So, I've been working with my insurance company to see about getting Kaitlyn approved to see this developmental pediatrician even though they're out of network. You need a Letter of Medical Necessity from the pediatrician, and then, that gets reviewed and either approved or denied. There is only one developmental pediatrician in the Atlanta network that was in network, so I think that helps my medical "necessity" to see someone else. Anyway, I just got the good news today that they're going to pay for Kaitlyn to see the out of network doctor in 2 weeks. I think hell just froze over. Who ever thought we'd see the day that an insurance company would pay for something they didn't have to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok, so there's the good news.
The bad news is that now we're going to see a developmental pediatrician. Huh you ask? Well, now I have to actually face whatever it is this doctor tells me. It could still be nothing, but it could be something. Of course I want to know either way, but it makes me anxious and gives me mixed emotions.
We've had SO many people tell us that there's absolutely nothing wrong with her. She's social, she's starting to talk much more, she points, etc. So, that's all good news. And if I had just met Kaitlyn, I'd agree. I guess it's really just down to the stimming now, but that's just not something I can overlook. I wish I could just ignore it, but it's just odd. So, off we go in 2 weeks. It's a series of appointments, so we actually won't know until April, but we're going to proceed.
Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Photos
So, we went to the aquarium again Sunday. Good times. Deepo was as popular as ever. The girls spot him across the way and just get SOOOOO excited!!! And what a wonderful surprise to walk out and find it snowing!!! Obviously no windows in the aquarium, so we had no idea. And come on, we had heard the buzz about snow, but those weather men are never right. We luckily had brought the heavy coats to the aqarium because there's a bit of a walk to the car; however, I had dressed them in sweater dresses and tights. Whoops. We did have blankets though, so it worked out ok. My reason for explaining their dress is because all of you parents out there will see our snow pictures next and think to yourselves, "I can't believe she has them in dresses and tights out in the snow." :-) Well, I didn't intend to. When we got home, we just let them out of the car to play in the driveway for 5-10 minutes. It was lunch and nap time, so no point to go get them bundled up.
Note the dresses and tights above.
And here we are coloring. We're not good enough to avoid getting it all over our hands and faces yet though. :-) See Kaitlyn's purple marker on her face.
Just playing at home with DaDa. Matching shirts but not matching pants. I think I'm taking baby steps here. :-) (I've started to buy summer clothes, and I'm doing a lot of the 1/2 matching...same bottoms with different tops or vice versa. Or the same style outfit in 2 different colors.) 
Note the dresses and tights above.
And here we are coloring. We're not good enough to avoid getting it all over our hands and faces yet though. :-) See Kaitlyn's purple marker on her face. 
Just playing at home with DaDa. Matching shirts but not matching pants. I think I'm taking baby steps here. :-) (I've started to buy summer clothes, and I'm doing a lot of the 1/2 matching...same bottoms with different tops or vice versa. Or the same style outfit in 2 different colors.)
Note the clothes in the background. Pink polka dot pants and green polka dot pants. See what I mean. By the way, I CANNOT WAIT to see them in those capris. They are super cute!
Monday, February 23, 2009
To Go or Not To Go?
Kaitlyn's developmental pediatrician appt is coming up in about 2 weeks. She has shown a tremendous amount of improvement in the last month, so Mike and I are wondering if we should keep the appointment. If insurance was paying, this would be a no-brainer. What's to lose? Well, the doctor we've selected (who came highly recommended) isn't in our insurance network, so we're looking to pay for this out of pocket. It's very expensive. Hind sight being 20/20 and knowing that we're teetering on the brink of cancellation now, I wish I had picked a different a doctor who was in our network so at least she could see someone and either confirm or deny our thoughts. And we probably will still do that, but we expect another several month wait to get seen. (The doctor we currently are scheduled to see took 4 months to get this appointment.) I, however, don't want to make a decision as important as this one strictly based on finances. Kaitlyn is worth every penny, and I hate to think about losing precious time if there is something wrong. Ahhh...parenthood.
Anyway, here's the update on Kaitlyn which is why we're thinking about not going now.
Ever since the "plauge" hit our house with the stomach bug, Kaitlyn did almost a solid week of nothing but cuddling. So, since she's recovered from that, her stimming/bouncing has greatly decreased. She still does it, but not as often. So, I would think a decrease in that behavior is good. I'd be even happier if she didn't do it at all of course, but I'm looking at baby steps here. :-)
Second, her vocabulary is exploding. Just being able to say words doesn't mean she's not autistic though, so again, I'm at a cross roads. Her current words include:
-Hi MaMa
-Hi DaDa
-She has a version of her own name, Kaitlyn (sounds pretty close too)
-book
-train (and choo choo)
-duckie
-elephant (wow, that's a big one...GO KAITLYN)
-aligator (another big word!!!)
-nana (banana)
-light
-more (and she signs it at the same time)
-cookie
-milk
-plane
-daisy (both for our dog and the Disney character)
-donald
-goofy
-ball
-baby
-earring
-ear
-eye
-mouth
-hat
-she still does all of her animal sounds (bee, owl, horse, lion, snake)
-and she tries to sing along to words of songs where she can as well as chimes in when we count from 1-10 for the numbers she knows
-there are several more....
OK, so yes, she's "talking." And it's not just when she's watching certain videos. She will go over to her toy shelves and point up at the books and say "book." She will see a banana on the kitchen counter and say "nana." She will look up in the sky and say "plane"...sometimes there isn't actually a plane up there, but hey, I guess she thinks there should be. So, we've got pointing in conjunction with words which I know to be good from an autistic perspective too.
However, I have a co-worker who has an autistic son. I was sharing with her this morning that we might want to cancel, and she was excited for us. She is, however, trying to help too. So, she just mentioned to us that when her son was diagnosed at 25 months that he had 111 words, would point off and on, etc... So, I guess the moral of her story was that just because a kid talks and points doesn't mean that enough progress has been made to rule out autism. I hadn't thought of it that way. I was simply thinking, hey, she's talking. Something must be going right. To hear her story with her son gives me pause again about what to do with this appointment. Kaitlyn does not have many of the autism red flags (she makes eye contact, she points, she's talking more, she doesn't have sensory issues), but that doesn't/couldn't mean that she still wouldn't be somewhere on the spectrum toward the mild end. AAAAHHHHHHHH!!! I reiterate...parenthood. This is tough.
Help...what should we do?
Anyway, here's the update on Kaitlyn which is why we're thinking about not going now.
Ever since the "plauge" hit our house with the stomach bug, Kaitlyn did almost a solid week of nothing but cuddling. So, since she's recovered from that, her stimming/bouncing has greatly decreased. She still does it, but not as often. So, I would think a decrease in that behavior is good. I'd be even happier if she didn't do it at all of course, but I'm looking at baby steps here. :-)
Second, her vocabulary is exploding. Just being able to say words doesn't mean she's not autistic though, so again, I'm at a cross roads. Her current words include:
-Hi MaMa
-Hi DaDa
-She has a version of her own name, Kaitlyn (sounds pretty close too)
-book
-train (and choo choo)
-duckie
-elephant (wow, that's a big one...GO KAITLYN)
-aligator (another big word!!!)
-nana (banana)
-light
-more (and she signs it at the same time)
-cookie
-milk
-plane
-daisy (both for our dog and the Disney character)
-donald
-goofy
-ball
-baby
-earring
-ear
-eye
-mouth
-hat
-she still does all of her animal sounds (bee, owl, horse, lion, snake)
-and she tries to sing along to words of songs where she can as well as chimes in when we count from 1-10 for the numbers she knows
-there are several more....
OK, so yes, she's "talking." And it's not just when she's watching certain videos. She will go over to her toy shelves and point up at the books and say "book." She will see a banana on the kitchen counter and say "nana." She will look up in the sky and say "plane"...sometimes there isn't actually a plane up there, but hey, I guess she thinks there should be. So, we've got pointing in conjunction with words which I know to be good from an autistic perspective too.
However, I have a co-worker who has an autistic son. I was sharing with her this morning that we might want to cancel, and she was excited for us. She is, however, trying to help too. So, she just mentioned to us that when her son was diagnosed at 25 months that he had 111 words, would point off and on, etc... So, I guess the moral of her story was that just because a kid talks and points doesn't mean that enough progress has been made to rule out autism. I hadn't thought of it that way. I was simply thinking, hey, she's talking. Something must be going right. To hear her story with her son gives me pause again about what to do with this appointment. Kaitlyn does not have many of the autism red flags (she makes eye contact, she points, she's talking more, she doesn't have sensory issues), but that doesn't/couldn't mean that she still wouldn't be somewhere on the spectrum toward the mild end. AAAAHHHHHHHH!!! I reiterate...parenthood. This is tough.
Help...what should we do?
Thursday, February 5, 2009
We Need a Miracle and Your Prayers
Mike's cousin, Michelle, and her husband Jeremy have two adorable little girls, Madison and Aubrey. Aubrey turns one in about a week, and about a week ago, she was diagnosed with a very rare and aggressive cancer on her liver. Right off the bat, this type of cancer doesn't have the best of survival rates, nonetheless, there is a SURVIVAL rate. Someone's got to be that one...and we're praying that it's Aubrey. It MUST be Aubrey.
She's had 5 days of intense chemo and went home yesterday for just over a week off and then will return for more chemo. The only chances of shriking the tumor to a size where cutting it out or a transplant are even options was a very strong dose of chemo. They say that even if Aubrey makes it, this chemo may give her problems later in life...even a possible loss of hearing. When she goes back for this second round of chemo, they will run a test on the tumor to see if these past 5 days of intense chemo have even had an effect. Please keep Jeremy, Michelle, Madison and sweet, sweet young baby Aubrey in your prayers.
With Love, the Barbrees
She's had 5 days of intense chemo and went home yesterday for just over a week off and then will return for more chemo. The only chances of shriking the tumor to a size where cutting it out or a transplant are even options was a very strong dose of chemo. They say that even if Aubrey makes it, this chemo may give her problems later in life...even a possible loss of hearing. When she goes back for this second round of chemo, they will run a test on the tumor to see if these past 5 days of intense chemo have even had an effect. Please keep Jeremy, Michelle, Madison and sweet, sweet young baby Aubrey in your prayers.
With Love, the Barbrees
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
What Fish?
Before the plague hit our house (see entry below), we had taken the girls to the aquarium again. They had the doors for the Oceans Ballroom open and people were kind of milling in and out because there are two viewing opportunities in there that I guess people don't always get to see. One is the Buluga Whales just from the other side and another is the Whale Shark exhibit. Same fish, just a different perspective. Anyway...they had this machine out to clean the carpet and it was just sitting in the middle of the ballroom. Don't you just know my kids ran over to it and wanted to try to push it. (They LOVE to push things: shopping carts, their doll toys, their real stroller, anything...) Did we mention there were fish at the aquarium?
We spotted Deepo!!!!
And more Deepo....
We actually got back in line (not long thankfully) to see Deepo again because once was apparently not enough. Did we mention there are fish at the aquarium?
And I wasn't kidding when I said Kaitlyn REALLY likes Deepo. Good thing we have the annual passes!!!
Nicole trying to push the machine.
Running around in the ballroom....did we mention there were fish?
Oh, finally some fish!!!! But not for long....
We spotted Deepo!!!!
And more Deepo....
We actually got back in line (not long thankfully) to see Deepo again because once was apparently not enough. Did we mention there are fish at the aquarium?
And I wasn't kidding when I said Kaitlyn REALLY likes Deepo. Good thing we have the annual passes!!! What a Week!!!
Well, the girls got some nasty virus or something and it invaded our whole house. Late Saturday night sometime (I say that because she's such an angel and just slept right through the night) Kaitlyn threw up. We found her with a small amount of puke in her crib Sunday morning. And then we were off....
Kaitlyn was the only one with sick signs for Sunday and most of Monday. Of course we weren't foolish enough to think that Nicole wasn't going to get it. It was only a matter of time. Monday evening, Nicole threw up everywhere, and then we were off with two kids....
And then, Mike called Monday and said he was on his way home from work because he had gotten sick. So, I was the lone hold out....well, until about midnight when I too started getting sick. Then, Tuesday night our nanny called and said she needed Wed (and it turns out Thursday too) off because she got it. As I said before, WHAT A WEEK!!!
My poor, poor girls. And poor Kaitlyn, my tiny, tiny Kaitlyn, she got it first and threw up for the longest...SIX days! Nicole only threw up for about three days. Most of the throwing up was at night time too. How strange? We had very few instances of day time throw up. Maybe it was something about being horizontal. However, it wasn't during nap time. Whatever. The most random virus ever. They told us they thought it was rota. Of course I'm wondering why they vaccinate against rota if you get it anyway. It turned out not to be rota though. And the bacteria cultures for eccoli and salmanilla came back negative too. So, what a mystery.
I think I did about 20-30 loads of laundry last week. Can't wait for that water bill. :-) Anyway, that's the update!
Kaitlyn was the only one with sick signs for Sunday and most of Monday. Of course we weren't foolish enough to think that Nicole wasn't going to get it. It was only a matter of time. Monday evening, Nicole threw up everywhere, and then we were off with two kids....
And then, Mike called Monday and said he was on his way home from work because he had gotten sick. So, I was the lone hold out....well, until about midnight when I too started getting sick. Then, Tuesday night our nanny called and said she needed Wed (and it turns out Thursday too) off because she got it. As I said before, WHAT A WEEK!!!
My poor, poor girls. And poor Kaitlyn, my tiny, tiny Kaitlyn, she got it first and threw up for the longest...SIX days! Nicole only threw up for about three days. Most of the throwing up was at night time too. How strange? We had very few instances of day time throw up. Maybe it was something about being horizontal. However, it wasn't during nap time. Whatever. The most random virus ever. They told us they thought it was rota. Of course I'm wondering why they vaccinate against rota if you get it anyway. It turned out not to be rota though. And the bacteria cultures for eccoli and salmanilla came back negative too. So, what a mystery.
I think I did about 20-30 loads of laundry last week. Can't wait for that water bill. :-) Anyway, that's the update!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Words, Words, Words
Nicole continues to be our little sponge, soaking up every word and often repeating anything you say. Not to imply that she "knows" all of these words that she repeats, but I think she does know several of them. Let's see...what does she know...here goes:
-She continues to count to 10!!!!
-She's starting to show signs of knowing the alphabet. We have one toy, Leap, (that Kaitlyn really likes better, so she pushes his tummy to sing the ABCs often) and when Leap starts singing, Nicole will get several letters here and there as well as getting the overall tune of the song. It's awesome!
-Shoe
-Night Night
-Light
-Water
-Minnie
-Daisy
-MaMa (love hearing that one...it wasn't like this was her first word or anything...I waited a long time for this to become a regularly used word)
-DaDa
-Bubble
-Baby
-Melmo (for Elmo)
-Outside
-Hello
-Bye Bye
-Uh Oh
-Oh My
-Oh Toodles
-Oh no
-No No No
-She says choo choo when she sees a train
-She says meow when she sees a picture of a cat
-And more....
Now, for Kaitlyn...drum roll please...we're SO excited that her vocabulary is picking up!!! When Nicole counts to 10, she absolutely joins in. I don't know that she could go from 1 to 10 all the way, but she definitely has 3, 8, 9 and 10. Then, she also does the same thing with Leap when she pushes his belly to sing the alphabet. She has several letters in there as well as the overall tune to the song too!!!! How fantastic. I think we just needed to be patient (which we were told plenty and never ignored, but when it's your kid, seems like we just wanted to do everything we could). She also has words. Here goes...
-Light
-Dog
-Daisy
-MaMa (same thing here...very exciting for me)
-DaDa
-Duckie (this is a new one - and a neat one becuase she's asking for her favorite toy which is cool) -She still does the same 6 animal noises
-She signs "more" quite often
-Yeah (always accompanied with applause)
-Baby
-Up
-Hi
-Bye Bye
-Cir Kin (or something like that - it comes out a bit like the word certain, but she's saying circle)
-And there are times that it seems like she's trying to say something if we say, "Kaitlyn, can you say ____."
And that's that! They're both doing great!!! I've waited for so long for them to talk. It's going to be that old saying, "Be careful what you wish for," right? :-) Oh well.
-She continues to count to 10!!!!
-She's starting to show signs of knowing the alphabet. We have one toy, Leap, (that Kaitlyn really likes better, so she pushes his tummy to sing the ABCs often) and when Leap starts singing, Nicole will get several letters here and there as well as getting the overall tune of the song. It's awesome!
-Shoe
-Night Night
-Light
-Water
-Minnie
-Daisy
-MaMa (love hearing that one...it wasn't like this was her first word or anything...I waited a long time for this to become a regularly used word)
-DaDa
-Bubble
-Baby
-Melmo (for Elmo)
-Outside
-Hello
-Bye Bye
-Uh Oh
-Oh My
-Oh Toodles
-Oh no
-No No No
-She says choo choo when she sees a train
-She says meow when she sees a picture of a cat
-And more....
Now, for Kaitlyn...drum roll please...we're SO excited that her vocabulary is picking up!!! When Nicole counts to 10, she absolutely joins in. I don't know that she could go from 1 to 10 all the way, but she definitely has 3, 8, 9 and 10. Then, she also does the same thing with Leap when she pushes his belly to sing the alphabet. She has several letters in there as well as the overall tune to the song too!!!! How fantastic. I think we just needed to be patient (which we were told plenty and never ignored, but when it's your kid, seems like we just wanted to do everything we could). She also has words. Here goes...
-Light
-Dog
-Daisy
-MaMa (same thing here...very exciting for me)
-DaDa
-Duckie (this is a new one - and a neat one becuase she's asking for her favorite toy which is cool) -She still does the same 6 animal noises
-She signs "more" quite often
-Yeah (always accompanied with applause)
-Baby
-Up
-Hi
-Bye Bye
-Cir Kin (or something like that - it comes out a bit like the word certain, but she's saying circle)
-And there are times that it seems like she's trying to say something if we say, "Kaitlyn, can you say ____."
And that's that! They're both doing great!!! I've waited for so long for them to talk. It's going to be that old saying, "Be careful what you wish for," right? :-) Oh well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)