Emma accompanied her brother, Nathaniel, to speech therapy today. She had a consultation with his speech therapist. Her father and I have been wondering why she wasn't talking like her brother. We thought it was odd that a child who has good hearing wasn't talking as much as our hearing impaired child. We had her hearing tested, even so far as getting a sedated ABR, which showed her hearing was perfect for a child of 7 months. She has perfect hearing so the audiologist suggested we get her speech evaluated. I've heard that babies are either mobile or they talk, so maybe it's a case of her being a mover and him a talker.
So today we have news, her lingual and labial (upper lip) frenulum are restricted, aka tongue-tied. The frenulum is a small fold of tissue that secures or restricts the motion of a mobile organ of the body. In this case, the tongue and the upper lip, which are used in speaking. Also, the labial frenulum can cause a gap between the two front upper teeth. It can also increase the incidence of choking on food, something I've noticed Emma having some problems with now that the twins are eating coarser foods. A restrictive frenulum can even cause a bad latch while breastfeeding. I thought her GERD was the problem associated with her reluctance to breastfeed, perhaps the restricted frenulum was another factor.
So we can thank her hearing impaired brother for her getting help. If it wasn't for his hearing loss, we wouldn't have gone to the Developmental Pediatrician who suggested that Emma get a hearing evaluation. If it wasn't for his speech therapist's interest in Emma's lack of speech, we wouldn't have gotten an answer for the problem so quickly. We're going to see their ENT on Monday and Emma will start speech therapy in December. She needs help catching up her speech development - more than just cooing, squeaking and crying. I'm sure in no time she'll be babbling up a storm. Perhaps, the twins will develop their own language like many twins do. I'm looking forward to that.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Surviving as a mother of twins
I am a mother of 9 month old boy/girl fraternal twins, adjusted age 7 months. My life is simple. I feed babies, watch and play with babies, comfort them, put them down for naps, take them to doctors, feed them, diaper them, feed them, dress them...and so on.
My son has been diagnosed with auditory neuropathy syndrome. He is mildly deaf in his right ear, and moderately to profoundly deaf in his left ear. For a deaf child, he hears remarkably well. He also suffers from wimpy white boy syndrome. When his NICU doctor told us he was a wimpy white boy, I thought reverse discrimination. But I have since found out, it's a real thing, baby white boys have a hard time their first year of life, they lag behind girls in many ways. His sister beats him in trunk control. She's been standing on her own for a month, and he just flops around. After 5 weeks of occupational therapy and developmental skill through ECI we are seeing remarkable improvement. He can sit up on his own, and he rolls from front to back and back to front and kneels. He doesn't crawl, but rolls to places he wants to go and he sort of slithers on his belly. His sister hasn't figured out crawling either, she scoots on her back and screams the whole time.
I no longer where nice clothes. I feel dressed up when I wear jeans! I spend most of my time in yoga pants and whatever semi-clean shirt I can find. Spit up doesn't seem to come out of clothes. I've tried Shout and Oxi-Clean, I'm thinking of just burning the clothes instead. On a good day, I've brushed my hair and teeth at least once, am wearing a little make up, found reasonably clean clothes to wear and had a decent night sleep. When will my clothes stop being stained by babies? Will it ever end?
Almost every room in my house has something baby related in it, except for the master bedroom and the tack room. Did I mention my husband and I own a horse? Royal Krew was our baby before I became pregnant. She is now pasture art. She enjoys treats, the company of her stable mates and not being ridden. We introduced the babies to her after Easter. She sniffed at the babies while I held them in my arms. I think she understood as she has been a mother to three foals prior to her life with us.
I find time to design jewelry. Working with beads, stones, wire, etc really helps me relax and gets the creative juices flowing. I've made a lot of earrings this year. Earrings don't take as long to design, and assemble as a necklace does. Chaplets are easier to create than rosaries, so I've made some of those, too. I've got lots of ideas, but not a lot of time to actually sit down and make it so.
This fall, I decided to do some marketing with Out of the Box Samples. I've made a lot of pendants and more earrings the past few months. I have to package my December samples and get the package out the door for my November 20th deadline. I decided I needed some time off from making jewelry samples, so I'm taking January off, but will be participating in OOTBS February, March, April and May 2011. Then I'm taking the summer off from OOTBS but will be sending in samples for October, November and December.
This is pretty much me in a nut shell: babies, horse, jewelry designer, cooking, church choir, bible study, my family's farm, gardening (semi-organic), mother, daughter, sister, wife, child of God, native Texan. Prior to my twins, I worked in Residential Real Estate for 14 years. Some days I really miss it and would give my coffee money if I could show houses for an afternoon, talk to an adult, negotiate an offer. Most days, I would kill for a Starbucks Grande Mocha but I'll settle for a home brewed freshly ground Sumatra coffee with vanilla syrup.
My son has been diagnosed with auditory neuropathy syndrome. He is mildly deaf in his right ear, and moderately to profoundly deaf in his left ear. For a deaf child, he hears remarkably well. He also suffers from wimpy white boy syndrome. When his NICU doctor told us he was a wimpy white boy, I thought reverse discrimination. But I have since found out, it's a real thing, baby white boys have a hard time their first year of life, they lag behind girls in many ways. His sister beats him in trunk control. She's been standing on her own for a month, and he just flops around. After 5 weeks of occupational therapy and developmental skill through ECI we are seeing remarkable improvement. He can sit up on his own, and he rolls from front to back and back to front and kneels. He doesn't crawl, but rolls to places he wants to go and he sort of slithers on his belly. His sister hasn't figured out crawling either, she scoots on her back and screams the whole time.
I no longer where nice clothes. I feel dressed up when I wear jeans! I spend most of my time in yoga pants and whatever semi-clean shirt I can find. Spit up doesn't seem to come out of clothes. I've tried Shout and Oxi-Clean, I'm thinking of just burning the clothes instead. On a good day, I've brushed my hair and teeth at least once, am wearing a little make up, found reasonably clean clothes to wear and had a decent night sleep. When will my clothes stop being stained by babies? Will it ever end?
Almost every room in my house has something baby related in it, except for the master bedroom and the tack room. Did I mention my husband and I own a horse? Royal Krew was our baby before I became pregnant. She is now pasture art. She enjoys treats, the company of her stable mates and not being ridden. We introduced the babies to her after Easter. She sniffed at the babies while I held them in my arms. I think she understood as she has been a mother to three foals prior to her life with us.
I find time to design jewelry. Working with beads, stones, wire, etc really helps me relax and gets the creative juices flowing. I've made a lot of earrings this year. Earrings don't take as long to design, and assemble as a necklace does. Chaplets are easier to create than rosaries, so I've made some of those, too. I've got lots of ideas, but not a lot of time to actually sit down and make it so.
This fall, I decided to do some marketing with Out of the Box Samples. I've made a lot of pendants and more earrings the past few months. I have to package my December samples and get the package out the door for my November 20th deadline. I decided I needed some time off from making jewelry samples, so I'm taking January off, but will be participating in OOTBS February, March, April and May 2011. Then I'm taking the summer off from OOTBS but will be sending in samples for October, November and December.
This is pretty much me in a nut shell: babies, horse, jewelry designer, cooking, church choir, bible study, my family's farm, gardening (semi-organic), mother, daughter, sister, wife, child of God, native Texan. Prior to my twins, I worked in Residential Real Estate for 14 years. Some days I really miss it and would give my coffee money if I could show houses for an afternoon, talk to an adult, negotiate an offer. Most days, I would kill for a Starbucks Grande Mocha but I'll settle for a home brewed freshly ground Sumatra coffee with vanilla syrup.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Dallas Sample Sale
I spent this weekend, doing one of my favorite things: shopping! The Dallas Sample Sale was this past weekend, and I found great bargains, one of a kind items, and some new designers. I discovered several shops I wanted to share with others.
A Peace of Paper designed by desperate mom, Jan Hurn. Her designer stationary has straight to the point faith messages. Her Christmas cards truly share the Christian gospel. I was quite happy to find Christian Christmas cards at reasonable prices, her products can be found at www.peaceofpaper.com
A yummy treasure at the Dallas Sample Sale this year was Texas Toffee, handmade in Garland daily. I bought a quarter pound small bag of almond toffee and one of pecan toffee yesterday and scarfed it down. I did share it with my husband, so I didn't make a complete pig of myself. I will order more for his Christmas stocking, since I've already eaten the other two bags. I can really appreciate home made toffee after my almost disastrous caramel popcorn balls at Halloween. check out www.texastoffee.com
If you're looking for precious baby gift items, look no further than the Three Marthas. They have everything from fabric photo frames, to burp cloths, monogrammed onesies, embellished baby blankets and more. I purchased a green monogrammed onesie for Emma and a burp cloth/drool bib decorated in cowboy fabric for a baby boy gift. www.3marthas.com
Lastly, but certainly not the least, I discovered Whitney Elizabeth. She designs and her sister helps her make, Blossom Accessories. Her creations are a must for every young at heart girl. She makes blossom hair clips, brooches, headbands, baby crochet headbands, necklaces, etc. I stopped by her booth several times, unfortunately Emma was having an "I need a nap!" meltdown each time, and I was unable to have Emma model items without her screaming. So much for the cuteness, but I would have loved to have purchased one of the baby crochet headbands or crocheted blossom hats, if I could have discerned which color for Emma. Choices of pink, turquoise, red, ivory, purple with different colored fabric blossoms, I think it was too much for Miss Em. Check out www.WhitneyElizabethDesigns.com for your favorite little girl.
I'm a bit exhausted from shopping; however, this week I'm going to start wrapping the gifts I purchased this weekend, so I will have them ready for my family's big Thanksgiving Dinner Reunion. I like to have the majority of my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving, so I can pass the gifts out to my out of town relatives, it cuts down on shipping expenses and saves my sanity for later in the season.
Please note, I did not receive compensation for my review of these wholesalers/shops.
A Peace of Paper designed by desperate mom, Jan Hurn. Her designer stationary has straight to the point faith messages. Her Christmas cards truly share the Christian gospel. I was quite happy to find Christian Christmas cards at reasonable prices, her products can be found at www.peaceofpaper.com
A yummy treasure at the Dallas Sample Sale this year was Texas Toffee, handmade in Garland daily. I bought a quarter pound small bag of almond toffee and one of pecan toffee yesterday and scarfed it down. I did share it with my husband, so I didn't make a complete pig of myself. I will order more for his Christmas stocking, since I've already eaten the other two bags. I can really appreciate home made toffee after my almost disastrous caramel popcorn balls at Halloween. check out www.texastoffee.com
If you're looking for precious baby gift items, look no further than the Three Marthas. They have everything from fabric photo frames, to burp cloths, monogrammed onesies, embellished baby blankets and more. I purchased a green monogrammed onesie for Emma and a burp cloth/drool bib decorated in cowboy fabric for a baby boy gift. www.3marthas.com
Lastly, but certainly not the least, I discovered Whitney Elizabeth. She designs and her sister helps her make, Blossom Accessories. Her creations are a must for every young at heart girl. She makes blossom hair clips, brooches, headbands, baby crochet headbands, necklaces, etc. I stopped by her booth several times, unfortunately Emma was having an "I need a nap!" meltdown each time, and I was unable to have Emma model items without her screaming. So much for the cuteness, but I would have loved to have purchased one of the baby crochet headbands or crocheted blossom hats, if I could have discerned which color for Emma. Choices of pink, turquoise, red, ivory, purple with different colored fabric blossoms, I think it was too much for Miss Em. Check out www.WhitneyElizabethDesigns.com for your favorite little girl.
I'm a bit exhausted from shopping; however, this week I'm going to start wrapping the gifts I purchased this weekend, so I will have them ready for my family's big Thanksgiving Dinner Reunion. I like to have the majority of my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving, so I can pass the gifts out to my out of town relatives, it cuts down on shipping expenses and saves my sanity for later in the season.
Please note, I did not receive compensation for my review of these wholesalers/shops.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Trunk or Treat Caramel Popcorn Balls
Okay, so my first attempt at making caramel popcorn balls didn't go so good, and I'm out the door heading towards the grocery store at 10:30 p.m. the night before my church's big chili cook-off and annual trunk or treat. I like to cook. I didn't say I was any good at it. I have discovered the necessity of a candy thermometer when making home made caramel. Just heating and stirring the boiling mixture for 20 minutes, doesn't guarantee it is going to form a ball. I supposed the mixture balls up...mine never did. My husband and I thought it balled up in cold water when we dropped some into a glass of water; however, when I poured the mixture onto my air popped popcorn, it thickened immediately into clumps.
This time I decided to use Kraft Caramels. The biggest effort in making this caramel sauce was unwrapping the individual pieces before I nuked them in the microwave. I like that a lot more than stirring constantly for 20 minutes. I poured the melted Kraft caramel mixture over the air popped popcorn and it looked like what I had expected out of the first batch. Now how do I store them?
Please excuse me, I'm heading to the kitchen to roll up my sleeves, butter up my hands, and form some popcorn balls. I think next year, I'm just going to bake some cookies and hand them out during trunk or treat.
This time I decided to use Kraft Caramels. The biggest effort in making this caramel sauce was unwrapping the individual pieces before I nuked them in the microwave. I like that a lot more than stirring constantly for 20 minutes. I poured the melted Kraft caramel mixture over the air popped popcorn and it looked like what I had expected out of the first batch. Now how do I store them?
Please excuse me, I'm heading to the kitchen to roll up my sleeves, butter up my hands, and form some popcorn balls. I think next year, I'm just going to bake some cookies and hand them out during trunk or treat.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)