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D.C. Area Babies
AgrippaRidesAgain
member
November Check In!
AgrippaRidesAgain
member
Mostly b/c I am an AW and today is DD's birthday!
I will start with the birthday girl. Gah, how has it been a year already?! She isn't walking yet, but I am unconcerned, as she didn't crawl until 10 months. Judging by her current progress, I would say maybe by Christmas. Her verbal skills astonish me though. I used to think that people on other boards that talked about their one year olds having 15-20 words were exaggerating, but with the additions of "breakfast" and "thank you" yesterday, she is up to 16. The girl is a word freak. She picks up a word or two a day. It feels like the 18 month word explosion. She isn't pointing yet, but she hasn't needed to b/c she knows the words for most of the things she wants.
DS is my beautiful, brilliant, incredibly frustrating child. We have decided to have him evaluated for Asbergers or High Functioning Autism as well as Sensory Processing Disorder. I am talking to the pedi about where to start at DD's appointment today. Honestly, we are 99% certain that he will qualify for services. Everything about him is just so much more intense than other kids, and has been pretty much since birth. Until recently, he outright refused to play with other kids (with the exception of one that he has known since he was 15 mo, and that still is generally just parallel play), instead preferring to run around growling, tooting, or chugging while pretending to be an ATV or train. Even then, we wouldn't be too overly worried except that he cannot turn the ATV/train off. He runs obsessively in circles while playing, toots at people and runs away if they talk to him and he gets anxious, has crashed his tricycle and Cozy Coupe many times b/c he is watching the wheels instead of where he is going, and has many sensory issues that I have listed for you all before. His imaginary play, while on the surface seems quite creative, is actually highly scripted and repetitive. Much of it comes from either tv that he has seen or games DH or I have created. His interactions with peers are also highly scripted. I recently picked role playing back up, as it worked in the past to help with peer interactions. I taught him how to introduce himself and initiate a game. The first time he forgot a kid's name (2 minutes after learning it) he went back and reintroduced himself. :-S. He has recently started going nonverbal when angry or fruatrated and just starts spitting and yelling nonsensical syllables.
This is getting really long, sorry. I am having a hard time getting out of the guilt and anger stages of grief about DS and his likely diagnosis. When he melts down to the point of vomiting b/c he spilled a drop of milk on his blankie, (that was my Tuesday, how was yours?) I feel so guilty that I can't help him cope better, angry that he won't just pull it together, and then guilty again b/c he obviously can't, which is why he is puking. I feel guilty about enouraging his obsessions even a tiny bit, but then guilty about trying to redirect away from them b/c he gets so much joy from them.
Blah. I love my little boy so much, but things have just been incredibly hard lately and seem to just be getting harder.
Just to add to the AWishness of this post, I will be back later to make it longer with a pic of each kid. :-)
UPDATE: Ok, pictures. Sorry, you've already seen these if you're FB friends with me.
DS at a fun run 1k race he ran on Sunday. He was so proud of himself!
DD, squished into her "My First Halloween" newborn onsie from last year, since she didn't arrive when she was supposed to (her due date was Oct 26th)
This discussion has been closed.
Re: November Check In!
I'll post later but wanted to say happy happy happy birthday to your DD! You survived another 1st year!! No more babies! And I am sorry about your DS and the frustrations, you know you are an amazing Mom, I can tell from all your FB posts how much you love your kids!
Happy birthday to your little daughter, Agrippa! I'm so sorry to hear about the concerns with your son - it must be so hard not to know how to help and worry for him. For a really good evaluation and diagnosis, I would recommend the Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders at Children's National or Kennedy Krieger. The wait lists are long (Children's is currently scheduling into March), but they are great. It might be worth getting on a couple of waiting lists sooner rather than later. Feel free to send me a PM if you want more information.
As for our check-in, things are good. DD loves preschool, which is a relief. However, she is in the stage where about once a week, she wakes up on the wrong side of the bed and can have an hour or hour and a half meltdown where nothing is right. Those are hard, but I'm trying just to chalk it up to typical toddler.
The second pregnancy is going well - I'm in that easy phase where I don't even feel very pregnant, but time is going by quickly. I'm almost halfway done!
Happy Birthday to Maggie! And I'm sorry you're having trouble with DS, Agrippa. I hope you get some answers.
C is a full blown kid. His vocabulary has EXPLODED. Half the time, we don't even know what he's talking about because it has to do with something at daycare or the Backyardigans, but he just talks and talks and talks. And his memory is shocking. The other day he was brandishing some kind of stick-like thing and kept point it at us and saying "Tame with a trick! Tame with a trick!". He was imitating Max from WTWTA.
And he's gotten really creative - at dinner, his fork is an airplane (okay, not terribly creative), but his mashed potatoes are "waterfalls" and little pieces of chicken are the "water". He makes Play doh castles with "robot rooms" and has to use a key to get in them (everything looks like a giant lump, but still). Right now we have a set of four big cardboard boxes in our living room that he stacks and climbs in and it's just so stereotypical boyish and cute.
Last night he actually went to bed paci-less for the first time since he was a tiny baby. It went surprisingly well. We've been really, really fearful of that transition and hadn't really planned to do it (he sleeps soooo well, we don't want to rock the boat) but when I went to put him down, there was no paci in his crib and he didn't even ask for it. He didn't make a peep and was still asleep when I left the house the morning. If we pull this off without a fight I will be thrilled. Especially since potty training is still kind of a half hearted effort on both our parts.
Happy birthday to your little girl, Agrippa! I hope you're able to get some answers about your son soon.
M has his 15-month well visit today, and I hope it goes well. He is obsessed with dogs, and whenever he sees one, he points and says "Dog! Dog!" in a very excited voice. He's walking very well these days and only stumbles occasionally. Technically he has about two dozen words, although half of them sound exactly the same and we can only tell what he's talking about in context (i.e. "book," "bear," and "ball" all sound like variations on "bah").
Our biggest battle with him is meal time, because he only has about 10 foods that he will reliably eat on a regular basis, and he still refuses to drink milk. Thankfully, most of the things he'll eat are fairly healthy, and his favorite food is yogurt. When he agrees to taste a new food, half of the time he actually likes it, but the problem is getting him to try something new. I'm crossing my fingers that he's still on a good growth curve, because I don't know what we'll do otherwise.
Happy Birthday to your DD, Agrippa! Sorry things are rough with DS right now - do I remember right that you were a teacher before being a SAHM? I think sometimes having the extra background knowledge that comes with teaching can make things harder - but you are a great mom and working so hard for him!
DS is officially 2 - and he is fabulous. Well, except for going to bed at night, but I think (hope) it's just a phase that will pass. He simply does not want to go to bed - some nights it's fine, some nights he screams bloody murder and I have to decide how long to let it go. We're in an apartment right now because we're building a new house and sold our townhouse quicker than expected, and I just worry about the people around us and his crying. I mean, it's only 7:30 and I know that's not the middle of the night, but I still feel bad about it. I'm hoping we move past it soon...
He is SO verbal and had a great time at his birthday party this weekend. He got some new toys and it was perfect timing - I didn't realize he had really outgrown a lot of his other stuff. But, a doctor kit, fire truck, train set, and shopping cart have made him the happiest kid the past week!
Baby #2 is doing okay, my bp was down at my last appointment so that was good. We go for our big u/s on 11/14. I have an anterior placenta (again) so am just feeling tiny movements here and there, and not on a regular basis. I'm ready to get to the point where I feel movement more and can worry a little (ha!) less.
Agrippa, Happy Birthday to your DD! And, I'm sorry to hear about the frustrations with your son, but you sound like such a fantastic, loving mom. I hope you get on the right track to helping him. My BFF's DD is special needs, and she always said she felt so much better after talking to dr's and having her concerns heard.
As for our update--the LOs are 14 months. Neither are walking, but DD is thisclose. She's taking steps here and there, so I suspect she'll be full time walking in the next week or so. DS will probably follow right behind, as soon as he sees his sister moving upright.
That brings me to their verbal skills. Neither of them having any real words that they use with any regularity, including mama and dada. Piper does tons of babbling that sounds like she's conversing with someone, but we have no idea what she's saying. Fletch doesn't babble as much but he understands more when we talk to him. His latest thing is when I ask him to give me kisses and he crawls as fast as he can across the room to tackle me and give me smooches. It's so adorable.
I'm a little concerned about their verbal skills, but they are getting better. They have been delayed on every milestone, so I know I just have to accept that they'll do it when they're ready, but it's so hard when I hear about other kid's toddlers who seem to be doing calculus and reading Shakespeare at this same age.
Other than that, they are just plain adorable these days, and things are good.
Happy birthday to your DD! And it sounds like you're doing exactly the right thing for your DS--it's great that you are recognizing the issues and being proactive.
J is doing really well. He's talking in full sentences, which is crazy, and getting more self-sufficient. He's also obsessed with babies right now (I think a few of his daycare buddies just got new siblings) so he's been telling me "I want a baby brother" and "I want a baby sister." Um . . . I wish, buddy.
Like MPD, he's still going to bed with a paci, which I'm OK with. He doesn't *need* it to fall asleep, but it helps. BUT. Don't flame, but up until last weekend he was getting a bottle for naps. Just on the weekend, so really only two a week, but still, I know it's bad. But last weekend, he just up and stopped! Yay.
He is still having his issues with loud noises though. His pedi said it wasn't an issue, but he wants to hold our hand and/or cover his ears, and he gets nervous if he thinks a loud noise is coming. He's still talking about the loud lady (she had a microphone) at the Halloween parade last weekend--we ended up having to leave early because he's overwhelmed by the noise. Not sure what to do about it other than be supportive and wait it out, though.
TTC #2: BFP 12/17/11, m/c 1/7/12 and D&C 1/12/12
baby blog/cooking blog
Agrippa - Happy birthday to your DD and I just wanted to send you hugs regarding your son. You sure are dealing with a lot. I hope that you can figure out what is going on with him and get some support. When DD was a late walker, we had her evaluated by the county and I was really happy with their services. They also gave me a lot of tips on how to help her. I know that this is a completely different situation but I hope you can get some support. It sounds like you are doing an amazing job with him already.
As for us, my baby girl is getting so big. I can't understand why she's already wearing 9mo and 12mo clothes but I guess she is just a big girl. She's still not reliably STTN but she does do it sometimes and at other times, it's just like a 5am wake-up so I can deal with that. She has the sweetest smile and has discovered her hands. It's just fascinating to watch her look at her hand and open and close it like "Is this mine?"
DD#1 is just so much fun. I had a great time trick-or-treating with her this year. She thought it was the neatest thing to knock on people's doors and get candy. Last night, we told her she could have candy after she ate her dinner. She said in the sweetest (and semi-manipulative) voice, "Mommy, it's candy time, it's not dinner time, riiiiigghhhtt?" I'm amazed at her ability to bargain and attempt to get what she wants. Like when she wants to watch Dora, she comes up to me in the sweetest voice with her head cocked to the side while batting her eyelashes and says, "Mommy, can I please watch Dora?" Everynight she also bargains with me to read her more books and how can I say no to that? Sometimes I don't know what to do with this girl.
As for me, I was really struggling to lose the baby weight on my own from DD#2 so I joined WW at work a few weeks ago. So far, I've lost 5lbs and it's so nice to start fitting into some of my old clothes again. I'm determined to get back to my pre-preg weight and the WW program is really helping.
Happy Birthday to DD, Agrippa!! I understand your frustrations regarding your feelings about DS, but you are doing great. Your feelings, fears and concerns are normal. You are an amazing mom for picking up on cues, for showing him tools to help him interact, and investigating doctors/programs that could help him as he grows.
I'm home w/ DS today, waiting for the pedi to call me back for an appointment today. He's had a croupie cough all week, runny nose, but no fever. He woke himself up a few times last night coughing, so I think it's time to bring him to get checked out. He also has a mysterious rash behind both knees, which we have been putting Aquaphor on, but it just seems to be getting worse.
Other than the health woes, he is doing great! He has four bottom teeth, and I can see the top two starting to show under his gums. He is doing a modified army crawl, where he pushes with his left leg, pulls with his right arm, and everything else just kind of drags along with him. He has become obsessed with pulling off socks -- his socks, my socks, DH's socks...so we've started putting shoes on him to keep the darn things on his feet. He now can clap, wave and give a high five when we demonstrate it or say it first. He also has started initiating peekaboo with blankets. So so so cute!!
Agrippa - I hope you get some good information and advice from the pedi today.
DD dove into the "terrible twos" with full force. (See my morning woes post from yesterday). This morning she went to daycare with her clean shirt over her PJ top and I made it to work on time, so while day one of trying to bribe her with "fish" and giving her time out of her crib before rushing to get dressed failed, it wasn't as bad as yesterday.
On the happier side, she's cute to watch with her play kitchen - it's clear that her DCP is big on handwashing because she's always practicing :P She is loving the novelty of cold weather - wearing mittens and having her coat zipped up. I hope it lasts! It seems like every other minute she asks "what's that?" to file away new information on things she sees and hears. Thankfully, she didn't ask that about any of the candy she collected on Halloween
Happy Birthday to your DD!
My DD is a doll these days. She is sitting like a champ and loves to sit in her pack and play or on the floor playing with her toys. No desire to really crawl yet, although DCP says she's scooting along on her butt on the carpet. She seems to think she might even skip crawling. We'll see. I'm in no hurry as our house is far from being baby proofed. Whoops.
She's eating and sleeping really well (12 hours a night!!). Her new love is baby yogurt with peaches and squash. She's also been practicing feeding herself with puffs and bananas. She's not perfect but she gets a few in her mouth here and there. No teeth yet, but she's been drooling and chewing on her fingers a lot lately so I hope they're coming in soon. She's taken to sucking her thumb. She doesn't really take a paci much anymore - just in the car sometimes or if she's having a hard time falling asleep - so I think she's going to be a thumb sucker. She does it mostly at night when she's soothing herself back to sleep but I wouldn't be surprised if she's a regular thumb sucker as DH was one until he was almost 5 years old. I'm OK with it since I figure it's easier than trying to track down pacis all the time but I know it's harder to break that habit down the road, so we'll see.
OP - happy birthday to your girl. Hope the coming year is even better than the first. How fun (and convenient for you!) to have her communicate so well at such a young age. Regarding your DS, good luck! My mom is an occupational therapist and has worked with many people of different agesall over the Autism/Aspergers/Sensory Processing spectrum. She has seen some remarkable progress and changes, especially in kids. While any diagnosis is tough, and figuring out the proper treatment plan and the team to use can be challenging, I hope you have a productive talk with the doctor and feel good moving forward.
My DS can say a lot of words...he's just stubborn and doesn't want to. Then he busts them out like they've been part of his vocabulary since birth. Even full-fledged sentences. However, his first one was about poop...nice. I thought about not putting it in the baby book, but his second one was about poop as well, What a boy. We've transitioned him to a toddler bed in DD's room, and it's going OK. Some days he won't nap, some nights he wakes a few times and needs some reassurance, and other nights I hear the two of them chatting and singing until well after 10pm. It's cute, but the lack of sleep turns DD into a bear in the mornings.
Not much new going on with DD other than four years old seeming to be the age when she's truly a little person...I love it. She's somewhat excited about "new baby" (DS seems to maybe have a vague grasp of the idea) and will surely be a fabulous big sister again. She seems to be in a growth spurt and has been eating like a 13-year old boy for the last two months...consuming more than her pregnant mother at most meals, which is a feat. I've learned both my kids love roasted broccoli - who'd have thought?
I really hope #3 stays put until at least the 12th because that's when the grandmothers are taking shifts staying with us to cover for DD and DS. I felt so much physical discomfort and pain the last few weeks that I was pretty useless...definitely different from my first two pregnancies. It caught me off-guard and all the non-baby-related "to do" items have pretty much been abandoned. I've been feeling much better this past week (the calm before the storm?), so I'm hoping to at least get the bathrooms and kitchen seriously scrubbed down. We had a boy name tenatively picked out, but DH told me last night he's now leaning toward one that I'd suggested for #1 and #2 but he had shot down, so I didn't know it was even a contender this time. He had me email our spreadsheet of girl names to him today because we truly have no idea what to name this kid if it's a female. Maybe that's a sign from the universe that it's a boy?
Everything in the useonfire household is going well!
DS turned 2 last month and this is definitely my favorite age so far. We can communicate fairly well with each other and I can ask him about what he did at school in the morning and what he ate, and he will give me accurate answers in sentences! I love it. He's still super sweet and affectionate but independent and plays well by himself.
We transitioned him to a regular twin size bed last week and that has been totally fine. He sleeps great in it. Although about a month or two ago, he stays up for at least an hour after we put him to bed talking to his toys, singing to himself or doing just about anything other than sleeping. He seems to only be getting about 10 or so hours of sleep at night (and 2 during the day) but the Pedi said that was fine.
DS is also doing great with potty training. He poops on the toilet (we never did a potty chair) pretty much every time... it's probably been at least 2-3 weeks since he pooped in his pull-up. We haven't made the transition to underwear yet (I ordered about 25 pairs from Target and they haven't arrived!) but he's in pull-ups and they stay dry as long as he gets the opportunity to pee in the toilet about every hour and a half during the day. I'm going away for a few nights, and I told DH that it will be his job to make the total transition to underwear. I cannot wait. I feel like if we can get this out of the way this year, there is less likely to be regression in the spring when the new baby comes. I didn't want to wait to PT DS until the spring (when he's 2.5 and dealing with the new transition) and then if I waited until the summer/fall, I'll have a newborn and almost 3yo. So now seemed like a good time and so far so good!
Baby 2 is doing well. Approaching 23w this weekend... the time is absolutely flying. We have NOTHING in the way of nursery stuff done! We'll start that in a few weeks I imagine.
DD turned 3 a few weeks ago and is so GROWN UP! She tells me this, too, in case I missed the point. She's still having many tantrums which the pedi said is normal with strong-willed kids like her, the pedi said kids like that end up in professions where they get to boss people around (future CEO?). We are so much alike and I can see us clashing often as she grows up and I worry that we won't be close. Her memory is beyond amazing, she still talks about stuff we did in April and May! We have conversations like grown-ups, there is nothing she can't discuss verbally and is very curious. She's in preschool now (at same DCP) and this is the 1st class she'll be in this long, all previous ones were for 6mos. She'll be here until the school year starts in 2012, at which point she'll go to pre-K (at same DCP). She's a very caring and sweet sister.
We have 2 swimming classes left and I am thinking of signing her up for another activity. Swimming has not been going well. The 1st 2 classes went great but in class 3, the teacher had DD jump into her arms but instead of catching her, let her go under water and DD has hated the class ever since. She's by far the oldest and the teacher was trying to do more advanced stuff with her (the class is for 6mo-3y.o. and she was not yet 3 when it started), which backfired.
DS wants everything DD has and he's like a bulldozer, if he wants to get somewhere, nothing will stop him! He is a climber and he loves to climb onto DD's (queen-size) bed, and then walk around and he can now get off by himself too. Verbally, he's way behind where DD was (you know, she was reading Shakespeare at 17mo LOL), but not behind for his age. He also loves dogs and makes the barking noise whenever he sees one (he was a dog for Halloween, appropriately). He caught on to the whole trick-or-treating concept so quick! After a few houses, he was putting his hand in, grabbing candy, and putting it in his bucket. Knock-on-wood, he continues to be a great eater. If only DD ate 1/3 as well as he does but the pedi warned me not to push her to eat, and let her eat when she wants to b/c she's not underweight.
Overall, it's chaotic and never-ending at our house but we are so lucky. DD has been asking for Christmas for the last 6mo and I think she'll love it this year!
Happy birthday to your DD and you should be proud of how you are supporting your DS, you are a wonderful mom!
I'm excited to finally be on time to participate in a check-in! DS is getting to be so fun! He's not crawling yet, but sits up really well and can go onto his belly and back to sitting if he's trying to reach a toy. He also started bouncing on his butt when he wants to get somewhere or is getting really excited for something. My favorite things right now are how much he LOVES food - literally anything we give him he loves. He only has one barely there tooth but he's doing so well eating table foods that we've started giving them to DCP too - chicken, fish, pork, beef, broccoli, bananas, etc. - he loves it all! It's adorable to watch him put fist-fulls in his mouth, pick up peas carefully, or actually select which thing he wants off the tray.
My other favorite thing is that he's gotten much more snuggly and gives kisses! We had no idea they were kisses, it seemed more like he was trying to eat our face, but lo and behold, that's a kiss! I'm amazed by how much other's LOs do so I feel like we need to start trying to teach him things like waving and clapping. I've also tried incorporating some baby sign language but we aren't as consistent about it as we should be.
since I wasn't able to post in the Halloween thread - here was our little monster!Agrippa, your kids are so lucky to have such a devoted and resourceful mother. I hope you find some answers soon about DS. Happy birthday to sweet DD!
We are doing pretty well. Had DS's parent teacher conference today. He is having a great experience at preschool and apparently he's the youngest child in the class but is the ringleader.
Which is so different from how I see him (rather timid) in social settings. He is pretty much fully potty trained and our next step is nixing the paci after our flight to Cali for Thanksgiving. I NEED the paci to get through the trip, no shame there! haha
I'm feeling so blessed to be back to no restrictions for my pregnancy after being on bedrest for three weeks back in Aug/Sep due to some bleeding from a SCH. I feel great and healthy, even started going back to the gym this week. Just want to get some strength back again before baby #2 comes. I'm fully back to work and have had tons of shoots these past few weeks, which has been great but tiring...work will lighten up after Thanksgiving when the weather gets colder and people start sending out their holiday cards.
Agrippa, you sound like a fabulous mom. I think the guilt swings back and forth are just part of being a mom ;-) It sounds like both of your kids are really lucky to have you.
It's so much fun reading all you ladies' posts because it gives me things to look towards in the future. Over here, the past couple of weeks have been rough with DD. After two weeks of glorious sleep, she suddenly reverted back to her newborn schedule - and when i mean newborn, i mean brand newborn - same wakeup times, same every two hour wakeups. I'm a zombie and had a total meltdown today. She's never been keen on taking a bottle so i've been the only one waking up and dealing with this for the past two weeks - we've decided to do a 'bottle bootcamp' where we say "no to boob" and "yes to breastmilk in a bottle" and see how it goes. This is going to happen starting tomorrow (DH is taking the day off) and i'm a nervous wreck. I feel like a horrible mom for doing this, imagining all the tears we're going to face and yet i need her to be ready for daycare, when i go back to work at the end of this month. Agrippa, this is the guilt trip swings i was alluding to :-)
In other news, though, she's amazing! It's so incredible watching a human mind develop. She smiles, she grasps at things, her head control is better every day (sometimes there's so much of a difference in a day that it blows me away) and she's now doing 'baby crunches' continuously, begging me to help her in a sitting position. She LOVES watching the world.
She was the hungry caterpillar for Halloween and loved it. First picture ever that i've gotten her smiling... melted my heart. For your viewing pleasure:
Edit: sorry about the double picture, i can't seem to fix it!!!