What A Day.

Isaiah was a trooper today!  We love the CDD and their amazing staff.  This morning we checked in at 7:30 and the front desk staff greeted us with a "Good morning Isaiah!" before I had to tell them our name.  They went over our schedule for the day and we waited on the psychologist who was doing the IQ testing.

Isaiah did really well with the IQ testing.  While I didn't really think he had any intellectual disability, I had still been completely stressed out this week waiting for the testing to be done.  Isaiah scored right in the normal range which means there are no cognitive delays!  She also scored his social skills which dramatically improved since December.  In December his social skills were that of an average 4 month old.  Today he was scored at an average 17 month old level so he is completely caught up socially :)

Later in the day he met with his neurodevelopment pediatrician who did an exam and talked about what's been going on.  Isaiah was born with an ear pit, and since children with ear pits are at a high risk for kidney problems she wants him to have an ultrasound done to check on his.  She also said that because of a few of his 'oddities' she thinks he may have a chromosomal abnormality, so we are going to have chromosomal testing done on him.  So as soon as she calls and sweet talks our insurance to try and get it covered we will set up an appointment to have the ultrasound and testing done in the next few weeks.  (have I ever mentioned how much I hate dealing with insurance?  Because I really hate dealing with insurance).

Next we met up with the nutritionalist who wants us to set up a swallow study to check on his frequent choking.  He's getting MUCH better with chewing and swallowing food, but he is still choking way too much.  I really believe it's just immaturity with his eating skills, but I will speak to his feeding therapist when we meet with her next to see what she thinks.

We finished the day with the Physical Therapist, Speech Therapist, and Occupational Therapist.  I was a little disappointed with what they had to say.  I was really expecting month to month progress, but in the past 4 months he made about a months worth of progress in speech and gross motor skills, and no progress with fine motor skills.  Despite the numbers, he has made great improvements, but we will be increasing his physical therapy, and adding speech and OT.

I'm pretty nervous about the kidney and chromosomal testing, and am feeling a little blindsided by it...but it's starting to sink in, and we will just keep moving forward as always.

Getting there.

Slowly.  But he's making progress.

Speech/Language:  He is pretty much only saying Mama and Dada.  He occasionally says a 'hi' noise when he is playing with a phone, and he used to say fish, but hasn't said it in months.  I have noticed he has trouble saying Dada after saying Mama and vice versa.  If he is saying Mama and we ask him to say Dada, he continues to try and make the ma noise before finally getting the da out.  He sees the speech pathologist next week at the CDD so I'm going to bring that up.  I know it seems like a small thing, but with the feeding troubles combined with speech delays a few things were brought up in the past that make it more worrisome for me (mainly speech apraxia)

He is however doing really well with sign language.  He has a couple signs he uses regularly throughout the day (milk and more) and one we see occasionally (all done...but it doesn't look all that much like the actual sign for all done).  We are working on a few that will be helpful in knowing what he wants (eat, sleep, book, bath).

Physical:  Isaiah is cruising along the furniture now!  The goal for his 18 month review is to be standing independently (not holding onto anything) and while I'm not sure we will get there in a month, he will be there soon!

Cognitive:  Isaiah's cognitive testing has been moved up to next week so I'll be able to update more after that, but he's doing some really great things!  He started blowing kisses occasionally, he waves bye-bye pretty much every time we ask, and he seems to be understanding us, and following very simple directions.

Feeding:  Eating well, transitioned to a sippy cup and gaining weight!  The 3 week intensive therapy is off the table for now.  He goes back to see his feeding therapist in May and I'm thinking we will start going less frequently after that appointment :)

Tuesday is his testing and evaluations.  My prediction is that he is still about 6-8 months delayed...But making month to month progress is really all I wanted :)