Sigh

We have been having a rough week around the Meier household. Everyone has been sick with a nasty head cold/upper respiratory. Bennett had a high fever for a couple of days followed by the hacking and snot factory. Bernie had a milder version. Vivian and I were last but were both miserable for a few days. Both kids ended up at the doctor just to be sure it was nothing serious. Bennett and Bernie are basically better. Vivian and I are still recovering. I felt the worst for her. She's so little and helpless. Hearing those racking coughs and hoarse voice were almost enough to drive a mommy over the edge. She even puked up what little food she had in her belly a few times after a coughing fit. I rented a damn pump and everything so my supply wouldn't dip while she was busy eating hardly anything and I was getting plugged ducts.

Blah. But now we are feeling better and I really really really hope we can avoid having anyone sick for even a week or so.

And then there was Bennett's speech eval. We were referred to Colorado's early intervention program because he will likely qualify for free services due to him being significantly speech delayed. Vivian and I felt like crap, and it had just snowed a bunch, and it was cold, and can I complain a bit more about it? Anyway, we went into a room with lots of toys so they could do the eval while watching Bennett play. There was a speech pathologist, a social worker, and a psychologist (and a physical therapist about halfway through). They were asking us questions from every direction. These were questions I really could have used some time to answer. Keep in mind that I had to fill out a huge written evaluation before the meeting. Why can't you include these questions in the paperwork so we can think about it a bit? Grrr...

Vivian was absolutely pitiful and whined a hoarse whine the whole time. I was overheated and overwhelmed. I actually told Bernie that I felt like checking into the psych ward for a few days after the evaluation. I'm feeling much better today, but that was tough.

It seems that Bennett's speech delay is bleeding into other areas of his development, most importantly, his play. He doesn't seem to have much imagination or pretend play yet. Instead he is very cause and effect oriented and seems to have some compulsive behavior (must "drive" everything he picks up). So, he will be getting speech therapy as well as sessions with a feeding specialist (his eating habits are very texturally controlled). They mentioned another kind of therapy that I can't remember.

So this is all very difficult. Just when you think your preemie may have come away unscathed, they don't. I just hope we can get things back on track.