jennbent

rslhmg

I was wondering if your Lo had the eval yet and how it went. Been thinking about you guys.

jennbent

Awww thank you so much for thinking of us!  The eval went fine.  Wish I could say mine scored as well as your's, but he didn't and that's okay.  He scored well in the social/cognitive sections, which I pretty much knew he would.  As far as I can tell he's following his adjusted age for that stuff, thank goodness.  But as I could've guessed, he scored at or below the cutoff in gross and fine motor skills. She didn't give us an actual age that he scored at, like your's did, she just said he's either delayed or close to being delayed in those areas.  He's now 4 mos adjusted and he's barely holding his head up during tummy time, so we've got some work to do!  I just keep telling myself that he'll get there.  I read that micropreemies can sometimes take even longer to catch up, so I just try to remind myself of how far he's come.

The actual eval was pretty much how you described it.  She didn't really make DS do too much though because he was reeeaaallly cranky that day.  I think I told you we've been having a lot of feeding issues with him lately, and that was one of the days that he decided to be especially anorexic, so he wasn't in the best of moods.  Since then though we've got him on some stronger reflux meds and taken him to the OT for some sensory work, and it's getting much better.  I finally feel like I'm getting my baby back!  Keep your fingers crossed for us.  DH and I have been at our wit's end lately trying to feed this child.

We start in home PT this week to help him out with his gross motor development.  So far, I'm really impressed with EI.  It's been way better of an experience than I thought it would be.

Hope your DD is letting you guys get some sleep?!?!! ;-) 

rslhmg

I'm glad he's getting EI, that should go along way to helping you guys get him on track. I have heard that micropreemies take a bit longer to catch up, DD is a 32 weeker so I'm not experienced with micros. Disappointing they didn't give you ages, I don't think ours was actually supposed because the paper with her scores doesn't have ages just deviation from normal numbers. I will pray for you guys that the new reflux meds help, we had a scare with DD's reflux and feeding a few months ago, her pedi was concerned the reflux may be causing an oral aversion, but turned out she is an early teether, no teeth yet, just months of the teething symptoms, which made her not eating properly an easy enough fix. We are slowly getting a little more sleep, with the meds and everything else she will sleep all night, aside from waking up a time or 2 for a dry bottom and a bottle.She has been napping more often during the day too, yesterday she took a 2 hr nap for the first time since the sleep problems started. We have been trying to let her go to sleep on her own without meds in the hopes the sleep is promoting more sleep, but so far we have ended up having to give her them anyway, just later then her normal bed time. More sleep is still more sleep tho, so I'm happy, especially since her poor little eyes don't look like someone hit her in the face anymore. She had such black, puffy circles before I was really afraid for awhile someone would think we were hurting her, even with us bugging this dr or that about her not sleeping and our concerns.

jennbent

That is EXACTLY what we thought was going on - his reflux might have been causing an oral aversion.  Since we got him on the Prevacid, he's been a much happier baby, but we also started some sensory stuff at the same time, so I don't know what's making the difference.  Having a baby that won't eat is so stressful though.  I've shed plenty of tears over the past 3 weeks since this all started.  Luckily, it does seem to be getting better.

I totally know what you mean about being worried that people might think you are abusing your kid!  I will NEVER let anyone but DH watch me feed my son.  I literally have to hold his arms down and keep his head locked down too, to keep him from writhing away from the bottle.  I feel like a horrible mother, but if I don't do that, he won't eat.  His pediatrician and his OT told me it's fine - he doesn't have a cumulative memory yet, so he won't remember one feeding to the next, so that made me feel a little bit better.  It's still awful though.  At least the feeding issues are getting better.

I'm so glad to hear you guys are getting more sleep finally!  Don't feel bad about giving the meds.  Sometimes I feel like that, but then I think, oh hell, he was taking who-knows-what in the hospital, way before he was even supposed to be here!  A little Zantac, Tylenol, Prevacid, whatever isn't going to hurt him.   Whatever helps you guys get more sleep is probably a good thing.  Life always seems worse when you're operating on no sleep.  I can't even imagine how you've dealt with that for so long.  

rslhmg

We had to do that for her feedings until they figured out it was teething. Still do sometimes if the Tylenol doesn't kick in fast enough. And there was a lot of crying and trading off every hr or 2 when she wasn't sleeping, our house is finally back in order as much as it can be with all her toys seats, but for awhile it was literally sleep when she slept just so we didn't completely lose it and the house looked like hoarders lived in it because she needed constant soothing from not sleeping. It's honestly a miracle our relationship survived, we were at each others throats from stress and exhaustion, but we are getting back to our normal finally.

jennbent

Oh my gosh your hoarders comment cracked me up!  That's how I feel our house looks with all the toys and baby stuff everywhere.  Now though that we have our EI and our PT coming over once a week I actually have to try harder to keep the house clean!!!

rslhmg

Lol I was so embarrassed by the state of our house when they came to do her eval, but the lady said it was surprisingly clean for having a baby that wasn't sleeping so that made me feel better. Still a mess to me, but at least the people coming in don't see the mess that I see lol