We got in!

OK so we finally got the call that we are in with a very highly regarded speech therapist here! Yippee, we went yesterday to see her bright and early! She played with Jason, listened to him, got him to interact very well and taught us some new games! I was thrilled when we were sitting there playing and Jason looked in the mirror at his eye level, smiled at the reflection, then turned and smiled at me, turned back to his reflection and said BABY! My heart melted on the spot! Jason had a great time, wandering, playing and even jumping on her trampoline! We can only get in once every other week at this point, she is very busy and that is all her schedule can fit for now but we are hopeful that as time goes on we can get in more often, every little bit helps. She did notice, and so have we, that Jason's left eye really seems to be sagging and turning in a lot more. She was concerned about it. We have seen a children eye Dr for it and we were given the all clear, that his bridge of his nose was not as pronounced yet to make it look like his eye was "lazy". Well............... found out that the Dr we saw is not "the best" in the words of the 2 therapists we saw yesterday, so we are seeing a specialist on Thursday. His eye really sags when he is tired and turns in towards the middle. I have been told that something like this can effect so many aspects of a toddlers life and could be a reason for some of his delays. Not sure where we go from here but we will leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom of things. I can imagine that sight issues could be a major issue, over compensating for bad eyesight I could see would slow his other reflexes. We also saw Jason's feeding therapist yesterday and while he ate very little at the appointment, like 3 bites he said another new word in the correct context, when he was finished eating and wanted up he both signed " all done" and kind-of said "all done" came out more all-da, but it was understandable. He is picking up more signs, he knows "more" well, and "milk", he is learning "help" and for please he rubs mommy's chest and not his own. His best is shaking his head no, he does not do the "sign" for no just shakes his head very hard to the point sometimes he gets a little dizzy and falls, it is kinda funny and cute as long as he does not hurt himself.

On a interesting note we are thinking Jason is ready to start potty training, he is very interested in watching himself go to the bathroom of late. So we are getting him a "big boy" potty to start this new phase of life, this could be INTERESTING! Jason will be the ripe old age of 22 months on Friday, I know many boys are late bloomers in talking, potty training, and motor skills, we will have to see where this takes us!

Feeding therapy..... or playing??

So we had another appointment with the feeding therapist. Jason thought it was more play time then eating time. Oh well, I offered him a sandwich, a banana, a go-gert, all a BIG no! He had more fun playing in the high chair she had there and all the toys. Ahhhhhh fun! But we are keeping at it. We are thinking of changing PT's for 2 reasons, we are also waiting to get into more PT/OT and the list is 1-4 months long and the drive to this person's house is over a hour at times! So she recomended someone closer to us that she has worked with for a long time and thinks is good and works with Jason's "issue". Sooooo we shall see what comes of that.

On another note, Jason and his mommy and daddy had some great company come to Seattle from Houston. Mommy's very good friend Stephanie and her son Aidan came to play for a few days! Man what a time was had! We visited the Space Needle, Pikes Market, Ivar's, the resturant that they filmed Sleepless in Seattle, took a ferry ride to Bremmerton, and played at a winery with a picnic, and Jason and his mommy took them to play at MicroSoft! AWESOME! Jason and Aidan had a blast together, Aidan was showing off his tikwondo moves and Jason was immitating him!

Since no pictures of therapy I am going to add some pictures of their trip here! It was so sad to see them leave, and Jason ( and the dogs I might add) were looking for them all day Sunday since they left before Jason woke up that day! Looking forward to the next visit! The first picture is Aidan at Pikes Market, Then Steph and Aidan on the Ferry, then Jason on the Ferry then Steph and Aidan on The Space Needle, then Mere, Aidan, Jason on the Ferry and last, Steph, Aidan, Mere, Sacha, Jason and our neighbor at the winery!

Day one Feeding Therapy

Well lets just say that the first appointment was not the best! Lots and lots of questions and medical back-ground on Jason. The Therapist almost seemed argumentative! We had to drive about a hour and 20 minutes to get to her so I think we were all in a "mood" by the time we got there. Jason had a great time, he played, he ate about 3 bites of pancakes, and "stunk up the room". So we will see where we go from here, we are waiting to see when we see her next, her schedule is very hectic!!! But we are making progress, Jason was HUNGRY last night! He seems to LOVE sweet and sour chicken! We gave him a big fork and he went to work. YIPPEE! We may get sick of sweet and sour but oh well!!!
Today he is showing signs of either a cold coming on or allergies, needless to say his nose is running!
BUT we have finished his play room ( well about 95%) I need to change the valance and put his pictures up. We are taking pictures of his favorite things and putting them down low so since he is not talking he can show us what he wants or we can show him Callie or Hana for "doggie", or Mommy or Daddy, or chair, sippy cup, etc. Any suggestions on what to put pi cures up of?

my favorite picture of my "boys"

Not much to say other then these are the loves of my life and I want to share the pictures with you! There is nothing like a daddy and a son napping together to warm your heart!

it has been a while but here we are again

So it has been a while since we "blogged" but I see it about to take off as a way to verbalize our fears of things. Let me back up about 6 months!

Jason has had lots of "issues in his short life". As a first time mom I really watch every thing. We had noticed that unlike so many children Jason was not picking up on simple things like talking, waiving bye bye, sign language, or eating to name a few.

So after pushing and pushing we finally got answers in the last few weeks! We had started speech therapy since Jason has 6 words at 21 months, was not really repeating much or talking, pointing or verbalizing other then ear piercing screams and a hissing noise similar to a cat's. Last week we had to have Jason scoped, low and behold he has/had sever cobblestones in his throat..... GERD also known as sever acid reflux. Hey I would not eat either if I had that that bad!!! We did this to see if there was any long term damage from him eating glass in January ( won't eat food but glass is OK???)

So we got back into Children's Hospital Seattle eating program! We went just yesterday and while we were there we kind of switched gears a little after talking to the PT specialist and watching Jason. They tested his neurological development. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, light bulbs were going off left right and center!

After 2 hours of talking playing and yes even Jason eating we had a answer, a name of what was going on and information on how to help our little prince!

Sensory Processing Disorder, ( kind of funny it is also called SPD, and those are Sacha's initials!) When I started to read the information they gave us, and research on line I was staring at my child's daily life and was amazed. Everything was there made sense down to Jason mainly walking on his tippy toes to covering his ears so often and freaking out in the sun light! We have a name we have a diagnosis we know where to get help!

While it is scary the long term effects that SPD can have, we have caught it fairly early, can get him into long term therapy and help him learn to live with what he can't "deal with" right now.



So........... this blog is now changed from The Dawes in Seattle to Jason's battle with SPD.

You can look it up, there is so much information on it out there, the more they are learning the more help we can get. Sacha and I will be in some wonderful support groups for parents of SPD kids, lots of reading and working one on one with our miracle child.

It is never easy to learn your child has needs that are not "normal" on a day to day basis. I honestly feel like it is not fair, but hey when is life fair. With all the problems we has in previous pregnancies and then having Jason, him being so early, and his illnesses the first 21 months, but hey, that is the life of a parent, no life is a bed of roses! As the therapist told us yesterday we have the Disney World of medical insurance, lets just skip it's a small world and get on the biggest and fastest roller coaster ride out there and hang on for dear life! What a ride this will be BUT the main thing, we are getting Jason the best of the best care!

So watch for Posts about or progress, our failures, our fears and our joys and mountains we have climbed! It will be a great learning experience and we are up for the challenge! Ya with us???