At least it's Friday

Yesterday I took Easton for his second physical therapy appointment at Mary Free Bed. It was so nice to just be able to focus on him and not have Sydney running around (thanks Dana). This time I made sure he had a snack before he left daycare and I gave him some more cheerios when we got there - hoping he could make it the entire hour without having to break for a bottle (it worked!). He did much better this time, tolerating Janna for a half an hour before starting to melt down. I don't blame him though. She put him through a pretty grueling workout, with no break, for the first 30 minutes. Then when she started to work on his left shoulder - he has a tendency to keep it tensed all of the time - he lost it. He would cry and try his hardest to get away from her and have me rescue him. Believe me, I wanted to rescue him but did my best to talk him through it. The giant crocodile tears are hard to stomach. So most of the last half hour alternated between Janna working with him and me holding him to calm him down. The good news was she said he is holding his head straighter, using both hands to reach more equally, sitting more balanced without shifting his weight, and beginning to stand up more with his left leg. Yea! The bad news didn't come until I got home and looked at the appointment sheet Janna gave me. Last week after we had therapy MFB called to tell me that Janna will be taking a leave of absence starting in February (she's going to Africa) and that Easton would be getting a new therapist. I wasn't happy but there wasn't anything I could do about it. When I looked closer at the schedule Janna gave me not only did it show that he would be getting TWO different therapists (cringe) but they also moved all of his appts from Thursdays to Tuesdays without telling me! I talked with someone today and she said that no one but Janna was available on Thursdays at 4:00. Double cringe. Just another bump in the road. I can't wait to be done with all of this!!!!!!

As for Sydney, she is still doing great with the potty training. No accidents this week! She has even started telling us that she has to go. Bonus! She is still being her goofy 2 year old self. I tell ya, everyday it's something new. I can't wait to see her everyday b/c I know she is going to do or say something hilarious that will make my day. Just the other night I went in to check on her before bed and found her pink plastic chair on top of the bed, all of her animal friends tucked in under her covers with one piece of play food next to each of them (must have been their midnight snack), and her trying to sleep on just a sliver of mattress that was left for her. God love her.

First therapy session

Easton, Sydney, and I went to MFB for Easton's first therapy session with Janna. I would say the first 15 minutes went great and the rest went downhill from there. I attribute it to Easton being tired (he got a short nap in the afternoon), hungry (he likes to eat at 4:30), and sick of being touched/told what to do/where to go/how to stand/etc. He was super crabby. I ended up feeding him his bottle halfway through the session b/c he was hysterical. Meanwhile, Sydney was in all her glory in a room full of toys. I was distracted by her most of the time wondering what she was getting into, if she was going to get hurt, or if she was going to wet her pants. She of course got out just about every toy that was there and loved climbing on the mats - especially the mats that were stacked up like stairs. She found a bumbo and brought it to the top of the pile along with her blankie, crayons and coloring book, 5 toys, and her snack. She sat in the bumbo for quite a while - eating her snack and acting like she ruled the roost. Janna said she thought the session went fine but I was majorly stressed by the time the hour was up. Thankfully, mom and Dana offered to take Syd every now and then to make things a little easier.

Mommy can fix anything

So after fuming about doctors most of yesterday I decided to do something about it. I figured I'm the only one who is going to advocate for Easton so I put a call in to the new PT, Janna. I told her that the paperwork has been delayed and we can't start for 2 weeks (she had no idea of course, the secretary never relayed that to her). She was appalled. She told me she would take care of it and she just had an opening for next Tuesday. Ten minutes after getting off the phone with Janna, the scheduling secretary called me and said they now have the correct paperwork and Easton can start therapy next Tuesday. Go figure.

Other news . . . . . Easton can now walk with a walker and climb up a couple of stairs. He learned all of that in 2 days at daycare. Look out! And Sydney has stayed dry for 3 nights in a row. We may let her try panties at nighttime this weekend and see how it goes. My kids are growing up too fast!!!!!!

More frustration

We were all set to start the new physical therapy today but we got a call from Mary Free Bed yesterday saying that they have not recieved the proper paperwork from Dr. Maples (the torticollis expert at MFB) yet. I was very confused. Dr. Maple's office is right across the street from the outpatient physical therapy building - they are connected by a skywalk! How could they not have the paperwork yet???????? I was told that they only send paperwork over on Wednesdays. Can't someone just walk over there and get it???????? Ugh. And, because we are also scheduled for next Tuesday instead of Thursday Easton can't go then either b/c they still won't have the paperwork. Now we won't start our 12-week rotation until January 22 - putting Easton 2 weeks behind again. I don't know what to say.

December Pics

I'm just trying to feed the fish mom.
One of Sydney's many crafts.

Double tubby time.
Little devil - 10 months old

Snuggle time with mom

Taken day of surgery - doesn't seem to bother him

So cold.

Sydney's Success

On a more positive note we starting potty training Sydney the Sunday before Christmas. We started with showing her the baby that goes potty and she thought that was cool the first time but after that she didn't care. We kept asking Syd if she had to go potty and she constantly told us no (she has been telling us no since she turned 2). We tried forcing her on the potty b/c we thought she was just being a stinker and that definitely did not work. So we followed grandma Peuler's advice and put her in panties thinking that she would hate it if she got them wet. She opened up one of her Christmas presents early to find Madagascar panties and she was SO excited. We set the timer for 20 minutes and everytime she was still dry she got 2 skittles. After about an hour and a half we coaxed her onto her little potty. She and I sat in the bathroom for about 45 minutes - played chutes and ladders, colored, etc. - and she finally went #1 and #2! What a success for her first time. We were so happy. As a reward she got to open up a stocking stuffer (those really came in handy). We continued the 20 minute timer and hour and half potty attempt all day and she went #1 3 more times with no accidents (and mommy went to the store to buy more stocking stuffers). She even took a nap in her panties and did not get them wet. We had no idea she would do so well her first day. We continued the timer strategy the next day but lenghtened the time to 30 minutes and she had another successful day. She had one accident but we blamed that one on daddy b/c he forgot to get her on the potty within an hour and a half. We discovered that an hour and 45 minutes was too long. Sydney has been in her panties now for 12 days (wearing a pull-up only at night) and has been going on the potty regularly. I think we have had 4 total accidents - one being a #2 that I wanted to kick myself for. I know she always has to go after a meal and I got distracted with Easton and didn't notice her sneak away into her bedroom. I am so excited. It was exhausting at first spending so much time checking her, rewarding her, sitting with her in our tiny bathroom but now we just set the timer and get on with our day. We had our first outing today that didn't involve going to another house. We took the kids to the mall (along with the potty) and convinced Syd to go in the back of the van before we went in. It took a little longer than usual but she went and did not have an accident at the mall!!!! We are so proud of her. She still does not tell us when she has to go but I figure that will come in time. We are celebrating one step at a time.

Another Setback

On Monday I took Easton to Mary Free Bed to be evaluated by their torticollis expert. He has been in physical therapy for nearly 7 months now and we thought he would have made more progress by now (actually we thought he would be done with PT) so our pediatrician sent us to see Dr Maples at MFB. She poked, prodded, and examined his entire body and then sent us for some x-rays. First, she wanted to check his hips - 10% of torticollis patients have hip dysplasia - and they looked perfect. Then they took 4 different views of his neck (it was not fun holding my baby down for all of those) to see if there was anything structurally wrong with it. Even though the x-rays don't show absolutely everything (that would require a CT scan) Dr. Maples said she is certain he does not need surgery to correct the torticollis, nor does she believe he needs further scans to confirm that. So that was wonderful news! Then I asked her if we should continue to go to our current physical therapist or if we should start coming to MFB for therapy. Remember - we tried to get into MFB initially but they couldn't schedule us for 6 weeks so our pediatrician told us we should go to the Center for Physical Rehabilitation instead. She thought it would be worth at least second opinion to see what the therapists at MFB thought of his progress.

So on Wednesday buddy and I went back to MFB for a torticollis evaluation. The therapist, Janna, took a lot of time just watching Easton move around. With just about everything he did she made a comment about how he is trying to adjust his movements because of his left head tilt. For example, when he pulls himself up to stand he ALWAYS props his right leg up first to balance himself b/c of his neck. She held his right leg down and had him try to get up and he could but it was way more difficult and boy did it tick him off. Then she pointed out that when he sits down to play he shifts his weight to the right side to counteract the neck. So she kept moving his legs so that he had to sit symmetrically instead. There were a lot of things she found that I had no idea about. Our other therapist NEVER looked at any of these things. Everytime we saw her all she did was stretch his neck, like we do at home, and then sent us on our way. Janna said that we not only need to stretch and strengthen his left neck muscles but we also need to work on his entire left side. Janna sent me home with some "homework" - like trying to get him to stand up leading with his left leg. The activities we have tried so far have made Easton very mad. He has already established his habits with sitting and standing so it is going to be difficult to break him of those. I asked Janna how long children are in therapy at MFB and she said that if they get them as infants they are usually in and out in 12 weeks - not 7 months!!!!!!! Needless to say I was devastated when I left there. I thought I was doing what was best for my child by getting him into therapy ASAP. Had I known there was going to be such a huge difference in the care he received I would have waited. I feel like my pediatrician let us down. He should have known what the therapy programs were like at both places and should have informed me of the differences. It sounds like he could have been done with therapy months ago had we gone to MFB right way. Now Easton is scheduled for 1 hour, weekly appointments with Janna for the next 12 weeks. I thought the end was in sight but poor Easton has a lot more work ahead of him and I feel like it's all my fault.