The Cadillac of Crawling Tracks



Logan's Supreme Crawling Track...Thank you John and Julie!


Staple gun: $16.97
Wood and hardware:  $30.22

Vinyl and carpet padding: $61.32

John and Julie's help to build Logan a crawling track:  Priceless

I think this crawling track is going to change our lives!  Once Logan gets mobile, there will be no turning back...it will be time to finally baby proof the house : ) Sherri was able to bring over another client's crawling track for us to see and use for a few days.  Logan used it last Wednesday at his therapy session and showed some good signs that he would catch on pretty quickly.   The track was at about a 20 degree angle (using the hard part of the couch under the cushion to prop it up).  By no means did Lo take off at top speed, but Sherri showed me how to move both of his arms and then kind of pull under his armpits to help him get the idea of crawling.  I also placed my hand against his feet to help him push off and thrust forward.  Towards the end of the session, he was really getting it.

We practiced all last week on the borrowed track, but knew it would have to go back on Monday.   Fortunately, my wonderful friend Julie, who teaches next door to me, offered to help build a track especially for Logan.  Knowing Olin's handiness (he hates changing lightbulbs), I took her up on the offer! (Sorry honey!)  She and her husband, John, went all out on this new piece of equipment for Logan.  I don't think there's another kid out there with a better track!  Not only is it functional, but it matches the decor in our den : ) Julie even bought me brown paint so that I could paint the wood on the sides to match!  I know I say it all the time, but we are so lucky to have so many people around us who love Logan so much and want to help him in any way they can.  We truly are grateful for everyone's extra love and support as we learn new things raising a special needs' child.  You can click on the link to his video...for some reason it would not upload.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7pCKDC8jgc

What's Normal?

Nothing too exciting to report right now...I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing : )  Sometimes I don't know what's "normal" and what's not for my child (does every parent feel this way at some point?)  I wonder, "Is Logan going through a phase every kid goes through or is something wrong with him because he's special?"  TOn Friday, the doctor put him on steroids for 5 days and a maintainence antibiotic for three weeks.  We're supposed to go back after that.  Unfortunately, he's still having trouble sleeping and whacking at his ear pretty frequently.  The doctor said he's only hearing about 40% with all of the fluid that's in there.  I know I'm not a doctor, but why can't we do tubes immediately?  Why do we have to wait??? 

I know it's not easy for any parent, but Olin and I are especially bad at letting Logan "cry it out."  We'll let him go about 10 minutes and that's about all we can stand.  See...I don't know if that's because we feel sorry for him and we're afraid something will happen to him if we let him keep crying.  Are we doing that because of his syndrome or are we just softies?  We also know he is in some amount of pain with his ears so we feel guilty about that too.  After a while his screams go to this entirely new heart wrenching new level (which includes slight foaming at the mouth!)  I instantly think something must be terribly wrong...like his leg is stuck in the crib slats or something.  Then I'm compelled to go look "just to be sure."  Olin has been really great about soothing him at the wee hours of the night.  I've just been tired lately.  Tired in a lot of ways.  I definitely need a break from school and my kids.  I think they need a break from me too!  I also need a break from Valdosta State school.  I'm actually counting the points I've earned already so I can see what assignments are completely necessary just to make an A or B.  I know that sounds terrible (especially coming from a teacher), but I just don't have it in me right now to try to be the straight "A" student.  I'm playing tennis too on Wed. and Sun. which just adds one more thing to fit in to our schedule.  And I know tennis should be fun, but it's really just more stressor.  I hadn't picked up my raquet since last season when our first match rolled around this past Sunday.  The night before, I seriously had a dream that I was trying to play my tennis match with plastic fork...literally trying to hit it from the baseline with a white plastic fork!  I just feel like I'm half-a**ing everything right now and not giving anything 100% (which isn't like me).  Okay okay...enough of the pity-party, I know.  I guess my rollercoaster is down today! 

 

Spring is here!

 I do have to mention Logan's trip to Crabapple Crossing (my school) last Friday.  Olin dropped him off at about 2:00 after his doctor appointment so that he could meet my students (and accompany me to a birthday celebration after work)  Logan was dressed in a blue and orange striped outfit when he arrived...that resulted in lots of Auburn/Florida comments : )  My kids were so great with the little man.  They know all about his "issues."  I filled them in back in November when we got Logan's diagnosis.  At first, I debated if I should tell them or not...could they handle the information?  I am always telling my class that we're like a little family so I realized I had to tell them.  They responded so well (and their parents too).  They had many questions and I answered them to the best of my ability.  It's a little hard to explain genetic complications to a group of ten-year olds.  Now, I keep them updated on Logan's progress and show them his videos on Youtube.  They are some of his biggest fans.  I think they really enjoyed meeting him, even if it was only for a few minutes.  I also took Logan around to visit some special people in the building.  It really was so wonderful to see how many people were excited to see him and treated him just like any other kid.  That is the great thing about my school....even though I'm not close with everyone in the building, it still feels like we're a big family.  I could count on any of my co-workers if I needed them (and I know not everyone can say that).  I'm very lucky!  It always seems like when I start to feel sorry for myself and our situation, I am reminded of how fortunate we really are...I was informed about two accquaintances affected by cancer this week.  Life is so precious, and when it really comes down to it, health, friends, and family are all you need!

Air Logan

Back to the doctor again this afternoon to check on Logan's double ear infection.  I swear our copays are keeping our pediatrician in business this year!  Five visits since January 31.  On Tuesday night, Logan pulled another near all nighter. That's what made me question that this 4th antibiotic had not cleared things up.  I mean, they usually start working after five days, right?  Looking back (now with some sleep), it was a little funny how we all ended up squished in the bed at 3AM.  I wish I had a picture of the sleeping arrangement... Olin snoring on one side, Logan snoring on the other, and Mommy hanging on for dear life at the edge of the bed with no pillow! The craziest thing is how long Logan can stay awake without a nap.  He was going on like 16 hours with no shut eye! I think it was the alternating does of Motrin and Tylenol that finally put him to sleep! 

Sherri came on Wednesday for PT.  Logan always surprises me with a great therapy session even when he's under the weather.  Our main focus in therapy right now is to get him mobile and realizing that he can move on his own.  Yesterday we practiced transitioning from a high kneel to standing while holding on to a ledge.  Sherri is great because she shows us how to modify the things we have at home to match the functions of her "official" equipment.  Logan worked his little quads and triceps really hard...baby Insanity!  He even supported himself on all fours for about 8 seconds! Sherri called him "Air Logan" because there was space underneath his belly instead of it touching the ground : )  I had never seen him do that before...pretty cool.  He looked so grown up.  I'm just going to die when he starts crawling!  Lately he's been reaching out for his toes a lot more.  He also mimicked something I did with his toys the other day.  I pulled the lever on his "music stage" toy to play the horn.  I clicked it like ten times in a row while he watched me.  After I let go, he reached right over and did it himself.  He'd pull...then let it click.  Eventually he had himself cracking up at the noise.  It was so sweet to watch! 

At the doctor this afternoon, his infections had pretty much cleared up.  However, they did a Tympanometry test to check for fluid in his ears.  Unfortunately, the doctor said there was still tons of fluid in the ear just waiting to turn into another infection! Great : (  So, he put Logan on a 5th antibiotic, more as a maintenance medicine to ward off any more infections.  We were scheduled to see the ENT on the 28th, but the doctor worked some magic and got us in tomorrow afternoon.  He didn't want us to wait that long.  Hmm...how quickly can they schedule him in for tubes?  I'm hoping...next week???  I can't handle the no sleep, then wake up at 5:00 routine for much longer.  I say this as Logan is still awake watching basketball with us right now...thank goodness for March Madness.  Unfortunately, I think Logan could have picked a better bracket than me this year!  Thanks Louisville.

More updates tomorrow after the ENT appt!

The Week in Review

 A lot has happened this week (at least it feels that way) and it seems to be happening all too fast.  While I am counting the days until spring break, I feel like am running like a gerbil on a wheel trying to keep up! 

So... this week in a nutshell...Tuesday night was Logan's worst in a long time.  As long as he was being held, he was okay, but as soon as his little head hit the crib sheet, the screams began!  At about one in the morning, we figured he could be hungry again, so Olin fed him another bottle. That didn't help.  By three in the morning, he was banished to the Jumperoo.  That at least distracted him from whatever was hurting or bothering him.  By four, I was about in tears watching the clock creep closer and closer to 4:45 when my first alarm goes off.  We finally decided he just had to cry it out...there was nothing left we could do.  It made no sense...the kid hadn't slept since 10AM at Sally's house...I have no idea what he was running on!  I hate to admit it, but Olin and I finally closed our door, turned off the monitor and let him cry.  We all must have fallen asleep at some point because when I woke up about an hour later, Logan was passed out. 

The horrible rainy weather on Wednesday was a perfect complement to the fog it felt like I was walking in all day.  We had a physical therapy appointment scheduled with Sherri for 3:30 that afternoon.  At about 2:30, I got a call from our Babies Can't Wait coordinator asking if she could sit in on our session and see how Logan was doing.  She is like a case manager and checks in with us every 3 months to record Logan's progress and review his IFSP (Individual Family Service Plan...like an IEP at school).  When we had our initial meeting with BCW on December 10, we set some six month goals for Logan...one of which was to sit unsupported and the other was to show protective reflexes (like sticking out his arms if he's falling).  Charlene (the coordinator) was blown away by all the things that Logan was doing...grasping objects, sitting unsupported, pulling up, etc.  He had met these six month goals in about three months.  She actually had tears in her eyes and said that he was "a ray of sunshine on this rainy day."  That made me feel so good.  It's kind of cool to see people's reactions who haven't seen Logan for awhile and let them observe his progress.  She was quite impressed : )  Our twelve month goal is to have him crawling.  I am confident right now that he will get there!  Sherri spoke about making Logan a "crawling track." I had never heard of this.  Basically it is a ramp with sides that you cover with foam and vinyl and you prop it at an angle on the couch or something similar.  Logan is supposed to begin moving down the track...gravity helping him out.   Practicing on the track is supposed to help him realize that he can move his body forward! He inches a little right now, but it's all backwards.  As he progresses on the crawling track, you start to lower the angle of it until it is eventually flat on the ground.  Sherri is going to show us how to make our own track with wood, L-brackets, foam, and vinyl...sounds like a fun craft project for Olin next weekend : )

  

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This is a crawling track.  The baby is not Logan : )

I figured Logan had to be exhausted Wednesday night...with virtually zero sleep the night before, only a one hour nap, and PT...he had to go to sleep!  Unfortunately this was not the case.  Olin and I were desperate to find something to comfort him.  His screams sounded like they were coming from a place of pain...not just fussiness.   We fed him a mini bottle, we rocked him in his rocker, we gave him an enema at 11PM in case it was his tummy that hurt.  Bedtime finally arrived around 2:30 or 3 that morning...hard to remember. 

Thursday was a little less eventful.  I had a work event until 7:30 that night so I was praying that Logan would be fast asleep when I got home.  He was in the crib, but not definitely not asleep.  Since I hadn't seen him all day,  I figured I might as well get him and hang out for awhile.  We played downstairs for awhile...Logan and I on the floor, Olin blasting rock/heavy metal On Demand.  I think we may have found a music genre Logan likes as much as reggae.  He would hold on to his cube thing and just "dance" bouncing up and down, up and down.  It was too funny.  Although bedtime got off to a rocky start, he finally went down at about 11PM.  6 hours of sleep...Thank you Lord!

Friday finally arrived and I couldn't have been more thrilled.  Since the painful cries were still in effect, I decided we should try to sneak into the Pediatrician's office to see if Logan's ear infection had cleared up from two weeks ago.  I called at 1:30 that afternoon, and amazingly, the doctor was able to take us at 3:15.  That's where the good news ends though...his previous ear infection had turned into a double!  You know it's bad when the doctor looks into your kid's ear and says "Oh yeah, it looks like that hurts.  So with the double ear infection diagnosis, I drove home feeling like the worst mom ever.  Why had I not considered this possiblity before?  How could I have been so frustrated with his "all nighters" when it wasn't even his fault?  Talk about some mommy guilt!  The doctor gave us another round of antibiotics and a list of ENTs in the area.  Tubes are probably in his future...hopefully sooner rather than later.  Maybe while they're removing his intestines, they can put some tubes in his ears.  That will be a piece of cake compared to everything else he's been through.  So, now he's on Suprax, and hopefully combined with a little Motrin, he'll be feeling better in no time!   

Olin and I are looking forward to a night off on Saturday.  Grumps and ZuZu are going to spend the night while we go to a gala (so fancy, I know!) down at the Ravinia/Perimeter.  It is a fundraising event for an organization called enAble which helps special needs' adults lead fufilling lives.  http://www.enablega.org/  We have been to this event in the past, but we're going with a totally different perspective this year!

 

       Logan practicing how to sit up from a laying down position

Spring Cleaning

As a first time mom, there are many mistakes that I've made.  One that I'm not afraid to admit is about the  outfit I packed for Logan to come home in from the hospital.  In the moment, this little outfit is so important. When I was shopping for the perfect "boy" outfit, I kept looking at the newborn clothes and thinking... "There is no way this baby is going to be that small.  I don't want to have an outfit that is too small for him."  So, I found the cutest set of brown pants, a cream onesie, and a brown/blue/orange fleece vest.  And I bought it in size 3 months and packed it in the hospital bag.  I was sure it would fit.  Well, much to my surprise, an 8  pound baby is still pretty small, and size 3 months clothes are definitely not appropriate for most newborns!  Like I said...first rookie mistake of many : ) 



3 months old in his "homecoming" outfit



This memory leads me into yesterday's spring cleaning project...

I'm not sure what got into me yesterday...maybe just being inside all weekend because of the rain?  Logan's overflowing closet and dresser have been bugging me for probably the last 3 months, but I just haven't had the time to go through all of his stuff.  I know there are boxes of size 1 and 2 diapers in there, bibs that no longer fit around his neck, mismatched socks, etc.  We have been so lucky to have been given so many hand me downs.  Two wonderful teachers at my school with 5 boys between them gave Logan a ton of winter clothes.  I swear he has worn a different pair of pants everyday since November!  And then my sister, with Jack and Eddie, has passed along her favorites to Logan as well.  Needless to say, this kid has been well-dressed, and fortunately, I have had less of an excuse to shop for him (well, I can't say that's completely true, but...) Anyways, for some reason, yesterday was the day.  I had to get his closet organized.  So while Daddy and Logan napped, I began just pulling everything out and laying it on the floor.  But then the dilemma set in...how to organize.  Should I sort by season, by size?  If size, how should I separate newborn, 0-3 months, 3 months, 3-6 months, 6 months, etc.  This is where that perfectionism gene can be a bad thing...I can imagine my mom right now saying, "Oh my gosh, are you kidding?  Just put them in boxes and be done with it : )  So I began making piles according to size as best as I could.  Instantly I realized that I did not have enough rubbermaid containers to fit all of his stuff so much to my dismay (not really), I headed out to Target with Logan.  The pretty aqua blue containers were on sale so we stocked up.  This "outgrowing clothes" thing isn't going to end anytime soon so why not buy 4?  By the time my project was completed (and it's still not completed to my satisfaction), it was 8:30 at night and Olin was pushing me out of the room so he could turn out the light and put Logan to bed.  I'm not sure why I couldn't just finish the next day, but I felt like it had to get done that night.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who gets this way...right?  I guess I know myself too well, and I know those clothes would've sat on the floor for another two weeks before I got around to finishing the project!

I have always had a hard time throwing things away.  My mom will attest to this.  She threatens every year that unless I come get my boxes of high school stuff out of her basement , she will throw them away.  I still have boxes of basketball cards that I collected when I was a kid, and albums full of pictures from middle school...I just can't seem to get rid of them.  So, as I went through Logan's clothes, I unfolded and refolded every item so I could remember when/where he wore the outfit   (I guess that's why this project took all day).  Some of the clothes have been worn by all three grandbabies (Jack, Eddie, and Logan)...like the red and black Christmas outfit with the fuzzy cuffs, or the Old Navy one piece outfit with the alligators on it.  They each bring me back to a certain time and place with these babies.  I am happy to report that no tears were shed in the process of this project.  Mainly it was disbelief that Logan has grown so much in 14 months!  I kept holding up the smaller sizes of clothing and wondering if he really was ever that small!  Those little pajamas, the little booties, and mittens...yeah, I must admit I put some mittens on his hands just to see how he would react.  Bless his heart, he just looked at his hands and then at me with this puzzled look on his face : )  I swear God gave us the sweetest baby in the whole world. 

 


Logan's room at mid-project

 


Helping out!

I'll admit rookie mistake # 2 in another post...surprised this kid survived his first night home!

Defying the Odds

"Exceed"...the verb of choice at school.  As a fifth grade teacher, my kids must "meet" or "exceed" the standard on their state tests to be promoted to sixth grade.  Usually this word gives me some level of anxiety.  But not today.  Today "exceed" is exactly what Logan did.  His physical therapist said that he is far "exceeding" her expectations.  The progress he has made in 6 short weeks with her is off the charts.  It really is hard to believe how far he's come since our first visit with her on January 15.  She says we are going to "defy the odds."  There is no stopping this little man.   

Today was so exciting.  Sherri brought a new piece of equipment (you can see in the video) to the house.  Her goal was to have Logan sit on the bolster (the red and black tube) and try to reach out for the handle.  What came next was most surprising...Logan pulled himself up to a standing position...by himself!!!  He loves to stand and "dance" and pulls up on our fingers to help him stand, but I never expected him to just do it all in one simple motion.   To see his hands open and him reaching over the handle was amazing.  Sherri said that she can tell it's all starting to click.  The cognitive and physical aspects are starting to work together.  He's using bilateral integration (I sound so intelligent, don't I?) which means both hands are doing something different...or both sides of his body.  Sherri is really teaching us so much.  I would have never known all of these little things had to happen first before the big ones would come (like crawling and walking).  She has made me practice every move on the floor so that I can see what it feels like for Logan...wow, the simple things we take for granted.  It really hits me when we're at the park and I see kids running around, sliding down a slide, or digging in the sand.  For them it is so easy...it develops naturally.  But for Logan, we basically have to teach him everything in terms of how to use his body.  In addition to pulling up today, he was side sitting and reaching out for objects.  Every week I know we are getting closer and closer to crawling.  I can't even imagine the celebration we will have when that happens.  It makes me giddy just to think about it.

I was such a proud mama today.  Logan worked so hard and kept a happy face the whole time...he even worked right through his afternoon bottle.  The whole experience was even better because Olin came home early from work today and was able to witness Logan's new moves firsthand.  I think Olin's mouth was hanging open the first time Logan pulled up!  At the end of the appointment, the little guy was so pooped.  This picture was taken before Sherri had even left the house! 

Sherri left her equipment with us to use for the next week since she will be out of town.  I can't wait to practice some more tomorrow.  I've heard it all the time from moms who say that each new stage is their "favorite."  I definitely think this stage is my favorite right now!