I really feel like I have gotten too busy this fall! This blog is, unfortunately, one of the things that has been left undone. We have had many things happen with Jordan over the past few months so I'm just going to briefly summarize what's going on.
Jordan has had a few months off of feeding therapy. We are still giving her thickened water through her squeeze bottle. She is fiercely independent and MUST hold it herself but is doing very well at taking small sips. She only takes a little bit during her 'meals' and occasional sips when I'm getting something out of the fridge and sees it there. Jordan had a swallow study last month and Jenny said that it was her best so far...but she is not ready for oral feedings :( We are going to start 4 sessions (once a week) for some experimental things she wants to try but not necessarily with feeding goals at this point.
I think the most difficult part is the fact that we are unable to feed her anything! Jordan is getting old enough that she wants to do what we do and eating is no exception. Mealtimes have been increasingly difficult as she used to spend it in her portacrib, and then as she started walking, she would run around and play, but now she wants to sit with us. If we put her in her high chair with toys and plastic food, she normally just screams. If we put her at the table in a booster with her plastic food, she is ready to get down within a few minutes. What we usually end up doing is having her running around playing when we start and she will go sit on Derrick's lap for a few minutes and then get down and come over to me and want up on my lap - this continues back and forth throughout the meal. When she is on our lap, we need to move our food away because she tries to grab at it and put it in her mouth. This has created a very difficult mealtime experience for everyone. Mak just wants to be able to have a normal conversation with us but we are constantly interrupted by her screams or having to talk to her. Conner has a hard time understanding why Jordan can run around but he has to sit at the table and eat. Please pray that Jordan can come to an understanding that she is unable to eat because it's not safe and yet can enjoy just sitting with our family in her high chair or booster at the table during mealtimes.
Physically, Jordan has been doing great!!! She seems to be growing!! She is still wearing some 12 month clothes but is mostly into 18 month. Her feet finally started growing too!! She spent over a year in a size 2 but last spring moved into a size 3 and this fall is already into a size 4!! I even went up to a size 5 when buying her winter boots to make sure that they are big enough if she keeps growing! She has learned to jump and loves to jump around to music or just for fun! That is a physical skill that is more advanced than her other gross motor skills so it is exciting to see!!
Jordan continues to receive services through Early On and Suzanne is her new therapist. She comes to our house once a week and provides an hour of speech, physical, and occupational therapy. Since she is a speech therapist, Jordan has received a large amount of focus on her speech and seems to be improving quite a bit. Derrick and I also attend a class based on the book "It Takes Two To Talk" every Monday night and that teaches us how to work more effectively with Jordan on two way communication. It has helped both of us to feel more aware of what we can be doing to encourage her to not only speak, but communicate through gestures or other means of communication. She is using a few words with encouragement but is still very rarely using independent language. We continue to work with her daily and hope that soon she will be talking up a storm!!!
I know that there is so much more that I could write about, but for now this will do. I hope to try to keep this updated more frequently for those of you who follow her progress on here.
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