Speech Therapy

cute River

In my 18 month post for River I mentioned that he wasn't talking intelligibly. When he had his 18 month checkup the pediatrician recommended doing some testing and starting speech therapy since he should have been talking more than he was. I mentioned in yesterday's post that I had to reschedule River's speech therapy appointment last Monday since we were in the hospital. So obviously we did move forward with the speech therapy, but I thought I'd talk a little about the process of getting there.

The first thing we did was to have his hearing tested- it's fine.

He had an initial evaluation to see if he qualified for services - he does. In order to qualify he had to demonstrate a marked developmental delay of some sort.

He had a follow-up evaluation to identify his weaknesses and establish a therapy plan.

The results?

He's developmentally on target, or even ahead in some areas, in everything except his speech. Even though he's very good at getting his needs across, he's not using actual words to do it and he doesn't try to imitate words we use. He's about 9-12 months behind on his speech.  I knew he was behind, but hadn't realized he was that far behind. He's so good at communicating without words that it's easy to forget that it's not normal for him to do be doing so.

He uses a few single syllable sounds, but no two syllable words, and even the single syllable sounds aren't really words. So the initial goal is to have him start using actual words, focusing on family names and words surrounding meal times (done, more, specific food names, etc).

The speech therapist comes to our house once a week to work with him.  Mostly this means observing him as he plays and looking for opportunities to emphasize certain sounds or signs. She also gives ideas of things we can do to encourage him or things to practice with him. At the end of each session we decide on a few things to work on during the coming week. At the next session we discuss what worked or didn't work and any progress he made in the past week.

We're about two months into the therapy, with mixed results. If we push things too much in a particular week, River will stop using it altogether. This has happened with specific signs and sounds that he used to use, but has stopped. On the other hand, we've introduced more signs and are using them successfully. He still won't imitate sounds that we make or words that we use, but some of his babbling is becoming more intelligible. He's not using actual words yet, but he's starting to use almost-words that we are able to recognize. So that's definite progress.

How much of his progress is linked to the therapy and how much is just because he wasn't ready to talk earlier is unclear. I suspect the latter, but since we went into this with the idea of "better safe than sorry", it's fine. We'd rather do the therapy and have some progress that might or might not be a result of it than not do the therapy and have problems later on when he's older.

One other thing we've done was to stop using the white noise machine in River's room. We'd been using it to mask other noises so he'd sleep better, but after reading this article we re-thought our continued use of the white noise machine. Since River does have delayed speech, we didn't want to risk making it worse by continuing to use the machine. We don't know how much of an effect it can have/has had on River, but this is again a case of "better safe than sorry." We did have a week or so of lighter sleep/more waking, but he adjusted fairly quickly and seems to be sleeping just as well without the white noise as he was with it. We still have to be careful of making too much noise since he's still a light sleeper, but it's manageable.

Birth Story

he looks slightly mischievous here- should we be worried?

Each of my labor and delivery experiences have been quite different. The short versions of each:

Sunshine
A week and a half late. I tried walking, massaging pressure points, etc, but only got contractions going for a short time, so we ended up going to the hospital and being induced, which is not something I ever want to do again. I got an epidural, but it didn't work properly (I felt a lot of the experience) and I still have problems with pain at the epidural site. Sunshine's big head got stuck and she had to be suctioned out. Her stuck head caused damage that didn't heal completely for about 2 years. I also pulled a groin muscle while pushing and it took months to heal. I got an episiotomy I didn't want. Sunshine weighed 7#6oz. Both moms present. This was not a great experience at all and I had (maybe still have?) a lot of negative feelings about it.

River  (read the long version here)
6 days late. Went into labor on my own the morning after spending some time on the treadmill (coincidence?). I got an epidural that worked properly- no other problems with it. Pushed river out without any problems. Tore a small amount. River weighed 7#8oz. MIL had to leave before he was born, but my mom was here. This was a much better experience and was pretty much how I'd like a labor and delivery to go.

Ocean
4 days late. Went into labor naturally without any efforts on my part. No time for an epidural. Tore more than with River because of how fast everything went. Ocean weighed 7#4oz. My mom couldn't come, but MIL got here the day before Ocean was due. This was mostly a good experience, I guess, but I'm still not completely sure how I feel about it since I wasn't prepared for it.

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My kiddos like a little extra time to cook. I wasn't worried about River or Ocean being late because Sunshine was late and there wasn't any major problems (other than that big head of hers that would have caused problems regardless of when she was born). They're not too big and they don't have any health problems associated with being late. River and Ocean's pregnancies were so much easier than Sunshine's that I haven't minded the extra time hanging out with them before they're born.

They also don't drop before delivery, but stay high until the last minute possible. I don't dilate until the last minute. No walking around at a 4 or 5 for weeks ahead of time for me. Once I do dilate, it progresses fairly quickly, though it has sped up with each subsequent delivery.

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Labor and Delivery-Related TMI Ahead

Proceed at Your Own Risk

The long version of Ocean's labor and delivery:

Saturday I finished the homeschool cupboard and worked a bit more on a multi-part project I haven't yet finished.

Sunday in church I couldn't bend over to pick something up off the floor while sitting on the pew- it hurt in a way that it hadn't before. I wasn't in labor or anything, but things felt different. After church I fell asleep on the couch for awhile- I was too tired to stay awake. After dinner I remembered River had a speech therapy appointment first thing Monday morning at our house, so I tidied up the living room- mostly this meant putting away the cans of paint and stain that I had left spread out on the school table.

Sunday night I was up a bit late because of the nap I took (I always have a hard time sleeping after taking a nap), but I eventually fell asleep around midnight, just to wake up around 1:30 because the contractions I'd been feeling off and on before going to sleep were more intense and regular. I wasn't sure if they were the real thing, but I also had some leakage that I wasn't sure if it was amniotic fluid. I was strep B positive this pregnancy and I was told I needed to get antibiotics into my system before giving birth, preferably before my water broke. So we called the answering service at 2, then had to wait for the doc to call us. Mr M woke his mom and told her we were leaving and at 2:25 we got in the car and started driving since it's about 25-30 min to the hospital at that time of the morning. The doc called just after we left and she confirmed that we should head in. This is where we were really happy Mr M's mom was here and we didn't have to wake up friends at 2 am to come watch the kiddos. We may not have made it to the hospital at all if we'd had to wait for someone to get to our house.

It took a few minutes to get settled once we arrived at the hospital, but when they checked me I was only a 2. We discussed using the tub and calling the doc and getting an epidural, but within half an hour I was at an 8 and the contractions were coming fast and furious. Not only was I going to miss out on the tub again (I missed it with River too), but I was probably going to miss out on the epidural. In between contractions the nurses were taking down info, putting the IV in, and trying to draw blood. By the time the nurse came for the blood draw the contractions were very close together and intense and she had a hard time getting the blood draw successfully- the bruise in my elbow is testament to that.

By that point reality had set in and we all knew I wasn't getting an epidural. They'd given me a dose of Fentanyl, but it did absolutely nothing other than make me a bit dizzy. They'd called the anesthesiologist, but there just wasn't time to get an epidural administered and working. What was more, the ob/gyn hadn't arrived either. So we ended up with 5 or 6 nurses in the room, all there to make sure everything went as smoothly as possible.

Mr M had my right hand and the nurse who had my left hand tried to talk me through the contractions, coaching my breathing (something I'd never really had to worry about in previous births with epidurals), at least two were between my legs and another was hanging out to help with the baby when he was born.

We hadn't quite gotten to active pushing (but I was definitely feeling the urge to push) when the doc arrived. Not long after that and we were pushing. It took a lot more pushing and a lot more effort than I expected just to get him down to where he was actually coming out- he was up too high (though I think all of mine have been like that- they don't really drop). Once he was finally in position it only took a couple more pushes for Ocean to fully emerge. They had an oxygen mask on me in between pushes. I was having too hard a time controlling my breathing and the oxygen mask helped make sure I didn't get too light headed and pass out. I received oxygen with River also.

Once Ocean was out, they put him on my chest, Mr M cut the cord, and the doc got started stitching me up. Mr M then helped me take my shirt off so Ocean could be skin to skin with me. I'd put the gown on when I got there, but since we thought we had time I hadn't gotten around to taking my shirt off under it. At that point I glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that we'd been at the hospital less than two hours. Yikes! Way faster than we thought things would go.

a hard-won snuggle

Since it was barely 5 am, we had plenty of time to email and text Mr M's work, River's speech therapist, and our families, sharing the news and changing appointments. I realized it was a good thing I'd put away the cans of paint and stain, since they would have been too appealing to River. Mr M's mom would have spent all her time keeping him away from them.

During that time Ocean hung out on my chest- our hospital lets the baby hang out with mommy for an hour before taking the baby to be weighed and measured and such. This is much nicer than the 5 or 10 minutes we had with Sunshine before they took her away to get cleaned up and weighed.

Sunshine and River meeting Ocean for the first time later that afternoon

Some dis-jointed thoughts about the experience:

I was not prepared mentally for giving birth without an epidural and it definitely affected the experience.

I have too good of an imagination and I kept picturing what was going on down in my nether regions while pushing, which was counter-productive. I've had some painful experiences with exams and procedures down there (a hysterosalpingogram was particularly traumatic) and I really am not comfortable with people messing around down there, especially if I can feel it, which is why I appreciate the epidurals so much.  I was also worried about what damage I could be doing to myself (hemorrhoids, prolapse, etc. I told you I have an over-active imagination), and at the same time I could feel Ocean's head progressing downward, which hurt more than I thought it would. Pain on the inside combined with who-knows-what going on outside didn't do a lot towards keeping me calm and focused.

Mr M was a trooper and his hands are a bit sore from me squeezing them during the contractions, though I tried to massage them more than just squeeze, which helped me focus a bit better. When one hand got too sore he'd switch hands for awhile. Grabbing and massaging with my right hand was the only thing I could really do to work through each contraction. My left hand wasn't very useful because of the location of the IV, which ended up getting knocked out twice while I was pushing. The nurse waiting for the baby was proud of herself for getting the IV back in in between (maybe during?) contractions. After Ocean was born I looked down at my arm and saw blood dripping down it because the IV had gotten knocked out again. At that point they just cleaned up my arm and put a bandage on my hand.

Our clinic has multiple ob/gyns, two of which are female. When River was born, one of the male docs was on-call and handled the delivery. This time around one of the female docs was on-call, so with the 4 or 5 nurses everyone in the room except for Mr M was female. It made for a nice dynamic that I appreciated that much more since I was doing it without the benefit of drugs, which made me feel much more vulnerable somehow. Probably because there was no backing out of the experience, and I would be feeling all the pain, whether I wanted to or not.

After the delivery they gave me some oxycodone and ibuprofen which took the edge off the pain in my nether regions. It didn't feel great down there and I ended up taking pain killers all day. Not what I'd liked to have done, but it was necessary. Interestingly enough, the following day most of the pain was gone and I didn't take any pain killers. The sore muscles everywhere made their presence known in a big way (seriously, I have sore muscles in places I didn't know could get sore) but I've resisted taking painkillers for them. My stitches have started bothering me a bit as they have with past deliveries, but that's to be expected. I also have some painful hemorrhoids that did indeed make their appearance during labor (I told you there was TMI in here).

our little cutie

Despite the amount of pain I went through during delivery and how bad everything felt in the first 24 hours afterward, I feel like I've been healing much faster than in the past with the epidurals. This makes sense, since our bodies are made to push out babies and epidurals are a recent addition to the equation, but to actually experience the difference has been quite enlightening. Not that I'm saying everything is hunky dory or anything. A week postpartum and I'm still sore and can't sit for long periods of time without pretty significant amounts of pain and discomfort. Regardless of how a baby is born, it takes a while for the body to heal from the process.

When I was pregnant with Sunshine I briefly considered having an "all-natural" birthing experience, but I decided I didn't want to do it without an epidural- I didn't want to feel everything. Since then I've never even considered giving birth without an epidural. Which made Ocean's birth that much more difficult. I hadn't prepared myself mentally to experience the intense physical sensations of childbirth. And I wasn't prepared physically either- I hadn't practiced breathing techniques or any other methods of dealing with contractions. Since I was planning on getting an epidural I didn't think I needed to review them. So let that be a warning: just because you plan on having an epidural, it doesn't mean you'll actually get it, so you should be prepared for other contingencies.

I have no idea if this is our last pregnancy or not. That's something we need to pray about, but we're a little too close to this delivery to start thinking about such things. If we do have another kiddo, I will be requesting an epidural as soon as I get to the hospital (one of the nurses said I should do so in an effort to make sure I actually get it), but I will also review breathing techniques and other ways of getting through labor and delivery without drugs. I just don't know that I need another delivery sans epidural. Having such a short labor and delivery did make the experience easier, but it was still difficult and not something I want to repeat.

Post Birth Exercising

 he's doing a lot of this these days

Ocean was born last Monday morning and we went home around lunchtime on Wednesday. That afternoon I felt a slight urge to get moving. Even with all the sore muscles my body feels so much less ungainly and awkward now that Ocean's no longer in my uterus. The feeling of wanting to exercise passed quickly since I know it's way too early and it wouldn't actually feel good.

This was reinforced on Friday when I stopped by the grocery store and Target after Ocean's checkup. It took longer than I expected because it turns out that I can't actually walk that fast- there's too much residual soreness. When I got home I could tell I was just not ready for that much walking. It's a good reminder to take things slow and listen to my body and not push too hard.

While I know I need to be careful, I'm also already looking forward to my August race. Ever since getting pregnant I knew it would have to be at the end of the month to allow maximum healing time. A race on the 29th of August will be two days short of 6 weeks after Ocean's birth. Since we're really not supposed to start being active again until 6 weeks postpartum this race will be done with minimal training. I'm going to try to get some walking in but I'm not sure how much I'll be able to do; it depends on how long my healing process is and how busy our schedule ends up being. We're taking breaks from most of our activities this semester, but there's still schoolwork for Sunshine while wrangling a toddler and a newborn. It'll be interesting to see how that goes.

In any case, I'm not planning on doing much running in the race- only on the downhills, and only if it feels good, otherwise I'll walk the whole thing. I walked a 5k three weeks after having River, and while I was sore, it felt pretty good. Hopefully this will be a similar experience.

I haven't signed up for the race yet because I'm still debating between a 4 mile prep run for the 4 mile race I've done in the past (I'm not running it this year) or a 3 mile fundraiser. I've never done either, but I suspect the 4 mile race will be more low-key and walker friendly, so I'm leaning that direction. After my experience of being one of just a couple walkers in the Fourth of July race I want to make sure that the race is walker friendly and I won't be the only one walking the whole thing.

Sunday Funny

River asked to hold Ocean and I randomly caught this great photo of the two of them 

I love his expression- he thinks he's such a big boy and really is excited about Ocean, in his own way

I was patting Ocean's back, coaxing some burps out and saying "good boy, get those burps out" in a nauseating tone of voice, when I realized what a double standard we have.

When babies are little, we encourage burping but when they get older we discourage it and tell them to stop being rude. So it's cute in Ocean, but not so much in River :)

Homeschool Cupboard, Part 2

I didn't quite get this post finished and scheduled before Ocean decided to make his appearance, but here's the project I finished Saturday, just in time for his birth.

I posted about building the homeschool cupboard, part 1 two years ago when I was pregnant with River. Since I've been trying to finish up projects, especially ones that have been sitting around for awhile, I decided it was time to tackle the cupboard. Being on summer break made it easier to unload the cupboard so I could work on it.

the original finished project

doors inside the frame, trim looks good, everything lines up nicely

the only problem? the doors wouldn't open properly because I used the wrong kind of hinges

I had problems with the doors lining up properly once I replaced the hinges and while I was able to attach them to the frame, I got a bit demoralized and left it all for the last two years. We've been using the cupboard, and it's great, but it bugs me that I still haven't finished it. Once I emptied the cupboard, Mr M hauled it outside where I finally fixed the cupboard.

this is what it's looked like for the last two years- no drop down door and doors that don't close all the way because they don't fit properly

The issues: 
1. The upper doors wouldn't close properly- I took the sander to the edges so they would close smoothly.

2. New board for drop down door- the old one fit within the cupboard frame like the doors, but since I had to move the doors to the front of the frame, the drop down door also had to extend long enough to be in front of the frame on both sides.

3. Locations of catches- they interfered with lower doors opening when table was in use, but once the handles were attached to the drop down door there was no way the lower doors would open while the table was down. Some of the catches needed some adjustments because of the doors being moved, but those were the only adjustments I ended up making.

4. Add trim/moulding to the top edge- with doors on the frame instead of in the frame it needed a chunkier look. I built it up a bit and it looks a lot better now.

5. Add trim/moulding to the bottom trim-the bottom trim needed a chunkier look as well, and it was a bit plain before.

6. Paint- I painted the inside a long time ago, before we really started using the cupboard. I finally painted the outside and the drop down table with a light gray chalk paint that I coated with wax.

After fixing the first five issues we brought the cupboard back inside where I  painted it and re-installed the hardware.

back in the house, caulked and puttied and ready to paint

Sunshine hasn't been super neat with her painting and the table top shows it

painted, cork on the left side door, shelves still out

Once the hardware was reattached and it was time to put the shelves back in and load the cupboard back up.

science kits, games (some of the ones that can be used for math or spelling), and puzzles are in the bottom

drop down door up, table in its up position, cork on inside of doors

I used gorilla glue on the cork boards and while gorilla glue is usually great stuff, it didn't work super well on the cork for some reason

drop down door down, waiting for table to come down

I sorted and re-organized the art supplies, put away the 3rd grade books and got things ready for 4th grade. I thought we were ready, but it turns out there's a couple books I need to order still. Good thing  we have a couple weeks of day camps before we start back in on book work.

books at table level, art supplies on the shelves above.

we had everything in cute baskets for the last two years, but too many items got shoved in them, never to be seen again. plastic bins aren't nearly as cute, but at least we can see what's in them.

Since we are now a family of five and will someday be homeschooling three kiddos at once, this homeschool cupboard will not always look like this. The table just isn't big enough for three kiddos and a mommy to spread out at, so eventually the table top will be removed from the cabinet and we'll use the cabinet just for storing school supplies. In the meantime, I'm much happier with how the cupboard looks and functions, even if it did take me two years to get it to this point :)

Framed Mirror Fail

I didn't quite get this post finished and scheduled before Ocean decided to make his appearance, but here's the project fail I promised on Monday.

We've had one of those cheap mirrors floating around the house for years. You know the kind, that cost $5 at wally world and have a plastic frame? The frame broke in one of our moves, but the mirror survived intact. A while ago Sunshine mentioned that she wanted a mirror in her room so she could check her outfits, and I realized the cheap mirror was just the answer.

I finally got around to doing something with it when I was working on my smaller building projects the last couple weeks.

I knew I'd need to make a frame for it to strengthen it and to make it cuter. There's lots of variations for framing mirrors, but the method I went with ended up coming down to what we had available in the shed. I wanted to use wood we had and purchase as little as possible.

Being creative with some plywood from our stash allowed me to make the backing for the mirror.

the hole in the center will be covered by the mirror

the wood was a bit rough, so I spent some time sanding it all down

I used scrap 1x2s on the back to hold the plywood strips in place

I framed out the edge of the backing with cap trim

I originally planned to use some rectangular trim around the mirror, but worried about the mirror staying in place

so I ended up using more of the cap trim. You have to mitre the corners, but the lip on the outside edge covers ugly edges and helps hold things in place better.

all framed out

I got to the last corner of the mirror and managed to crack the mirror- so disgusting!

Luckily it was a small break and I decided to leave it as-is and creatively hide it once I was finished.

the middle sections of plywood are slightly thicker than the outer strips, but it's not super noticeable

I painted everything white, then put gray on top. Before sanding down some of the gray for a weathered look I started scraping the paint off the mirror. 

I didn't tape off the mirror because I figured it would be easy to scrape off the paint. It was easy to scrape, but remember that hole in the plywood behind the mirror? It caused a problem. Can you see it?

How about now?

Part way through scraping the paint off I put pressure on the metal scraper at just the wrong spot on the mirror (one that was unsupported by plywood) and the mirror cracked across. So frustrating!

At that point, I cleaned up my mess and took the mirror out to the shed. I could get another mirror, remove the trim framing the mirror, remove the broken mirror, put a new mirror in, and replace the trim around the frame, but that defeats the purpose of using materials we have on hand and will take longer than I'd like for a project that wasn't supposed to cost much. We had some of the cap trim, but I had to buy two more pieces to have enough. This project cost less than $15, so if I hadn't broken the mirror it would have been a good use of what we had on hand.

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That was last Friday and I still haven't quite decided what to do with this project. With Ocean here my project days are severely limited, so I think this will stay on the back burner for awhile. Sunshine still wants a mirror in her room and as frustrating as it is for this to not work out on the first try, it won't be that difficult to fix- just a pain. So eventually I'll just suck it up and do it.

Have you had any project fails lately?

Welcome to our Newest Little Guy

At 4:55 am Monday morning our newest family member officially made his appearance. The experience was not what I'd planned for and I'm rather conflicted about it, and will be posting my thoughts on the experience in a few days. In the meantime, rest assured that he arrived safely and we are now at home, getting settled in.

minutes after he was born

The little guy is quite mellow and chill, which we're waiting to see if it's a long term thing. I think his blog nickname will be Ocean- calm at times but capable of powerful storms. I have the feeling this will prove the case in real life as well.

Sunshine would hold Ocean all day if she could. She held him for a good hour when they came to the hospital, and she just sat and smiled at him the whole time. River is content with giving him quick hugs and then ignoring him, which is about what we expected from him. He's not even two yet, so he doesn't understand a lot of what's going on.

our cute kiddos

DIY Essential Oil Holder

I recently shared the planters and bathroom shelf unit that I built since finishing the treehouse, patio, and fire pit. Another of the smaller projects I've been working on while waiting for the baby to be born was a rack for all our essential oil bottles. I had found this oil rack a year or so ago and tried making one, but it didn't work out. It turned out to be one of those projects that just turns into a disaster. I've got another project disaster to share tomorrow or Wednesday....

The inspiration:

image via

My version:

It doesn't look so bad now, but it isn't useable as-is. Part of the problem was that I put the holes a little too close together and there wasn't enough wood in between them to maintain proper integrity. I ended up having to build up a lot of the holes with wood putty. By the time I finished that and painted it, most of the holes were too small to properly hold the essential oil bottles. Another problem was that I used soft pine wood, which just couldn't stand up to the Forstner bit.

puttied and sanded and hoping it'll work out

the holes were way too close together and there just wasn't enough wood between them

I added extra wood around the sides to try to make it look nicer and stabilize the wood

more wood filler and sanding

the paint hid a lot of the flaws, but made the holes too small for the bottles

At that point I got super frustrated and shelved the project. I put the rack on a shelf in the secretary in the library, set the bottles in the holes as best I could, and left it for most of the last year.

With my push to finish smaller projects I decided to build another oil holder. My initial plan was to build one with the same design, just spacing my holes a little farther apart. Then I found this one here that looked like a better use of space and maybe a bit easier to build.

image via

I went through our wood stash and found oak plywood pieces for the frame and shelves and trim for most of the edges. I wanted to use what we have and buy as little as possible, and all I needed to purchase for this project was a piece of trim for the edges since I didn't have enough. I based the measurements on the one I found online, but altered it to fit the shelf in our secretary.

The hardest part was routing out the drawer channels without an actual router. We have a router, but it's massive and would have been overkill for this project (we used it with our tenon cutter when we built our log bed years and years ago). I ended up using the Dremel, which worked, but wasn't as quick and efficient as an actual router would have been. In the end, I got it done and only had to use a bit of wood filler here and there in the channels.

frame put together

I spent some time one evening figuring out the spacing for the bottle holes and eventually got a grid marked out so I knew where to drill the holes. 

waiting to be painted

I was super careful when painting the holes to make sure they didn't end up too small again

I primed the wood, then used two thin coats of Annie Sloan chalk paint, followed by a coat of wax

I made sure I waxed the edges of the drawers and the channels very well to make sure the drawers pulled in and out smoothly

After all is said and done, I think I could have placed the holes a little closer together, but I was too worried about having a repeat of the my first effort and didn't want to spend more time working on it. The holes aren't as deep as the ones in my original holder, but are in line with the inspiration holder.

spacing the holes closer together would have given me more spaces for oil bottles, but realistically I don't really need any more

the oil holder fits just right on the shelf of the secretary

I'm much happier with how this oil holder turned out. Because I used materials we had, I only had to purchase one piece of screen trim (under $8), which is a much better price than the $100 version, and I was able to adjust the measurements to fit the shelf in the secretary. I like having the oils stored up out of reach of small kiddos, but still within easy reach of me.