux medicine for 2 weeks to see if that changes any behaviors although none of us thinks that is the issue. Blake thinks there is something wrong with his stomach and that is why he won't open his mouth to eat. After the two weeks of reflux medicine, the doctor thinks that a barium enima would be the next step. We're all just hoping that he is a late bloomer with his eating and will start eating on his own soon.
On another note, Luke is officially army crawling all over the place, he is especially fond of the Christmas tree. He is meeting all of his physical milestones, is talking up a storm, and just getting this great personality. He is so much fun, I just love this age. If he could just sleep 5 hours consecutively through the night, I could enjoy him even more!!