A Quick Update: M2's Speech and Baby2

This week has been busy with kid-related appointments and having my parents in town visiting. One of the big appointments was to get M2's speech intervention rolling.

M2's Speech Development
M2 isn't quite where she should be speech-wise. She understands everything, has ways to get her points across, she just won't use words most of the time. Except for a select few, the words she does know she refuses to use often. A and I have been working with her doing everything we can think of to no avail. The pediatrician said we could either start looking into therapy now, or wait until she turns 2. However, when she turns 2 is just after Baby2 is born. Taking that into account, we decided to start intervention now.

When asked what the next step is to get her help, the doctor very helpfully only said to "call the county." The county very helpfully only has info on getting assistance with speech for kids 3 and over. After some research and asking around at library time, I found a place not too far away that specializes in therapy for under age 3 only. The nice lady I spoke too arranged an appointment for initial intake at our house. She came over this week, met M2, asked a bunch of questions, and set us up for the next step of a complete evaluation. In a few weeks, M2's going to have "playtime" with a couple ladies who will do a full eval then give us the results. The woman today said she's obviously very intelligent, we just need to get her to start using more words. It's expected that she'll be on track with everything else.

After the evaluation, our intake coordinator sets M2 up with a therapy plan. The good thing about this organization is that they find it important that the child is in their own environment for therapy. The therapist comes out and word with her and show A and I things we can do with her the rest of the time.

The plan right now is to get all this set up and maybe even get a session or two in before Baby2 arrives. At the least, we'll be ready to go as soon as things settle down with him.

Baby2's Room
Last week, we finally narrowed down the choices of paint colors for Baby2's room to four. Once we get those up on the wall we'll (hopefully) be able to pick one. Right now, there's a futon in there so we can't paint the whole room. The futon needs to go in the family room, which has another couch in it. That one needs to go in the living room which--you guessed it-- also has a couch in it. The hospice we're donating one couch to comes next week, then we can play musical couches and start painting. You can read more about the plans for the nursery here.

At my weekly appointment the doctor said Baby2 is on track. The only downside is that he hasn't flipped yet--he's still breech. He's got a few weeks left to make the flip and I'm hoping he does as I don't want a C-section for a number of reasons (the big one being surgery and I don't mix, at all).

A and I checked out the other choice of hospital for labor and delivery finally. M2 got to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa going to the pumpkin patch, animal park and out to dinner while I was busy with the tour and doctor appointment. It's a good thing we did the tour since we've decided we like the hospital better than the one we were thinking of using. As long as Baby2 doesn't come earlier than 38 weeks, we plan to use the one we toured. The big selling point for me was all private rooms and wireless monitors so I won't have to be strapped down uncomfortably to a bed for hours. That part was NOT fun with M2 and I think labor would have gone faster than the 41.5 hours it took had I been able to move around. I also can't get comfortable in beds sitting up or lying on my back--which is the position I got stuck in so the doctors could have the monitors work.

With less than seven weeks to go, there is still plenty to do on our lists!