Soooo close to walking

We have been somewhat busy since the last update.

We spoke with the pediatrician a few days ago and she agrees for Avery to try Zyrtec for a month or two and then we will repeat the hearing test. Hopefully the Zyrtec will help dry up the fluid in her ears allowing her to hear better.

We saw speech therapy last Friday. They watched her play and did some activities with her, telling her to open things or put animals in the barn or to hand an object to Tim or I. Avery is starting to get a little leery of strangers. It took her about 20 minutes for her to warm up and start playing. Avery started getting fussy towards the end. They feel she has a severe expressive language disorder and moderate to severe receptive language disorder. They would like to start her for therapy every other week. I will be taking her since this is Tim's busy season and he works 7 days a week right now. When his business is slower in the winter Tim will be able take her. My manager is very understanding and I just end up using that as my lunch hour for the day . I don't even think he would make me do that but I am not going to take advantage of the system so I will just eat my lunch at my desk while I work on those days. I know she is almost two and doesn't really talk yet but Tim and I know she will get there. She has had so many set backs and we are not that worried about it. We are just going to continue speech therapy because that is what we are told to do. Years down the road, I don't want to look back and say we really should have gotten Avery speech therapy. I know things are easier to correct the earlier they are identified and the younger the patient is so that is why we are doing this.

My favorite time of year is happening right now.. The Cuyahoga County Fair! I love it. I go at least once sometimes multiple times each year. I was happy for Avery to understand a little more this year and be more interested in things. She liked looking at all of the people, seeing the various farm animals and eating ice cream and funnel cakes. We had a good time.

Avery is sooooo close to walking. At most she has taken about 7-8 steps in one attempt and a few steps multiple times. She still usually chooses to crawl to something instead of walk but she is a lot more adventurous than she used to be.

 We saw allergy today. They ended up doing the test where they prick/scratch the skin on her back. They tested her for allergies to dogs, cats, dust mites, grass, pollen and a few kinds of trees. Amazingly everything came back negative. I am so relieved she is not allergic to dogs and cats. I wouldn't know what we would do if that would have came back positive. The allergist doesn't think Zyrtec will help since Avery didn't have any reaction to these tests today. She said when Avery turns two she can have Flonase, Nasacort, etc. We are going to try using zyrtec first because I cannot imagine trying to shoot nose spray up Avery's nose. She would never let us.

I am happy to say that I have some good news to report. I submitted an article to the Journal of Patient Experience regarding my experience of Avery being in the NICU at Hillcrest for 4 months. I just got an email yesterday saying they are going to publish it. In the article I failed to mention how the nurse manager there sucks. I didn’t want one person ruining the great experience  (as great as it could be having your baby in the nicu for 4 months) that we had. From the doctors, nurses, respiratory team, and even janitors, everyone helped Avery and my family get through that difficult time and I didn’t know how else to repay them. I can’t wait for you all to read it. They told me they would notify me when it is coming out.

Can you tell I liked the lasagna?

This is a picture of Mommy when she was younger on top and the picture on the bottom is me. I think we look a little bit alike!

 Playing with my water table

Nothing to see here. Just me and my marshmallows going for a ride in the wagon

Mommy painted my toes. I was good about letting her paint them but not so good about letting them dry

 

Having fun at the fair with Daddy...

.....and Mommy

They were coloring on my back at the doctor today! I only had one spot that had a reaction and that was the control spot so it was supposed to get red and itchy.

Look how cute I was sitting in the waiting area at the doctors. I was sitting like a big girl eating some goldfish