Yesterday was an interesting day

Around 10am Paul called and asked me where the first aid kit was. As soon as he said that, I knew I was in for a long day. Jules normally crawls around in the dining room, and normally gets stuck under the table or a chair. Same thing happened yesterday, so Paul went to get her out and noticed there was blood everywhere. Ends up she had spliced her index finger open. We still have NO idea what she cut it on. I have torn apart the dining room looking for something she could have cut herself on, and I can't figure it out. And for any of you who have been in my house, you know my dining room is the cleanest room of my house, there is nothing in there... well we know thats a lie, there was obviously something in there. Anyways, Paul ended up calling the rescue squad around 10:30am because it was still bleeding and he couldnt get a bandage on it. I got home at 11am and Jules was sleeping. Once she got up around 1pm she tore her bandaid off and was bleeding everywhere. I decided that after 3 hours of this, I'd take her to the ER to see if she needed stitches.

Paul came home from work and I headed up to the ER alone with her. All I have to say is that I was pretty happy that I had been through this before last year with Lily, so I knew what to expect. Obviously not happy that either of them needed stitches, but happy that I knew what was going on. It helped me to remain a bit calmer.

The doctor that saw Jules thought she would be able to use the liquid bandage to stop the bleeding, but that didn't work, so it was time for the papoose to come out. Jules was restrained in that while she got 5 stitches on her little finger. She was so upset and traumitized, as was I. Of course she starts screaming mommmmmm, mommmmmmmmm...... her first time saying mom, and this is the situation (believe it or not, this was the first time Lily said mama, when she was getting her stitches done last year).

I ended up lying on the medical documents, when they asked if she was up to date on her immunizations. I've got to do some further research about the tetnus vaccine, and we will follow up with our doctor about that tomorrow. I don't think we will get it, but I'd like to do some research just to make sure.

Anyways, that was my exciting day.

changes are coming

I think that my life is going to be changing soon. It seems certain things are out of my control. It came to light this weekend, that the status quo just isn't working I guess. I don't do well with major change, but after this weekend, I don't really think I have a choice in the matter.

Its odd how you think things are fine and going well, but then you realize you have been disillusioned for quite some time. Maybe I had blinders on so I didn't see it coming. I don't really know. All I know is that things are going to change, and I don't think I'm ready.

rain rain go away

Its been raining since Saturday night. Yuck. Our neighbors have a new pond in their front yard. I'm happy we are on a hill, so we didn't have any damage. Unfortunately a lot of people in our area weren't so lucky. I had to take the girls out to buy Lily's Flower Girl dress on Sunday in the rain. Luckily Wilma came with me, so I had some extra help. Definitely a good thing. I love Lily's dress, she is going to be such the princess. We've been practicing walking slow. So far its had mixed results. I tried all night last night to get her to try it on so I could take a picture. But she kept telling me "no dress up", she wanted to play with her toolbench instead... what a tomboy.

Work is busy this week. I have a lot of patients to see and a group to run on Friday. Then next week we have a Clinic Administrator meeting that I'm presenting at, then following that meeting I have to go to a school and do my presentation on HIV/AIDS. I have to call Wilma to come over and help Paul with bedtime because getting two kids to bed is no easy task. This Saturday is busy as well. Lily has gym class, then we are off to a wedding celebration down in Westchester, Paul's god-parents' son got married back in January, so they are having a little reception Saturday afternoon. They have never met Julia, and haven't seen Lily since she was about one, so it should be nice. Following that, Jen, Jer and the kids are coming over for dinner.... well Jen is coming over for cosmos.... our husbands are going to take care of the kids while we pretend we are rich housewives, LOL!

On Friday we met with our Early Intervention worker for Lily. Speech therapy will be beginning on May 3. Unfortunately I still haven't heard from our behavioral therapist to set that up, and I'm having difficulty finding a place to do the neuro-psych evaluation. Our EI worker said she could help with that, but I'm sorta wanting to get it done sooner rather than later, and I don't like relying on other people to do things for me.

I guess thats my all too interesting of an update.

and the ball is rolling

Paul and I took Lily to the doctor's yesterday to voice some of our concerns. Our pediatrician is truly amazing and spent nearly an hour with us. I never felt rushed and she validated our concerns and gave us some great ideas and referrals. Our first step is to get a neuro-psych evaluation done. I'll be calling a local hospital (well not too local) to set this up. Secondly, we will start sensory integration therapy. I can't write too much right now, but based on everything we told our doctor, and even the behaviors Lily exhibited while we were there, our doctor agrees that Lily is somewhere on the spectrum of Autism Disorders.

I'm happy that we are moving forward and she will get the help that she needs, but devestated at the same time. Only another mother could understand.

Lily

Paul and I had Lily re-evaluated yesterday by our local Early Intervention program. Back in January she had been evaluated and wasn't found to be eligible for services. However we still had some concerns and wanted her re-evaluated. I'm happy to say that now she qualifies. She will be receiving speech therapy once a week and behavioral therapy twice a month. She has a 30% delay in speech, mainly expressive and articulation. She has a 30% delay in social cognitive as well.

As far as speech goes, the main concerns is her inability to pronounciate words. She often leaves off the ending of words and rarely says words that are more than one syllable. She doesn't move her tounge side to side or up, which in turn affects her speech. She also doesn't use a lot of verbs or put multiple words together by herself. She will if prodded, but not on her own.

With the social piece, she basically needs to learn how to regulate herself and her emotions. This is the area that Paul and I have a lot of concern with, and we have our suspicions regarding this area which I"m not going to get into online... but if you know us well enough, you exactly what we are talking about.

Anyways, we are happy she will be getting the help she needs, and my only hope is that by the time she starts school she will be all caught up.

Happy Easter

We had a great time in Rochester this past weekend. We arrived up on Thursday afternoon. After a nice dinner with my parents and putting the kids to bed, Paul and I headed out to my favorite grocery store (Wegmans), then went out for a couple of drinks. We had a nice time. On friday, Lily and I ran some errands in the morning. We went to a little Italian bakery that I grew up going to, and Lily wooed the owners, and scored some cookies... she was happy! Friday evening my mom's entire side of the family came over for pizza. It was busy, but great to see everyone. Saturday morning we had a brunch with my dad's side of the family. Also a great time! Saturday afternoon I visited with my cousin and another friend of our family. Sunday morning was church and then the 5 hour drive home. Julia cut another tooth while we were up in Rochester... makes the grand total in the past month, 4! Not a happy girl, and definitely not a sleeping girl.

When we arrived back into town yesterday, we went straight to my in-laws for Easter Dinner. As soon as we got home, we put the kids to bed and started unpacking. How we do so much laundry is beyond me... lol. Of course Jules slept like absolute crap last night, and decided to scream from 3am-4:30am. I didn't get a chance to go back to bed, and that last hour of sleep was definitely needed. I thought I was going to have to pull over on the way to work this morning because I could barely keep my eyes open. YAWN!

Oh and before I end this blog, I have to share some of the cute things Lily has been saying.....
When you ask her what daddy's name is, she responds, "Paul", and when you ask her what mommy's name is, she responds "dear"..... hahaha, its because I always yell "Paul" and he always responds, "yes dear?".... too cute! And another, when she is getting into something we say "Lily Grace", and so now she responds, "no Lily Grace" hehe shes a cutie.

another weekend of travelling

So tomorrow all of us are heading to Rochester for the holiday weekend. I'm looking forward to spending time with our whole family. Last year we weren't able to make it up to Rochester for Easter, so I'm definitely excited about it this year. Not to mention the fact I bought the girls matching Easter dresses, everything matches, the hat, the sweater, the tights, the shoes... LOL, I'm a nut, but my girls are gonna be darn friggen cute! Thats for sure. Of course Rochester is expecting SNOW this weekend, so now I kinda want to go out and buy matching dress coats. haha, maybe thats taking it a step too far... but come on, they aren't going to let me dress them in matching clothes forever! So the way I see it, I should be taking advantage of it now.

Paul and I have had a really tough week with Jules. She does not want to sleep at night!! She is cutting a crapload of teeth and that makes for a pretty fussy girl. I feel so bad for her, I can't stand seeing her in pain... but come on a working mommy needs to sleep. Thats not to say that other mommies don't but when my alarm clock goes off at 4am, you bet your butt I would have liked to have slept a couple of hours first! I'm hoping they cut through soon, then we can get back into the swing of things. I'm sure the constant pumping I'm doing at night is certainly making me a bit more tired. I'm up at least two times a night to pump, then a couple times with Julia, and maybe once with Lily. Last night Lily decided to pee in her bed. And yes, she went to bed with a diaper on (we haven't night trained yet)... at some point in the night she must have pooped, took her pants and diaper off and fell back asleep. Then when she peed she woke up crying. So Paul was changing her sheets around 1am and I was doing laundry... the joys of parenthood. Luckily she fell right back asleep and is still sleeping now... Jules on the other hand has been up for a while with Paul.