A Better Day!

Well, the kids woke up early without too many problems. We were only 5 minutes late to our appointment this morning. Not too bad since we had to get Oren to a friend's house, then take the other two somewhere else before our appointment. The appt. itself was alright, just a little long. We got there and found that one of our couple friends from church were there too, so we all sat in the back and entertained each other through the class thing. We got done and went to get the kids, and were very pleased that they had behaved for the various sitters.

Then I dropped Mark, Oren and William off at home and rushed Nathan down to his speech therapy eval. We have been trying to switch his therapist from Boise to Mountain Home, to save on gas, and I just felt that it was what we were supposed to do. Everything had gone through and we saw her for the first time today. The old therapist sent me a copy of everything in his file, reports and test results, things like that. So I could bring that to the evaluation, she was pleased about that. The lady we saw specializes mostly with adults relearning how to use their mouths after brain injury, or infants with feeding problems due to cleft palate. So Nathan isn't her normal type of client, but when I described his problems she said she would take a look. Her unofficial diagnoses after this afternoon was that it seems to be a sub-something-or-other cleft. Basically, the palate itself, the bone, is formed right, but the muscles and nerves above it aren't connected fully, or far enough into the muscle. His muscle movements are somewhat primitave, swallowing.... because that is like a gross muscle movement, but that finer ones like control over the valve aren't working because the nerves aren't as deep into the muscle as they should be. That is her hypothosis, nothing is set in stone. So she will talk to a bunch of her colleagues all over (she has been doing this for 30 years, and has connections.) and will do some research. But the end result will probably mean going down to Salt Lake for further evaluation by a voice specialty clinic that works mainly with mouth deformities and such in children. This may not seem like great news, but we have already gotten further in one session to figuring out the problem than 8 months with other therapists. She confirmed some things that I thought could be the problem, that were in the back of my mind this whole time. In the meantime we will continue with the therapy with her because it is helping his motor skill in the front of his mouth area, there has been improvement in his speech. He did really great today and I am so proud of him.

I love my children, and am so grateful for the things they teach me. Like patience. A quick fix would have been great for Nathan, but I have learned a lot in these past months. I am much better at scheduling my time. I am quicker to ask for help. I am branching out with other babysitters. I am learning about Nathan, which is a huge blessing. His being the middle child, it would be all too easy for him to get lost along the sidelines, just mosey along life unconcerned because of his personality. But working with this takes so much time and energy that there is no way I can forget he is there. He gets plenty of attention and alone time with mommy, and thinks of therapy as play time. What a sweetheart!

So I still have housework to do, and I am still tired, but there is some hope at the end of the rainbow...