Birth to three

So here we are today.  Today was the first day of our experience with birth to three.

Once again, a quick back story.  Since I, as Sophia's mom, was in rare shape, it was recommended that I go into therapy, and start parenting classes, which I gladly did.  I also got Sophia into a playgroup which she has taken to very well I might add.  After a rough first week, she is happy to go daily, and actually is able to be without mommy or daddy for 45 whole minutes!  A miracle for the baby who refused to be left for five seconds without hyperventilating and panicking.

It was during one of the parenting classes I began to suspect that Sophia wasn't talking due to low muscle tone in her mouth.  Of course, bring this up to anyone and they will tell you you read to stop reading so many books, and relax.

Well, here we are.  Finally, the day has arrived.  We were scheduled on Tuesday and told that we would be seeing a specialist today, Thursday.  So after two sleepless night worrying that my mommy instinct, or as my husband liked to call it, KMOM, might be full of static, the doorbell rings and two very nice woman introduce themselves to me as a special education teacher and a physical therapist.

To add humor, we did have one accident today, and that was when one of them, shorter than myself and the other specialist, decided to climb over the baby gate into the living room and fell.  Not funny at the time, but hysterical afterwards.

After giving them Sophia's back story, and of course my husband and my combined genetic history, which in my case was very extensive, they began to play with Sophia.

At first, she was very frightened to be around strangers, but as soon as she realized that these strangers come baring toys, and all attention for her, she soon stepped into her place in the limelight and began to eat up every word of praise sent her way.  What an hour and a half.  It flew by so fast and I was shocked at how in depth these workers were.  I had no idea they were even examining my daughter until they said they had reached their conclusion.

Before they began to talk to me about what they saw as issues with my little one, we talked about the fact that no one had listened to me all these months.  I told them that I am an educator as well as a bachelors in abnormal child psychology and how frustrating it was to have a college education and people just assume that because you have anxiety issues, that it was ok to blow off your concerns.

The special education teacher was the first to tell me her findings.  Sophia passed all of her tests with flying colors, causing my fear that she wasn't going to be accepted to rise faster than my blood pressure after eating too much salt.  However, after having taken the MCHAT, a test to see if any red flags for autism showed up, I learned my daughter, my bright, bouncing baby, failed.  

Now, this may sound a bit strange, but THANK GOD!!!! This meant that birth to three had accepted my daughter and was offering us the pot of gold at the end of the shitty rainbow.  I felt relief, validation, appreciation for these two women, and more importantly, a rush of love for my daughter, and sadness that she had to go through these challenges.

Turning to the physical therapist, she informed me that Sophia should have been in birth to three since she was 1 month old.  Apparently, there are neurological issues which need to be figured out, but this did not surprised me as her father has a lot of those issues as well.  So more results followed.  Sophia was excellent in her interpersonal skills, and social settings.  However, she failed in all walks of language development, in expressive language, what she can say, and receptive language, what she understands.  Again, not a surprise since that is why we called the experts in.

Finally, I was told that Sophia also has minor impairments with her cognitive development, and tactile thing fall into this category.  her not liking baths, hair clips, socks, shoes, all that good stuff, is because she can't handle tactile sensations.  So as the team left to go write up their reports, I now have homework.  Call the pediatrician and get them to write us a referral to an eye doctor, a neurologist, and of course, an ear, nose and throat doctor.  There is some question as to whether or not Sophia isn't speaking because she just can't hear us correctly.  She does hear noise but she doesn't respond the way she should, ie, doesn't jump at loud noises, and doesn't seek out the object making the noise.  Whether its in her ears, or the pathway to her brain, we don't know. 

About a week ago, Sophia had an absent seizure brought on, we think, by teething and a high fever.  So we are also to see a doctor to get her an eeg.  I am worried about this because she hates anything on her head and I am being told if she doesn't handle it well, she will have to be put under sedation.  This freaks me out.  But if it helps my little girl, so be it.  Of course, daddy will have to be there to hold my hand as I am sure I will break down into tears and cry.

Now what does all of the above mean?  It means that Sophia is developmentally delayed and will need speak therapy.  It also means that we have a lot of testing to go through, including a swallowing test because she hates to chew food, which is another possibility to why she may not be able to talk yet.  It also means that my daughter will struggle for a while.  But the good news is that because I got her help sooner rather than later, there is a good chance we may be able to help her develop normally and catch up.  Does this mean that she isn't autistic and will be fine?  No...it just means we can help her live a relatively normal life.

We still have to have a repeat MCHAT and if she fails this test, we have to go through another test, this one to actually determine if she is autistic.  Again, this doesn't mean she is like Rainman, but she is going to be slower developing than her peers.  But that's ok, since, if she is diagnosis ed with autism, there is a good chance I will be homeschooling her.  We shall see.

But for now, we will focus on gathering as much information as we can to better help figure out our next moves and which therapist she will need.  Until then, we will continue to shower our little girl with hugs and kisses, and talk to her with repetition hoping she will pick up some words.  She is already mimicking puppy, kitty and bye bye baby.  We will celebrate all the small accomplishments she achieves.  And we will celebrate each other, my husband and I, for we are her teachers, her protectors, her advocates.  She is our daughter, and we will continue to do what we feel is best for her.  So for now, have a good night.  I will post every few weeks or when something new occurs.