6 Month Update

This is the age that we are starting to have lots of follow up appointments with different people (physicians, audiologists, therapists, EI coordinator, etc.) so I'm going to start to sort through all of it for you.

The first of all of these visits was his 6 month follow up with Miss D, the developmental therapist, which I explained in a previous post.

Yesterday, Miss K came for her session and also performed her evaluation. The evaluation actually went quicker than I expected and a lot of it was questioning Chris and I to inform her of certain things Colin is either doing or not doing (most of things Miss K witnesses during her sessions). On the 2 different assessments, Colin falls in the 4-6 month range because he is doing all but 1 skill in the 4 month category (changing a toy from hand to hand), most in the 5 month category and is starting to touch on some 6 month skills. His biggest weakness is his trunk musculature and as a result, isn't quite sitting yet.

This morning, we took Colin to the audiologist to follow up with his hearing test (we needed to follow up after his initial screening test at birth which he passed). After her initial questioning, she asked us if Colin had some congestion (which he does and was obvious when he coughed) and then gave us this look and said that she probably wouldn't get good results. Then she looked inside of his ear (noted his small canals) and also said that he had a decent amount of wax buildup. She performed the test and told us that Colin failed. Surprisingly I wasn't that upset because I know that Colin can hear (he responds to his name when called (especially when we are out of site), he will respond to toys that make noise, he becomes startled by loud noises, etc. When we were at our pediatrician's office today, she kind of scoffed at the failure because as soon as she looked in his ear and saw the wax she thought it was obvious that he would fail. So, we have to go back and have his hearing re-tested.

So, we were at the pediatrician's for Colin's 6 month check-up and he is weighing in at a whopping 14 lbs. 2 ounces (without clothes on and after he peed all over the table) and 24" long. She felt that his cough is getting better and is related to irritation of his bronchial tubes and is not concerned because he does not have any other symptoms (#1 being a fever). We discussed some things we will need to follow up with in the future, he got his ears cleaned of wax, 2 vaccines, and lots of loving from his favorite doctor.

Coming up in a little over a week we also have Colin's 6 month IFSP meeting to determine the services he may need over the next 6 months. I am pushing for an increase in physical therapy, developmental therapy and also a possible addition of speech therapy (not sure if I'm going to get that one). Colin is doing well, and I want to make sure he stays on that track, especially now that he is starting to really babble and make sounds. I would like to learn ways to increase this babble.

We are really working hard!