Catching up

Yikes!  It's been over a week since I've updated things here. 

First off, Cayden seems to have overcome whatever it was - aspiration, infection, cold - that plagued him all last week.  He still sounds a little snuffly now and then, and we still retrieve some yellowish snoogies from his nose once or twice a day, but I think the worst of it has passed.  Thank goodness!  It took him most of the week to slowly get better.  Progress was so slow, in fact, that we called the doctor every other day it seemed to see if she thought we needed to come back in so she could to check him out.  Thankfully, Jason was home for a few days during the past week so he could pull out his stethoscope and take a listen whenever we were concerned, and we didn't have to return to the doctor.

Two side notes regarding Jamison that also compounded the stress of last week:  he had a fairly severe allergic reaction after eating one of my grandma's cookies.  We suspected walnuts and a blood draw confirmed it:  he is allergic to walnuts.  Besides that, he's been sick with colds and fevers twice in the past three weeks.  He had his 18-month check up last week and that's when the doctor informed us he had an ear infection.  So we've been treating him with antibiotics and he's finally starting to feel better.

On Monday this week, the occupational therapist came to the house again.  Her first visit was last Monday, the day after Cayden came down with his 'episode'.  I didn't get a good feeling from her that first visit, but I chalked it up to the circumstances and thought I'd see how things went this week.  Well, it didn't take me long to figure out that I definitely don't like her.  For one, she hasn't even touched him yet.  How are you supposed to provide therapy without touching a patient?  And the kicker was when she called him "Camden Inez".  How rude!  In addition, she kept talking about his g-tube (which he doesn't have, and never has had).  After two weeks, she doesn't have a clue about him, his history, or even his name for crying out loud! She contradicts herself constantly and I'm always having to correct her.  That doesn't give me any confidence in what she tells me to do, so I don't trust her.  After she butchered his name, I was so annoyed, I just wanted her out of my house.  As soon as she left, I called Vicki, our service coordinator, with the intention of asking for a new occupational therapist, despite the fact that it took us over a month to get this one.  I had to leave a voice message and wasn't able to speak with her until Tuesday.

On Tuesday when I talked to Vicki, the first thing I asked was what should I expect from our occupational therapist.  It crossed my mind that maybe I didn't fully understand what her scope of responsibilities is and sure enough, I was expecting too much out of her.  What we figured out during that conversation was that Cayden also needs to be seen by a physical therapist, a speech therapist, and a nutritionist.  So we set up a meeting for Wednesday to amend our service plan.  The fact that our current occupational therapist didn't seem to be up to speed with Cayden (not Camden) and his situation was still unacceptable, so we decided to get rid of her and put in a request for someone new.

Vicki came to our house on Wednesday morning.  It was the first time we met her in person and it was nice to finally be able to put a face with the person who is doing so much work on our behalf.  We amended our service plan:  Cayden will now be seeing an occupational therapist twice a month, a physical therapist twice a month, a nutritionist once a month, and a speech therapist as needed to monitor his reflux.  Hopefully all of these people will be pinned down and confirmed soon so we can stay on track with meeting his developmental goals.

Wednesday afternoon, I had to go to the pediatrician's office to be trained on how to use the EpiPen we had to get for Jamison.  I decided to take Cayden with me so we could weigh him.  The little chunker weighs 9 lbs. 6.7 oz!

It's noticeable how much stronger he's getting.  When we burp him, he fights us when we try to tip him forward.  He puts all his weight on his legs and stands up straight rather than let us bend him forward.  When I hold him on my shoulder and walk around the house, he holds his head up and looks around at things.  He loves overhead lights!  When he's lying on the changing table, he now turns his head to look at the jungle animal wallpaper border that's at his eye level.  He seems captivated by them.  He smiles a lot (and it's not just gas!)  He seems so delighted when I look him in the eye and talk to him.

Last night after changing his diaper, I put him on his tummy on the floor for a bit of tummy time while I ran to the bathroom to wash my hands.  When I came back 30 seconds later, he was on his back!  I couldn't believe my eyes and exclaimed, "What the??!  How did you get there??"  I just couldn't believe he had rolled over on his own.  So I laid him back on his tummy with his elbows propped up and dang if he didn't roll over right in front of my eyes!  I guess you can say things with my little man are just rolling along!