It is probably nothing.....

but after berating myself for not pursuing Early Intervention with Liam sooner when I first noticed his sensory issues and problems with transitions, I am not taking any chances.  Liam started to be difficult at 14-16 months, but everyone assured me it was "normal"and I ignored my Mommy instinct.  I learned how to control Liam's environment to avoid themeltdowns, and then when Ben was born chaos ensued.  Looking back, both Liaam and I were so unhappy, and now that he is receiving adequate therapy, he is such a different kid that I wished I had called earlier to save us all the months of heartache.

Ben is such a different child from Liam, and definitely has a different developmental path.  Nonetheless, over the last 2 months, he has gone from simply being high needs to being just outright angry.  All Ben wants to do all day is have me hold him and walk circles around the house.  I feel like I have a newborn.

Then there is this....

He walked heel to toe for 6 months and just recently his heels have raised.  I read everything I could find and walking on toes after 18 months is a definite problem.

I e-mailed Early Intervention, and they agreed that Ben qualifies for an evaluation for sensory and motor issues.  I feel sick to my stomach thinking about it, but I don't want the months of misery I had with Liam either.

Ben also heads to Seattle this week to see the pediatric GI specialist at Seattle Chidlren's Hospital.  I am hoping that between both of these upcoming appointments, I can find a happier Ben that is willing to play with his brother instead of cry everytime Liam touches him.

Ben's first steps and reflux update

This post is almost 2 months overdue.....poor 2nd born baby boy.

While the deployment was counting down, Ben was learning to walk. 

Here is his "first steps" video taken May 6th on his 13 month birthday:


His progress in learning to walk was slowed by an ear infection treated with amoxicillin.  The ear infection became a double ear infection and was then treated with some awful antibiotic that caused him to have severe GI distress.  At the end of May, he STILL had fluid in his ears, but the infection was gone.  As a 3rd measure, the pediatrician gave a prescription for allergy medicine.

Literally, overnight he went from taking a couple steps to this:


The 2nd video was taken about 5 weeks after the first, but he didn't progress with his walking until just a week before that video was taken.

In other news, Ben's reflux medicine was stopped in early June.  He hasn't slept past 5:30am since and now doesn't fall asleep until 9pm or so at night.  He wakes before 5am about 2 times a week.  By mid-June, he was back to crying 3 to 4  hours a day, so we called his GI specialist who put him on Zantac (the medicine he was on last summer that didn't work).  Two weeks into it and the sleep hasn't improved and his crying is down to 2 to 3 hours a day.....and is spitting up once or twice everyday......sigh.

Edited to add:  Just talked with his ped GI and Ben will go back on Prilosec.  Let's hope it continues to help as much as it did before he stopped.

The difference 6 days makes.....

Basically, 6 days after taking his first steps, Liam is a pro at walking. Since he figured out how to stand up on his own before he figured out to walk, he quickly put two and two together and learned how to stand back up after falling. He doesn't crawl much anymore, although he still falls a bit....but he just stands back up and keeps on going. He has even started walking in shoes. Below are some videos of him walking today while dragging around stuffed animals.

First steps

Liam began army crawling at 8 months, pulling up at 9 months, hands and knees crawling at 10 months, cruising at 11 months, but has been hesitent to take that plunge into independent walking. He took his very first steps by himself on October 15th at Kindermusik class, but showed no interest in repeating it. Then this weekend, he decided to finally show Daddy he could walk, so that Daddy could see before he left for a two week trip to Germany. Here are two videos are our big boy officially "toddling."

The second video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q_zYPK6vGo