Maia is really having difficulties with constipation (yes... I know that someday, she is really going to hate me for sharing that information here - lol). She had a speech therapy evaluation this morning and we were able to get an appointment for the GI issue right after the ST appointment.
The speech therapist was very nice, asked us a lot of questions about Maia's communication. At this point, she usually grunts, screams, points, etc. to get her way. She's been able to get away with it until now. We knew her speech was delayed before we adopted her and some of this can be attributed to how sick she was for her first year of life. Anyway... based on the information we provided, Maia's speech is assessed to be at the level of a 13-18 month old. The speech therapist recommended early childhood intervention screening by the school district (Mark had already set up that appointment - it's in March) and gave us some recommendations for how we interact/communicate with Maia. She will be seen back for follow-up in 6 months and the goal is for Maia to be speaking about 100 words at that time. Right now, that seems like a lot (I know in the scheme of things that it really isn't). Her new word today: Arm.
Maia's pediatrician wasn't available for an appointment today so we saw a nurse practitioner that I really liked. She had a student working with her as well (how well I remember those days not too long ago!) and the student was also great. Maia is FULL of stool! Tonight, we started an aggressive 2 week bowel cleansing regimen. No results before bedtime, hopefully tomorrow we will see some progress. I am sure that our girl will feel so much better after we get her cleaned out.
This afternoon, we met with the neurosurgeon. It was a very quick appointment, no physical exam. He looked at Maia's records so far, saw that the neurologist had already ordered an MRI of the head and spine, and said he would review it after complete. He gave us some information about how we might tell is Maia is having difficulties with her shunt and what would necessitate a call to him. According to him, 100% of people with hydrocephaly have a revision of their shunt by the time they are 10 years old. After that, it is about 10%/year. Maia had a revision at 10 months and has done well since that time. In spite of the very brief visit, I was impressed with the neurosurgeon. He was very personable, knowledgeable, and great with Maia. This last attribute led to the only negative about him. Sounds weird, right? Well, here's the deal. Maia LOVED the doctor. She crawled right up onto his lap and snuggled in. My concern with this is that she needs to learn that this is not appropriate behavior with strangers. So... after a few minutes, I decided that she needed to come back to my lap (or daddy's). Oh, was Maia ticked off! Yep - worse mama in the world would not let her stay with the nice man - lol! If anyone has any suggestions for dealing with this behavior, I would love to hear them!
No nap yesterday or today. She's decided that she can get herself out of bed and slowly come upstairs after a little while. Today, it was ok because we only had enough time for a very brief nap between appointments and Maia DOES not like being woke up. So, it was actually easier that she kept herself awake instead of us having to wake her up.
Tomorrow, we are going to visit Mark's grandmother who is 99 years old. I think it is important to get a 4 generation picture while we have the ability to do so.
The countdown is on - I will go back to work a week from tomorrow. At first, I was kind of looking forward to it. Now, not so much! I am going to miss this!
Absolutely worn out tonight so I will close and leave you with this cute picture of Miss Maia!
Oh, I'll add one more - we started the patching on Saturday and Maia is doing great with it. Here she is with one of her cute eye patches (fun sample from eye doctor). I tried to get these locally, but all I can find is the boring flesh colored ones. And if a girl has to wear an eye patch, she should at least look adorable wearing it... so I found the manufacturer and ordered some. They should be here by the weekend.
The eye patch is soooo cute :)
ReplyDeleteThe stranger thing is a loooonnnnggggg road but you did the right thing.
What a cutie! No advice for the being too friendly with strangers. I have heard that it does happens sometimes. I am guessing that you did the right thing. She needs to bond with you fully and learn boundaries. Sounds like things are going great! So happy for your family :)
ReplyDeleteWOW...lots of doctors! I would say as far as attachment, next time, don't even let her go to him unless it's necessary (or any others for that matter). You can explain that you're still working on attachment, but really, a lot of explanation should not be necessary. And keep doing those bonding things at home...lotion after bath, have her in your lap facing the mirror and make faces at one another or blow bubbles, and carry her around at home.
ReplyDeleteAnd oh my! She looks so cute in her patches!!!
We, too, dealt with patching (eventually surgery) and speech. Our daughter's (adopted at age 27 months) speech really took off about ten months after we got her home and when she started preschool. It made a bigger difference than speech therapy in her case. Be patient. You're doing great!
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