18 month doc appt

The last couple of weeks I have been crazy busy traveling with work, so I'm behind on blogging. On Monday, May 9 we took Kaitlyn for her 18 month check-up. She weighed 23.4 lbs, which is on track. The doctor also said she was tall (I believe they said 34 inches - which would be 95 percentile)! Interesting, considering neither of us is particularly tall...

The doctor recommended she go to a developmental pediatrician to be assessed on the autism spectrum. Things that have the doctor concerned are that she doesn't babble or point. She is very intrigued with toys that have lights and sound and doesn't use imagination or pretend play yet. The doctor was also focused on the fact that Kaitlyn doesn't have good eye contact.

Each of the therapists we are seeing have commented on the eye contact, but Kaitlyn is just fickle with her eye contact. If you aren't exciting enough, she won't look at you! What can I say, our child is picky! So I'm not panicking yet. I'm glad the doctor is being proactive. This can't hurt and I'm will be surprised if she is anything more than really low on the autism spectrum.

We are also going to see an audiologist to have her hearing checked to make sure that isn't holding up her speech. I know she can hear some things but who knows? Maybe she can't hear everything?

The occupational therapist is also now recommending behavioral therapy. She believes that in the beginning, Kaitlyn had sensory processing issues that prevented her from wanting to touch food or to have things touch her hands or mouth. She has worked through those issues, but is still reacting the way she did before. She remembers how it was before and reacts the same way. So now our issues with her refusing to eat and having a fit if we try to hold her hand are behavioral. Sigh... there are not enough hours in the day for all of these therapies and appointments!

Mother's Day - Part 2

In the afternoon/evening on Mother's Day, we put Kaitlyn in her bathing suit and went out back to play. Here she is having her afternoon bottle. She is such a multitasker!

I finally got her to sit down and relax with me. Here she is looking very calm and cool!

And check out her bathing suit! It wasn't supposed to be a bikini! Oh well, we love that tummy!

Here is the sprinkler we got for her to play in. Isn't it cool?

She likes to stick her hand in the stream of water. Looks like she's enjoying it here!

Mother's Day - Part 1

We had a great Mother's Day. In the morning, we took Kaitlyn to the park at Landa Library (near Trinity University). Kaitlyn had some fun, but she wasn't too interested in the playground. She is always full of surprises. We thought the little playground they had would be perfect for her - steps she could climb all by herself and a slide that was the perfect size. But no, she preferred to run loose! She started by swinging. Later I tried to get her to sit on my lap on the swing to take some pictures, but she was having none of that. Poor mom!