The scene in our house this morning: all 3 kids cranky, screaming, refusing all breakfast options/clothing/comforts. After packing lunches this morning (because I got in late last night) while children pulled at my legs and argued about what I put in their lunch boxes, I finally had everyone dressed in relatively appropriate attire for the day and managed to corral them to the car. The ride to daycare was smooth; I was feeling my stress level begin to lower itself back into the realm of normal, as opposed to the sky-high state it was in prior to getting in the car. As I start to get the kids out of the car, I realize Isaac is not wearing any shoes, nor do I have an extra pair floating around the minivan. So, back to the house I went to grab him shoes for the day, then back to daycare, and then finally to work. And, somewhere in there I spilled coffee on my dress and one of the kids emptied a bag of bunny crackers in the backseat and quietly left it for the maid.
Isaac and I spent a long day together in Charlottesville yesterday where he had 2 appointments at UVA Children's Hospital: one for occupational therapy and another for speech. In case you aren’t familiar with where we live, Charlottesville is about 3 hours away from our home out on the Rappahannock River (please forgive the photo of my totally trashed van, and worry not: we were in a parking lot when I took that picture). We broke our trip up with a great sleepover at my sister’s place in Richmond the night before. Isaac adored his time there and spent much of our ride home last night chanting his auntie’s name. He absolutely loved using my sister's iPad to watch dinosaur videos, so when the next morning happened to be Amazon Prime Day, I might have splurged and bought Nora and Isaac each a kids Kindle Fire...among other things!
Our OT appointment was pretty informative. This whole OT thing is new to our family, so we are definitely still in the learning phase (although I imagine we are in for a lifetime of learning). It's incredible how much a child's inability to process sensory experiences can impact their behavior and overall demeanor. I felt so sad hearing how much of his meltdowns and unwillingness to share stems from a general sense of discomfort due to his underdeveloped ability to process things around him. I definitely shed a few tears in our appointment, which was very unlike me. I think it was a combination of being totally exhausted from travel, managing MAJOR meltdowns that day by myself (including one in the waiting room for the OT appointment), and wanting so badly for my baby boy to feel comfortable, safe and happy in his own skin. We are hopeful that once we get him rolling with regular OT services we will begin to see some positive changes. We were given one of these therapeutic brushes to use on his back, legs, arms, feet and hands, and already we can tell that he finds the touch comforting. Next up, we are going to order a weighted vest, but I'm going to shop around before dropping $50 on a vest he may not be happy about wearing to begin with!
In our speech appointment, we didn't learn much that we didn't already know: Isaac can make quite a few individual sounds but has extreme difficulty pairing sounds. We were given an official "working diagnosis" of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (although I'm a little confused about how official a working diagnosis can be...) and were given greater reassurance that it is unlikely he is autistic. So, we will continue to help our sweet little fellow communicate and form multi-syllabic words with the hope that we will eventually hear some phrases from him.
If anyone has experience with Apraxia or other severe speech delays/disorders, please feel free to share your experiences!
Photo below: Isaac LOVES dinosaurs, so we went to Target before his appointments and he picked out a DinoTrux dump truck with a shovel (perfect for the beach, I thought). He has been toting toys, blankies, snacks and anything else he can think of around in his dump truck :)
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