Cardiologist

Last Friday we took Hailey to see a cardiologist to get her heart murmur checked out. The doctor assured us it was normal and that there was no need to come back! Yeah! He said she still has the hole between the two atriums. But he said it was so small that the only way he could see it was due to the colors on the echo. He was not concerned.

The visit was a long one though. They did an EKG and even an Echo. It was really surreal during the echo. It reminded me of when I took Kaitlyn for the barium swallow test when she was a little younger than Hailey is now. It is no fun watching your infant laying on a table while they perform tests. It was cute though the way Hailey seemed to be watching the echo on the screen! That's what I do when I'm having an echo.

All in all, she was a champ. She ate a ton during the visit (we kept giving her a bottle to calm her down) and ended up sleeping for a long time after. We were there almost 3 hours. Glad it is over!

First Chuck E. Cheese Party

... A good time... Saturday 12/1... Abby's birthday. She is in Kaitlyn's class at Rainbow and I work with her dad.

Photos

Hailey's 2 Month Well Visit

On Friday 11/30, I took Hailey to the doctor for her 2 month visit. The doctor said she was 75% on height, weight and head.  She weighed 11 lbs 12 oz (up 3 lbs since birth).  She was 22.75 inches long (up 2.75 inches since birth).  She got a little fussy while the doctor was trying to listen for the heart murmur. I ended up feeding her so she could hear. A pretty uneventful visit but might have been my first solo trip!

Sears Photos

We went a got photos taken at Sears this week. Thanks Groupon. Kaitlyn was a champ. Hailey was hungry (thanks Grandma for helping and feeding her). We got some good photos but the after stuff took FOREVER. We'll have to try somewhere else next time.

Never Gets Old

The picture on the left is me... The right is Kaitlyn (from our Tuesday night photos from Sears)

Autism

Today we had our follow-up with the Autism Community Network. The appointment was a similar evaluation to our first. Kaitlyn was more cooperative this time. That is, until they tried to sit her in a specific chair that had a tray (basically a high chair that was low to the ground). Our girl marches to her own drum and if she doesn't want to do something she just shuts down. The OT was a guy and didn't seem to have a great bedside manner. She loved the behavioral therapist, who was also a guy. He was really fun. We were there past 12. Long day.

The diagnosis: Mild to moderate Autism Spectrum Disorder.

They assessed her development in each of 7 areas in order to determine her developmental age - gross motor, fine motor, self help, problem solving, social emotional, receptive language and expressive language. Her strength was gross motor. Her weakest area this time was social emotional which is spot on with her daycare teacher's concerns. She also scored low on fine motor which surprised me. Perhaps that was more about her not being cooperative and us not knowing all of her skills.

She was given a 31 on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS). A minimum score of 30 is the cutoff for a diagnosis of autism on the mild end of the spectrum. Down from a 34.5 last time.

Her DSM-IV-TR (standardized criteria to help diagnose) was a 8 (up from a 5). A score of 6 or more is considered on the spectrum.

The most surprising thing of the visit is that they want us to do more than we are already doing. In addition to the school PPCD program, they want us to do additional speech therapy two times a week. She currently get speech therapy at school two times a week. They also want us to add behavioral therapy two to three times per week. I need to explore our options with our insurance and look for a place that can visit her daycare. Never a dull moment around the Aitken house.

Thanksgiving Weekend Fun

It was a fun, relaxing Thanksgiving holiday with the family. Here's what the cuties were up to:

Pictures Galore

 Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks. Hailey is still sleeping a ton.  Here she is catching some zzz's in the swing.

 

 

Here she is in the car seat.  Looks like she is saying "I surrender!"

 

 

Sleeping in the Nap Nanny

 

 

And we're starting to see some smiles from our sweet girl.  Here I attempted to put a headband on her.  I think she looks like Baby Work-out Barbie!

 

 

All wide-eyed and alert

 

 

Working on more smiles while at grandma's house

 

 

I bought Kaitlyn and Hailey matching shirts but her was my only successful picture with them both.  Mom needs to work on that!  Needless to say, this will be the last time they wear those shirts.  They seemed to be mis-sized.  We struggled getting them over their heads!  This picture was at a (relatively) new restaurant near our house, 54th Street.  We were feeling brave and decided to see how the kiddos would do there. We had no intentions of sitting on the patio but Kaitlyn insisted.  I was pretty embarrassed because she pushed the hostess!

 

 

Here is Kaitlyn swinging in the backyard.  Eric made the structure for this swing.  It's already a little small for her but she doesn't seem to mind.

 

 

And here is Kaitlyn at grandma's.  She is so proud and protective of "sister".  "Waley" is so lucky to have her.

 

PPCD

When Kaitlyn turned 3, the Easter Seals program ended and she qualified to attend PPCD (Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities) at Rahe Bulverde Elementry.  The program is Monday - Friday from 11:30 to 2:30.  So far she loves it!  It is a bit of a challenge because she misses her nap, but the very first day she came out holding another girl's hand and was all smiles.  Here she is walking in one day with the teacher's aide.  So cute and grown up!

 

House framed