Speech assesment

Sara-Lyn had her speech assessment on Monday, and they diagnosed her with a phonological disorder. This is most likely the same thing I had as a child, but they didn't have a name for it back then. Essentially it means that her brain has difficulty organizing sounds into words. She has an amazing level of comprehension, she started getting the questions wrong when they were asking questions from the 5/6 year old set. But her spoken language skills are really low, she estimated that only about 10% of what Sara says is understandable by anybody other then me. Normally a 2.5 year old should be around 50% intelligible. She was pleased with how much Sara was attempting to talk, even if it wasn't understandable. Anyways they put her down as high priority for therapy and she should be starting in January.

Personally I am having a hard time with this diagnosis, I was really hoping to be able to go the speech assessment and have them just tell me that she was a little behind but not to worry she would catch up. Now I have to face the reality that there is something wrong, and while she will one day talk, after all I can talk, she may struggle for a long time with it. Personally I started speech therapy when I was three, and continued until the end of grade 4. I was still having difficulty pronouncing certain words well into highschool. I remember the frustration of not being understood as a child, and then mocked as I got older when I mispronounced words. This is something I really don't want Sara to have to go through. But it seems that I have very little choice in the matter, and she will most likely face the same scenarios. Especially seeing how I went and named her a name she that will probably be one of the last sounds she is able to pronounce correctly.

Halloween

Halloween was a success at our house this year. Hannah and Sara-Lyn both made it all the way around the block and through both cul-de-sacs, filling two full buckets of candy each. So they both now have a gigantic bulging bag of candy. Hannah went to her preschool Halloween party as Cinderella, and had fun decorating cookies, and eating them. Sara dressed as Snow White, and we went to a drop in gym time, where they had a halloween theme. Then of course we went trick or treating. For Trick or treating Hannah wore her Cinderella dress and a pretend pony on top of that. We had decorated pumpkins a couple of evenings prior to halloween, so I will post some pictures of those and their costumes.

six month stats

Rebekah weighed 16lbs and 3 ounces, and is 26 inches. She is in the 75% for everything. A rather boring appointment, the Doctor suggested we slowly introduce fruits and a few vegetables high in sugar to help her adjust better, and then introduce grains much later.

Six months already

It is hard to believe but Rebekah is six months old today. It is amazing how much a baby changes in six months. Her favorite things to do right now are jump in her jolly jumper and blow spit at everybody. She also really likes to say "dat dat dat dat" over and over again. Particularly at 6:00am when she should be sleeping. She is rolling over easily now, although she doesn't really like spending time on the floor, she doesn't get as much practise as she probably should. She loves pretty much anybody but both Hannah and Sara can get a giggle from her just by stopping to say "hi" or making a funny face. Our biggest concern with her right now is introducing solid food, we started about three weeks ago and have had nothing but problems. I'm hoping the Dr. can give us some suggestions this afternoon at her six month appointment, because at the moment I am at a loss as to what to try with her. The only thing I am giving her right now is pears because they are supposed to be high in fibre, and easy to digest, but even the pears seem to be making her sick. She loves to eat though. She eats two large meals a day, and if you even think about skipping them she gets a little orniery. She is definenitly a morning person, and wakes up each morning (way to early) with a gigantic smile, then she sticks her tongue out and blows some great bubbles. But I am off to pick up Hannah so we can go to Rebekah's apointment.

more firsts

At Rebekah's appointment she weighed 14 lbs 7 ounces, which is exactly average for her age. She was also exactly average in length and head size as well. Otherwise she was perfectly healthy as expected of course. Sara has decided that she needed to have a first this month as well, so she took it upon herself to go to the potty all by herself, twice in two days. My goal is to have her potty trained in time for preschool next sept. so I definitly think we're on the right track. Sara has also discovered that she can turn the light on in her room, so bedtime has now become a new game, where instead of coming out of the room a dozen times, she gets up and turns her light on, and if we don't check her and Hannah will play for hours. I think that is everything for now, and I'll post some pictures just to make everybody happy.

Firsts

My poor neglected blog, I think it was starting to feel a little abandoned. Well I haven't given up on it yet, I just took a little break while our life was so hectic. It has been a months of first for the kids. Hannah started her first day of preschool on Monday. The Friday before was a brief 1 hr long orientation where I stayed with her, and she pretty much ignored me. I was the parent standing off to the side awkwardly looking around wondering what I was supposed to do with myself. Of course better that then the parent desperately trying to unglue their child from their leg. Monday was her first day by herself, and she did great, she was excited for me to leave, and excited when I came and picked her up. I feel a little bit sad that there wasn't a little bit of a moment where I could be the loving Mom and reassure her that preshcool was as much fun as it promised to be. But I guess I am glad that she has the self-confidence to run head long into each new experience. Hannah also had her first day of dance school today. It was perhaps an even bigger event as we had to buy a whole dance outfit and two pairs of shoes, so she has been waiting for dance school all week. I would have loved to stay and watch her for the dance class as I just know she was adorable in her little outfit, dancing with all the other pink princesses, but the class has a strict closed door policy, so I have to trust Hannah's big smile to say that she had a good time.

Rebakah has also had a few first this month as well. She rolled over two weeks ago for the first time, she was on her stomach one minute I looked away and there she was on her back. It was quite exciting other then the fact that I completely missed it. She has also started spending sometime in her jolly jumper. She is growing like crazy, she has her shots tomorrow so we will find out exactly how much she has grown.

I'm feeling bad for Sara-Lyn that there isn't a whole list of things for me to say about her, but I'm afraid she isn't in any exciting classes, and as she has achieved all the majoy milestones already there isn't much I can say. Of course that doesn't mean Sara isn't doing stuff. She is learning words everyday, and is starting to use them in a very forceful manner. Her favorite expression right now is to cross her arms, stick her lip out, and go "hmphf" with this ridiclous frown on her face. She is becoming a little dare devil at the park. She makes me cringe lots, when she insists on following Hannah up everything.

Well I guess that is everything, perhaps if I remember I will post the results of Rebekah's shots tomorrow, or maybe some pictures.

Back to work

Dan went back to work last Monday. So it has just been me alone with the kids for the last week and a half. It actually hasn't been as bad as I though it might be. I've actually ventured out of the house a few times. I've been to the mall twice, for Dr. appointments, and we went grocery shopping, and the park twice. Really I think we're doing pretty good considering I am now outnumbered. I've been meeting with people for my dayhome, so hopefully I will have some more kids soon to add to the numbers. Then it will really be an adventure to get out of the house.

Summer Vacation

We went to little bear lake this year for our summer vacation. We were lucky enough to gets lots of hot sunny days, and only one really rainy day. The girls had a blast hanging out at the beach, and playing in the dirt at our campsite. And when we got tired of playing outside we were lucky enough to be able to retreat to Grampa's cabin for some edible food, and television. It was great visiting with everybody who made it out to the lake. We even got adventuresome one day and took Hannah and Sara tubing. They both had a great time and I wish we would have had more time to take them again. Sara unfortunately got dunked when we were forced to abandon ship. She seemed to recover pretty quickly though and I bet she would get back on again. Rebekah mostly just hung out in her car seat and took lots of naps, but I guess that is what babies are supposed to do, so no surprises there. She did however capture every bodies hearts with her constant smiles and giggles.

Happy Birthday Sara-Lyn

Sara-Lyn is two today, and there is no denying that she is a two year old. She is becoming more and more independent everyday. One minute demanding that she do everything herself, and then next wanting to be picked up and cuddled when things don't go quite as planned. Sara loves to take care of other people giving out lots of hugs and kisses to those she deems acceptable. Sara loves to be a big girl, and to do everything the way Hannah does it. From eating with a spoon to climbing the play structure at the park. Her favorite toys right now are her babies, and sneaking Hannah's jewels whenever Hannah puts them down. Her newest words are butterfly and flower, and she is learning new ones everyday. She likes to give Rebekah hugs and wipes her face with any blanket on hand.

Dan's Personality/Intelligence Profile

Pictures

Congratulations Angela and Marc

Six weeks already

Wow, how time flies. I can't believe that Rebekah is six weeks already. And it has been a very busy six weeks. I think Rebekah is probably one of the most well traveled six weeks old babies out there. We've travelled to Edmonton, stayed at a condo on the Shuswap, and then travelled on to Vancouver to visit some University friends and Dan's cousins. Then the weekend after we arrived home we packed up again and headed off to Edson for the long weekend. We're off to Edmonton this weekend and then Edson again on the 21st for Dan's sister's wedding. After which we will make our way to Saskatchewan for some camping.

Somewhere in all of this we had Rebekah's six week appointment and she is doing great, she weighs 10 lbs 12 ounces. and is 21.5 inches long. Her neck is getting stronger everyday and she is starting to smile at anybody who looks her way, at least when she isn't sleeping.

more pictures

Since coming home

It has been a rather hectic couple of days for us. I got home with Rebekah on Wednesday and we started to get settled in. On Thursday just as we were started to get settled in, the public health nurse stopped in for her visit. She decided that Rebekah looked a little jaundice and sent off a blood sample to the hospital. By 8:00pm on Thursday we were back at the hospital so Rebekah could go under the lights. It took a full 24 hours for her levels to come back down to a safe amount so we just got back from the hospital last night. Sara has been sick with a fever since Monday night. It bounces between 100 F to 104.5 F. So things have been a little rough for her over the last few days. And as she seems to have a tendency to puke whenever her fever spikes, Dan has had a lot of fun cleaning up puke, while I have been at the hospital. So we're hoping whatever it is that is causing Sara to be so sick will end soon so we can really get a chance to relax and find a routine that works for us. That pretty much sums up what has been happening here since Monday, I can definitely say it has been an exciting week.

Pictures

Birth story

On Tuesday morning around 8:00am my water broke. Thankfully by a whole bunch of coincidences Dan was only 5 minutes away from the house on his way to work when I called him, so he made his way back here, and I called our babysitter. Around 10:00am I was having contractions so we headed off to the hospital. I got a bed in triage and hooked up to the monitors around 12:00pm. The monitors showed that I was having contractions about every 10 minutes, but the babies heart beat was dropping off occasionally with the contractions so they were worried that the cord was pinched. They decided to keep me hooked up to the monitors to make sure it didn't get worse. Unfortunately this meant that I couldn't get up and walk around so the contractions I was having stopped. Once the contractions stopped the babies heart rate stabilized so they let me get up and walk around, which we did.

At 7:00pm because my contractions hadn't started again, I was given the option to go home and try to get them going again, but I had to come back in at 7:00am to be induced if they didn't start. Or I could get induced right now. I really didn't feel that going home was going to get the contractions started so we decided to get induced right away, with the stipulation that before they started the cytosine they would do an exam to make sure there wasn't a pocket of water. They did the exam at 8:20pm and found that I was 4 cm dilated and had a pocket of water, which they promptly broke. They agreed to wait another 2 hours before starting the cytosine to see if rebreaking the membrane would start labor naturally. At 11:00pm my contractions were getting to be intense but they were still 5 minutes apart, and the nurse really started to push me to start the cytosine to get things moving. I eventually agreed but I wanted to get the epidural put in first. So at 11:45pm I got my epidural, immediately after getting the epidural my contractions moved to being a minute apart, so we didn't end up using the cytosine after all.

At 12:45pm the babies heart rate starting dropping with each contraction again, so they did an exam to see if I was ready to push and I was 9.5 cm dilated, but the heart rate was becoming a concern so I was put on oxygen and an internal monitor was put in, we then started trying various positions to get the heart rate back up. We eventually got the heart rate to go back to normal by having me stay on my hands and knees. Shortly after getting into this position I started to feel the urge to push, but as they figured going back onto my back to push would cause the heart rate to drop again, they wanted to wait for the baby to move down more on it's own, so I stayed on my hands and knees for another 40 minutes while we waited for the urge to push to become pretty much unbearable.

At 1:35am I announced that I couldn't wait any longer and that this baby was coming out now. I rolled over and started to push pretty much right away. Things got a little hectic here, as she came a lot quicker then the nurse expected and after only three pushes the babies head had not only crowned but was out. At this point the nurse started calling frantically over the intercom for the somebody to get in there now! She also discovered at this point that the cord was wrapped around the babies neck and was causing the babies heart rate to drop. So while I think she might have wanted to take a quick break at this point and give the Dr. a chance to arrive we had to get the baby out right away. So the pushing resumed and she was out just in time for the Dr. to run in and catch her. She let out a big cry right away to let us know she was okay. So Rebekah Lauren was born at 1:45am, 7lbs 12 oz and 21 inches long.

She was perfectly healthy, except for being mucusy from being born so quickly, and she had bruises on her face because she was facing up when my labor started and in the process of turning she got some bruises on her face.

Off to the hospital...

Apparently this baby has a mind of it's own and doesn't want anybody to tell it when it should come... my water broke this morning, so we will be off to the hospital soon. Check back soon to find out about baby.

baby.. baby.. where are you?

Oh wait I remember now, still in my stomach. I saw my Dr. on Wednesday and she feels that I will probably go into labor any day. She even went so far to suggest that Friday worked well for her, as she is on call that day. But if I don't go into labor soon, when I see her next Wednesday she will break my water, and I will be off to the hospital. I am excited to have an end date to this pregnancy as it seems to be dragging on forever, but I can't help but hope that her first prediction that it would be sooner rather then later was true. So for those who haven't put in a guess yet for the birth of this baby, I just narrowed the field so you might want to throw a day out there before they're all gone.