Lookin' good!

As Josh wrote yesterday, Tate had his first evaluation with Early Intervention Services last week. His main therapist (she's kind of a jack of all trades for the birth through age three group) and an occupational therapist came to our house to check out Tate and see where he's at developmentally.

Because low muscle tone is a major issue for kids with Down Syndrome, they wanted to see if he could turn his head side to side, lift his legs up while lying on his back, lift his arms when lying on his back, etc. I was amazed at how much they could evaluate just by observing him doing his own thing. Those of you who have held him know that Tate is kind of a squirmy little guy. They were happy to see how much he moves and said that some kids with Downs don't even voluntarily lift their arms and legs when lying down. Overall, they were very impressed with his muscle tone.

They had him laying on his back looking to one side and would make a soft noise with a rattle behind his head. We could see his eyes start to move immediately and within a second or two he would turn his head to try to find the source of the noise. They also showed him a few black and white geometric pictures and he would track those with his eyes. It was nice to see him react because I was starting to wonder if he had vision or hearing problems (both are common in people with Downs).

The next step is to meet with the speech pathologist. Everyone we tell that to is surprised that a newborn has to meet with a speech therapist, but they aren't going to work on actual speech yet. They want to see him take a bottle and suck on his pacifier and make sure that he has a coordinated sucking motion. I think there are other things they look for too, but I'm not exactly sure. Our meeting with the ST is 3/27, so we'll let you know after that.

Our therapist was here today and gave us some exercises to work on for head control. Tate is able to lift his head, but it's really wobbly and he doesn't have much endurance. It's nice to have something constructive to work on with him so we feel like we're helping him progress in the time before our actual therapy appointments start (end of April).

On a different note, I started back to work last Friday. Since Tate isn't supposed to start daycare for another three months, we weren't sure what we were going to do. Neither Josh nor I can realistically take that much time off. My aunt Lisa generously offered to watch Tate one day each week, as did my Grandma Betty. We are so blessed to have family here to help us out! Lisa had Tate on Friday. It felt strange to leave Tate for an entire day; I'd only been away from him for two hours since he was born! It did feel nice to be back at work though, and it was a great feeling knowing that Tate was with someone Josh and I trust and who loves him! Thanks Lisa! He has his first day with GG tomorrow and I'm sure he'll have a great time and get a little spoiled! :)

I think that's it for now. Enjoy the pics of the kids. They're from this weekend. Avery loves reading to her baby brother!