Friday, February 27, 2009

Will it Ever End

When I left my job with the city in October to take over the daycare, I honestly thought that I would have so much time to play work on the computer and update my blog almost daily. When I wasn't getting as much done as I had hoped, I just thought it was because I was still getting used to the daycare schedule, and then I thought it was because I was trying to get my Christmas shopping done. And then when the new year came around, first it was because of all of the birthday's in January, and the abundance of snow days. And then came February and because I am still helping out a little bit at city hall, answering questions for the girl that took my old job, and the audit is coming up next week, so I've been spending a lot of extra time there. In theory, come next week, the audit will be over with, and I shouldn't have to spend much time with that, but then, of course it will be time to start getting things organized for our annual garage sale.

Of course, my fear is that given the fact that I have 10 children running around my house during the day…and five children of my own that are ALWAYS around…I may never get to a point of being caught up. I mean these kids seriously expect to be fed multiple times a day! And my own kids seem to think they need to have clean clothes to wear, and baths, and more. So, maybe in 5 or 10 years I'll be able to catch up a little more…although I certainly won't be holding my breath!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

D.A.S.

Caleb had his appointment with the Developmental & Behavior Clinic a few weeks ago. Our main concern for him, of course, is his delayed speech. But since we knew his biological mother got a minor consumption when she was 5 months pregnant with him, there was always a concern of fetal alcohol syndrome. The only "good" thing was that she was in in-patient treatment during the first trimester of this pregnancy, so in theory, she was probably not using, or at least not using as much, during that time.

He saw five professionals at this clinic, including a speech pathologist, an occupational therapist, a pediatrician, a psychologist, and a psychiatrist. (And sadly, I must admit, I still don't really know the difference between a psychologist & a psychiatrist). At the staffing at the end of the day, they gave their diagnosis. Although we knew he had fetal alcohol exposure, they did not feel he had fetal alcohol syndrome.

What they did diagnose him with was Developmental Apraxia of Speech. Basically, for some reason, his brain isn't getting the correct signals to his mouth needed to form the words. They don't know what actually causes this disorder, but the main treatment for it is repetitive speech therapy. Most children with apraxia do eventually learn to speak clearly. And in the last several months that the school has been working with him, we have seen improvement. He has learned to say some very important words, such as mine and spot. (And just so you know, his spot is his spot, even if he wasn't sitting in it.) Hopefully we will be able to find a speech therapist who works after hours…I have a feeling that we'll end up having to contact the county for help with that!

 

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Strep

Cameron complained that he had a sore throat on Monday. I really wanted him to go to school, but I was a little nervous that I'd get a call from the school half way through the day that I had to pick him up…or at least start calling around to find somebody who could pick him up for me. So, I let him stay home. Since there have been 2 daycare kids that were out with strep in the past few weeks, I decided that I would run him to urgent care after daycare to make sure he didn't have it. I also figured if I had was going to take him in, I might as well have them swab the other kids, too. I had no desire to run a different child to the doctor every day this week.

The nurse that was working urgent care last night is actually the nurse at the clinic here in town, so she completely understood why I wanted all of the kids checked out, whether they had symptoms or not. The doctor, however, didn't seem to get it. No matter how many times that I explained to him that strep had been around the daycare, and since I had one child with a sore throat, I wanted them all checked because I have 5 kids, a very full daycare, and a husband with a full time job which makes getting to the doctor for simple things like strep tests a little difficult. Why does he even care how many I want swabbed….the nurses do all of that part anyway! And I was not asking for antibiotics if they weren't needed; I just wanted to make sure it wasn't needed.

So, for each of the kids, he kept asking if they were running a fever, and when I said no, he kept saying that usually if they have strep they would also have a fever. When he got to Baylee, he did at least discover that she had an ear infection, so at least the trip wouldn't be a total waste, regardless of how the strep tests turned out. Now, I admit, Amata had absolutely no symptoms and the doctor made sure to point out to me that she seemed to be perfectly healthy, and he didn't consider her a risk for strep at all. At least Baylee & Caleb had a little cough & runny nose. And the rapid tests for all of them did come back negative.

So, as I am expecting my mother of the year trophy to arrive in the mail any day now, I made Cameron go to school Tuesday even though he said his stomach hurt a little…I said the doctor said he wasn't contagious so there was no reason for him to stay home.

And then, about an hour after school started, the clinic called to let me know that a couple of the strep cultures did turn positive over night. Cameron's was one, which didn't surprise me, but Amata's was the other one! While I would have preferred to not have strep around here, it does make me feel a little bit vindicated, since the one test the doctor thought was a complete waste actually turned out to be strep. They were nice enough to also give us a prescription for Caleb, too, since chances are pretty high that if Cameron & Amata have it, he'd probably get it in the end. Then, today, the clinic called again to say that Baylee's culture turned positive…I didn't know they kept checking them for more than the one day. Luckily, since she had the ear infection she was already on antibiotics, so she shouldn't be contagious anymore, either.

Hopefully, we will have some happier campers here in the next day or so, once those antibiotics start to do their job!

Monday, February 2, 2009

Safety

I really didn't care who won the Super Bowl last night, in fact Cameron & I missed the first half because it was his afternoon out. But I must say, it would have been really cool if this safety that Caleb called
had lead to them winning the game. My ball obsessed son learned the sign from the previous play when the Cardinal players thought they had a safety. Baseball may be his first love, but any sport that involves a ball will do.