speech therapy update

The long awaited first speech therapy appointment was today. Honestly, it went by so fast that I hardly remember anything I was told. I didn't even have time to think or ask questions. Our therapist, Chris, is very sweet and even stated she's going to have her hands full with Gretchen. Yes, I could have told you that! She's all over the place and is a little stick of dynamite.

First thing we started with was getting Gretchen to look at our mouth when talking or making her ask for something. For example, when saying 'open' (as in open the marker we were coloring with), trying to get her to imitate the "O" our mouth makes when doing the sound. The first step is looking and focusing the next step will be to get her to mimic the sounds. Yes, I can tell this will take lots of time but I'm very positive. She was working with Chris and doing pretty good.

Gretchen is starting to pick up more sign language to help her communicate. This last week she's started to sign 'apple' and 'help' when prompted-- not on her own terms yet. But, all in time.

Next Chris addressed the oral issue Gretchen has. She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth, good and bad. This is the biggest reason I've resorted to her Nuk all the time. Chris did note that she is far more oral for her age than appropriate. To help promote something or another, I'm getting these fancy oral/speech tools like Chris had in the classroom.

Chewy Tube (for jaw strength)

Nubby brush

We'll continue therapy one day per week and see how things go for the next three months or so. Hopefully we can make some kind of breakthrough before baby arrives.

Baby update:  I am 29 weeks and still feeling good. Nothing much to complain about. I'm in love with my body pillow and microwable heating pack. Without those, I might be on a different boat. I had an appointment yesterday and the heartbeat is strong. Baby is measuring pretty tall, so maybe it is a boy. The girls each measured 1 cm larger than normal and this one is 2 cm larger. Only 11 weeks or so until you can find out what baby's gender is!