OT

So, 3 weeks ago we had our second set of evaluations for the boys: Occupational Therapy.  She asked ridiculous questions, like does your child help with dressing?  Ha!  Dean does the exact opposite of helping with dressing.  He rolls and wiggles and throws his head back, screaming hysterically.  "No!!  Don't put that shirt on me Mommy!" Like I am torturing him.  It's even worse when, God forbid, someone else attempts to dress him.  My simple response: No.  They do not assist with dressing.  I was unaware at 1 year old that this was expected.  Apparently it is.  And once again, we were diagnosed with developmental delay.  (For far more than just the dressing issues).  How do parents keep track?  How do people who have no therapy background know that, at 12 months, a child should pick up a small object using a pincer grasp?  I feel like I am struggling to keep track of the milestones when I had several classes and an internship in dealing with the physical side of those.

This time, Dean was a little more delayed than Warren.  But both qualified for occupational therapy, falling well below the normal range for their ages, even when we subtract 3 months for their prematurity.  Sigh.  When I look at them, I just don't see all these delays.  I tell everyone how great they are doing, how they are advancing and growing.  Only to be told they are not.  It's incredibly frustrating.  Yet, at the same time, I am so grateful we receive all these services in our home, on our schedule, with some great women who (so far at least) have been incredibly accommodating as I deal with the boys schedules.  Our first session is this week.  If we schedule as recommended, that brings our weekly therapy visits to 4.  Add in the near monthly weight checks, soon to be monthly synergist shots, hearing and eye tests every 3 months, etc. and my new life will apparently be attending doctor appointments.  I now understand a little better how overwhelmed my patients must have felt when I recommended PT 3x/week!  But I am ready to help Warren and Dean catch up to where they should be, as we only have 11 more months where the excuse "but they were 3 months early" can be used...craziness!