My Babies are Growing Up!!!

I just felt the need to share the progress on my kiddos. After all, what else do I have to talk about? ;) They are growing so fast and while I've known this, for some reason it just really hit me the past couple of days. I just want time to slow down! They are only little once and it really is flying by.

Camryn is doing so well in Kindergarten. She is passing every reading and math test and has learned about 40 sight words so far. She is reading beginner books and is in the more advanced math class at school. I am so proud of her academic progress, among other areas.

She is improving socially as well. Her teachers tell me she is conversing and interacting with her peers more often and initiating conversations and play. I also was able to get her into a social skills group during school every week. This is such a relief to me, as social skills are our main concern right now. She is such a happy child, and always has been. I know that social skills will come easy for her once she learns the basics.

She is still loving gymnastics and dance, and has been attending Church as much as she can.  She is a busy girl and never seems to tire out! I wish I had half of her energy! :) She lost her first tooth last night, and was so excited about the tooth fairy coming! She actually woke up crying this morning because she couldn't find the pouch we hid under her pillow, but it had accidentally fallen in the floor. Ha Ha! I got it for her and she opened it to find $5 from the tooth fairy. Her tears quickly stopped and she smiled ear to ear! Her toothless grin is so cute!

Moving on to our drama queen....Yes, you heard me. Emilie Cate is getting so big as well! She is full of emotion, I can tell you that. Don't get me wrong, we love her with all of our hearts. But as others have told me "It's always the second child..." HA HA!! Seriously though, she is such a sweetheart and is learning all kinds of new things!

She is now doing a little "army crawl" and occasionally pushes up onto her hands and knees, only to come back down on her belly. She is getting pretty fast at her army crawl now, and wiggles across the floor to get what she wants. And things she doesn't need, like every tiny piece of fuzz or crumb that's barely visible to the human eye. Ha! She is getting into everything! We are having to baby proof so much more with Emilie because everything goes straight to her mouth, whereas Camryn never put anything into her mouth as a baby. She is definitely keeping us busy! She can now pick up speed in her walker to a run and will lift her feet to glide across the floor, ha ha! She is a mess.

She has started progressing in her language skills. She can say "Ma-Ma" for me, "Da-Da" for Evan, and "Ba-Ba" for her bottle. She learned to wave bye-bye and I swear I heard her say it when she waved the other day! She is full of smiles and tears. They can alternate within seconds. :) She knows what she wants, and lets you know when and how she wants it. She has a pretty good temper on her too! I'd say she gets it from her father, while my mom says she gets it from me. Ha! Right.... ;)

This whole blogging thing is fairly new to me, so I haven't posted regularly like I would like to eventually. I'm still learning all of the basics and mainly just trying to find the time to post, so please bear with me! I will try to do a post on Halloween soon. :)  Thanks for reading! God Bless!

Emilie Cate Mouser

So I just realized that I never posted a blog entry about our sweet Emilie Cate's pregnancy & birth. I figured it was about time...you know, since she is 7 months old now. ;)

Evan and I decided to expand our family the summer of 2012. Well, to be honest, I was ready long before that. :) The first month we began trying to conceive was the month we found out we were expecting! I was shocked how fast it was, and didn't even think I was pregnant. I took a test more or less to confirm that I wasn't, and to our surprise a second pink line popped up immediately. :)  It was so surprising and exciting!

My pregnancy with Emilie was fairly normal, although I did have some scary moments in the beginning. We were afraid that we had lost her, but an early ultrasound revealed that she was just fine. I had pretty severe morning sickness with Emilie, and had to be put on Zofran for relief. But after that subsided, it was pretty uneventful. I felt her move around a lot earlier than with Camryn. I craved grilled cheese sandwiches and apple juice every day, and ate it most days! haha!

I made it to 39 weeks with Emilie when they induced us for our repeat C-section. I can't believe I made it that far, because she was so big. Or rather, I was so big, and miserable. But we made it! I was so glad to know she made it to full term, after Camryn was born premature.

We welcomed Emilie Cate Mouser into our lives on February 27, 2013 at 8:37 a.m. She weighed 9 lbs 1/4 oz. and was 20.5 inches long. She cried and stuck her little lip out the second she came out of my belly! She was perfectly healthy, and we were so thankful.

Emilie has been such a blessing to our lives. While not the easiest baby, she brings so much joy and happiness to our family. I will admit, the first few weeks were a little traumatizing to Mommy and Daddy with the colic and sleepless nights, but she is so worth all of the hard work.

Today, she is a happy, healthy 7-month-old infant who loves her big sister and is always attached to Mommy. She still uses her sad little lip to get her way and most of the time it works. She is trying to crawl and has already discovered our kitchen cabinets! Time for us to babyproof the house again. :)

She is my happy little blue-eyed princess that occasionally has little mood swings. I love her so much!

Emilie is whining and has just walked towards the bedroom in her walker for naptime, so that's my cue. :)

Slowly But Surely...

Just wanted to give a little update on Camryn since it's been a while since I've posted! She is progressing in ways that I thought we may never see. It is amazing what time, practice, and patience can accomplish.  She is so smart and funny!

Right now, I can officially say we are potty trained!!! You have no idea how good it feels to be able to say that.  We have struggled with this skill since two years old and I wasn't sure when or if she would ever be able to do this.  We are still working on #2 but are well on our way. :)  I am so proud of her!

Her fine motor development is coming right along too. She can write her name and almost every letter of the alphabet, as well as numbers 1-10. She is still struggling with using scissors and using the correct grasp (pencil) rather than holding things with a fist grasp. We are starting some occupational therapy exercises at home to work on these things and have a binder full of material to start with her this weekend.

Her speech has progressed so much in the past few months that even some of the therapists have said she's like a completely different child. :) She is starting to speak mainly in sentences and can now answer yes/no questions. She is pretty consistent with answering "what" and "where" questions as well. Right now, we are working on reducing her echolalia (repeating the other person's words or something she has heard) and using pronouns, such as "My" and "Your" correctly. Those are so hard for little ones, so I can't complain about the time it's taking to learn.  We are also trying to work on greeting others and introducing herself. She has done great with this and we have seen her introduce herself to both children and adults lately. A hard concept we are working on now is First/Then. She has trouble with the concept of time and often acts out if she can't get something immediately. We are working on using a first/then chart to teach her that some things have to come before others. It's funny how easily she goes along with something because it's on paper rather than Mommy just telling her to. ;)

As far as behavioral issues, she has been getting excellent reports from school! We try to use a reward system at home for her to work toward getting something she wants by completing tasks appropriately. I've attached a photo below of some of the materials we are currently using with her.  The ziplocs contain candles that we let her pick out from Yankee Candle to smell whenever she likes. One of her major stimming behaviors is smelling her hands and other objects. We use these as a way for her to fulfill this need when at home or other places rather than doing it inappropriately.

We also use these visual schedules for our bathroom routines. (The potty one continues on the back):

And that's about it! That's all that I can think of anyway....I'm sure there is tons more that I'm leaving out. :) But to summarize - She is doing so great with school and therapy right now. We have seen tremendous progress just in the past few months and can't wait to see what's in store for her this year!

If you know of any moms that may find these resources useful for their child(ren), feel free to share!

Thanks for Reading!
Caitlin

Camryn's Story

It's time.  I've decided to finally tell Camryn's story. You see, our sweet Camryn has Autism. And for the first time, I'm not worried about what anyone will think. Because I've come to realize that Autism does not define my Camryn. She is her own little unique person; a smart, funny, beautiful little girl. So here goes!

Camryn hit all of the normal milestones as an infant. She babbled, rolled over, crawled, sat up, and walked within normal ranges of time. She even developed speech on time, and started to make two word phrases around age two.

But at age 2 1/2 I began to notice certain things about Camryn. She stopped developing speech, and began displaying odd behaviors, some of which I had experienced in working with Autistic children at WKU during my senior year internship.  Something wasn't right. I could feel it in my gut, but pushed it aside. After all, nothing could be wrong with my child. What parent wants to believe that?

A few more months went by, and the odd behaviors increased while other skills didn't progress. Maybe I wasn't just "being paranoid" like my family and friends told me. Even our doctor didn't feel anything was out of the ordinary. But I knew. Deep down I knew that Camryn had Autism. I just couldn't bring myself to accept it just yet.

I enrolled Camryn into the KSI program at the county preschool program at age 3 and they confirmed her delays. Yet, no one wanted to help me in getting her diagnosed. She was "normal" they said, even though we had pages and pages that discussed various delays. I later learned they would have to fund therapy if they gave or lead to a diagnosis. How could you deny a child getting help for fear of funding services? This I will never understand.

I finally got the approval to have Camryn tested by a local psychologist at age 4. *Insert angels singing* By this time, I was so mad and ready to receive the diagnosis, so my sweet girl could get the services she deserved. I was tired of not being listened to or helped. I wasn't just imagining things and she wasn't "just a late bloomer." Something was wrong with my daughter and I needed help.  The appointment seemed to take forever, with various tests and observations. Finally, he took us into a room and we sat down. "Your daughter has Autism Spectrum Disorder."  It's hard to explain how those words hit me. I wanted to break down and cry, but there was also such a relief to finally receive a diagnosis.  I guess it's hard to know this feeling unless you have actually experienced it with your child.  I held it together, not wanting Camryn to see me upset.

 The previous 2 years had been so hard. Knowing something was wrong with my child, but not receiving help.  I had started to sink into a deep depression, between dealing with the death of my lifelong best friend Emily and trying to find Camryn help/accept something was wrong.  Now I finally had a diagnosis to help us move forward.

Fast forward to today.  Camryn is enrolled in a state-wide grant to help her receive the services she needs.  She is functioning at the three year old level for speech. (only two years behind!) She is delayed in social skills but will hopefully be receiving services to address that very soon. (Why I'm currently planning an IEP meeting) She is very high functioning. And academically ahead of her peers in school.

In the past three years we've dealt with picky eating, texture issues, sensory problems, complete meltdowns, extreme fears, behavioral issues, and repetitive behaviors.  But the joy and happiness she brings to our lives overrides all of this. Every single bit.  She is the smartest, funniest, wittiest little girl. She loves music, singing, and dancing. She recently started "gymaskits" (gymnastics) and loves it. She loves her baby sister and helps Mommy take care of her. :) 

 

Camryn doesn't realize that she has autism and is different from other children. Or maybe she does and just can't communicate it to us. But I feel confident that she knows how much she is loved by her family and friends. We will never give up on her.