Wordy Wednesday - Too Much To Say

So what's been going on this week... Not much, we are all kinda sick and not feeling so good, but its like the edge of sick where you still do stuff and work but you kinda feel like crap but not crappy enough to stay in bed all day. It started with Holly's runny noise and a bit of a cough. Then Joel felt nauseous and actually came home from work in the afternoon on Monday. Holly had a rough night the night before and she refused to go down for her nap. She finally fell asleep at Noon, so I canceled her therapy session with Katie so she could get some rest. Then Chloe was sick so our afternoon play date was canceled. Just when holly was waking up was when Joel came home, so we all stayed in and he slept for a few hours.

I have some blog updates that I will have to postpone, like a description of Baby loves Disco, which we went to over the weekend, but Alas my laptop is broken again. This time its the power Adapter or the Port that the power plugs into on the computer. One night I noticed the screen was really dark and I was at like 20% battery and I realized the laptop wasn't charging, so I wiggled it and messed with the wire and the power came back and it charged. Well the next day I was using it in the afternoon, and didn't notice the monitor wasn't bright until it was too late. My Battery was already down to 4% and no amount of giggle could help me it eventually died and now I can't charge it. So my pictures from the weekend are on the laptop.

Today I finally had a few minutes and I called Dell and they will be sending someone out in a few days but at this rate I think it won't be until next week, but maybe I will get lucky.

On Monday Holly also turned 14 months which is exciting and scary, I can't believe she is 14 months already, we are starting into her "Second Easter, Mother's Day, and soon Father's Day" it is weird she has been around long enough to have experienced some of these things once already.. Even if she was a squishy blob the first time around. I hate saying 14 months it makes her seem like such a grown up and I want it to slow down, it is going by so fast. I don't think I noticed the time as much when I was on "weeks" I think I stayed on weeks until she was 5 or 6 months old, before she seemed "old" enough to start counting months, and the thing is, I will blink my eye and start counting years instead of months before i realize it, it makes me want to cry, and yes, I have another birthday coming up, so I am feeling old. Especially when many of the mommies in my groups are in there 20's still.

More good news, we got the approval for speech therapy. I spoke with Leela earlier this week who said she already did the PO and the Speech Therapist, Stephanie and I are already playing phone tag trying to set up a date, but how biased am I, or well judgemental is probably the better term, but i don';t know if I like her because she sounds young, inexperienced, and I could barely understand her in her message. I guess I just had this stereo type of a speech therapist being so well spoken, but the message she left me was really hard to understand, I think she might have an accent, and then when I called her back and got her voicemail it was super casual, like you would expect a 20 year old's voice message to sound like. I am going to try and with hold judgement until I meet her and we start working together, but I really hope she is good and my first impression is off. Especially since I am so grateful to even have her.

I heard from Sally last week that she didn't think it would get approved because they are making so many cut backs and that there is a several month waiting list for in home therapy and if I do get it I might have to go into Herrick. But it turns out, in my case I guess I am lucky, because we already have someone a week after the approval, and they gave me permission to start 4 months ahead of protocol.I also spoke via email to Paula the feeding therapist who says she is interested in working with Holly and is just waiting for the Regional Center to give approval, But when I spoke with Leela she said they already had and were waiting on Paula, so who knows. I am thinking of revamping our entire schedule. Because we are going from 2 therapists and 3 sessions to 4 therapists and 5 sessions a week. And with Holly's sleeping schedule she never naps like she is supposed to, so I am contemplating having therapy with someone every morning at 9:00 Am. Except for Katie I am pretty sure the therapists are right at 1 hour sessions only, So I am thinking Katie Mon/Fri Sally Wed and then Speech and Feeding Tue/Thur.

I figure it is time for me to get off my A$$ and be more of a morning person and it would be better for us if we could get therapy over with early in the day. After we can go play, lots of play dates start at 10:30 so if Holly starts napping in the afternoon, we can still have some morning time, and if she continues to have a morning nap, she can nap at 10:30 after therapy and then by 12:30 we have the entire day ahead of us. I do think however she is starting to shift to a later single nap. The last two days she napped only once and was exhausted. I pushed her to stay up yesterday till 8:30 and tonight till about 9:00 and then she zonked out. Today I tried to lay down with her for a second nap at 6:30 but she was having none of it. I think she would have went to bed at 8:00 but the night before she woke up at 11:00 when we tried to transfer her, stirred at like 2:00 and then woke again at 4:00 for a bottle. So I think it was still a little early for her.Tonight we pushed her till after 9:00 and Joel put her to bed, she fell right asleep and stayed asleep when he transferred her at midnight. I heard her cough a few times but not enough to wake her up. The sleeping issues could also be the flem, she did "throw-up" twice, but it was the slimy flemy stuff not really digested food. She also was very hungry and had bottles both times that she woke last night, but today I made sure she ate enough to hopefully last her. I am pretty dehydrated myself, I am drinking 2 container's of tea a day, but when you are sick you need all that extra fluid.

I thought about taking Holly to the doctor, but I feel like it is a waste of time they always say there is nothing they can do. Gripe Water for Upset Stomach, Motrin for Fever (which she doesn't have) Saline Stuff and Humidifier for Stuffy Nose, and Nasal aspirator for runny nose. The bulb thing never works, so I do my best with the boogie wipes to keep her nose clean, but it is just draining down the back of her through like it is for me, I know how she feels. If she had a fever I would have taken her in I think. Also, I am not convinced it isn't allergies. I am sneezing and the "world" outside is covered with pollen, and we have been out a lot, I feel allergic, and the runny noise can easily cause post nasal drip, I mean I had it as a baby, so why wouldn't she too.

On Wednesday we had our session with Sally and we went outside to the park. Well first we went to the front of the house and Sally practiced with Holly walking up and down steps. She is pretty darn good at going up and when I hold her both hands she can go up them all with my help. If I don;t hold her both hands she tries to "climb / crawl" up them, which works fine but we want to teach her to lift her legs and use those muscles. She is definitely dominate on the right leg base don its strength and always leading with it.

Down was a little harder, she was scared and didn't want to do it, and tried to sit down, because she knows when she sits she can get down the step, so good girl for being safe, I am glad she didn't try to tumble down them, and Sally said these are pretty advanced skills and she will be two before she can go up 2-3 steps on her own, with help and 3 before she can do it alone.

But now is a good time to expose her and practice. After the steps we played on the sidewalk and she looked at the flowers and wanders back and forth in front of the house and then we walked across the street to the park and she practiced walking in the grass which she didn't like to much. Then she got to "climb" a tree and sit in the branches which was a lot of fun.

Then we went back home and played stacking the blocks some, which she tries to do but is not gentle enough when she places one block on another so it doesn't stay. Next week Sally is going to bring over bigger blocks that should be easier for her to stack so she can practice the concept.

After our session Holly took a nap and then we went to a playdate with our meet-up group at Studio Grow. We were both still kinda tired and worn out but had fun playing. Ack! I got side tracked reading facebook updates and blog posts and now it is getting to be past my bed time! I still have to get pictures off the camera, so I will write more updates later.