Baer Updates...as promised.

While I was gone in the summer, Spencer gave Baer a bath in the sink and sent me this picture on my phone. I just think he looks so cute sitting and relaxing. He looks like his daddy does in the hot tub.

*Warning: This post is long/journal-like. Read if you want, don't if you don't. Also...grammer will probably be pretty bad, I didn't get much sleep last night.

Okay, where to start...

Well most of you may know parts or all of this but I'm just going to start from the beginning.

When Baer was just brand new we noticed some significant crossing in his eyes. We didn't freak out because James had crossed eyes when he was a baby but his went away after his eyes grew stronger and was able to focus on things better. Baer got older and his eyes didn't uncross so we took him in to see an eye doctor. His doctor confirmed that he does have strabismus (crossing/lazy eye) and nystagmus (shaking/rotating). I'm not sure I spelled those right though :). His doctor told us he'd have to have surgery. We decided to hold off until we had his foot appointment to see if he needed surgery to take off his 6th toe so they could do it at the same time. The foot doctor told us that we needed to wait at least another year because his bones are pretty much cartilage when they are so little and they couldn't tell which toe was the more normal toe. We went into the eye doctor again and she said "I can't explain it" his eyes are changing. Baer's eyes have changed every time we have gone in and are continuing to heal. He may or may not have to have the surgery but at least he doesn't have to right now. He had an MRI to make sure the shaking wasn't from something wrong in his brain and it turned out normal. He had an appointment with CCVI (Children's Center for the Visually Impaired) recently to see if he needed eye therapy and he doesn't qualify so that's good. It means that he can see.

On the other hand, Baer will be 16 months on Monday. He is not crawling, walking, feeding himself, or talking. We were a little concerned but though it might have been because of his vision (which we now know is not true). His pediatrician recommended that we make an appointment with Johnson County Infant/Toddler Service and have them see if he qualified for assistance. When they tested Baer, he was testing anywhere from 3 months to 9 months so he deffinetly qualified. Baer started having an occupational therapist come to our home and she is comming every week now. It sounds like they think he WILL be able to get caught up but that he just needs more attention/help than your average baby at this point in time. I HAVE noticed some progression since he has started the therapy. Johson County Infant/Toddler Service also recommends that Baer sees an early childhood development teacher and a developmental pediatrician. The teacher came for the first time on Monday but pretty much did the same things the OT was doing. We have an appointment for Baer to see the Dev.Ped. but the earliest they could make an appointment for him was in 6 months. I need to call and get him on the waiting list for cancellations.

SO...countless appointments and working with Baer he is finally starting to show some improvement.