Mikey has now finished his 6 weeks of speech therapy, and I have learnt that speech therapy isn't exactly about his speech...instead it is looking at his social skills so we've had lots of games where he can't just grab any car/toy he wants, especially if someone else is playing with it at the time. I have noticed an improvement is the number of tantrums but when he does decide to have one it can take a while to calm him down again. We have a review in May to see how he is getting on - provided Mummy has survived the time between now and then! We have also seen his developmental consultant who seemed quite happy...he asked Mikey to draw a variety of lines and shapes, the first 2 were repeated nicely but then I saw a look I recognised!! When Dr Freiburg drew a circle, Mikey threw the crayon at him! He then moved onto rolling a ball towards Mikey, who threw it straight back at him with some force (while Mummy tried her hardest not to collapse in a fit of giggles) Mikey was doing his normal way of walking, basically at a high speed run! But he was also pleased with the way he runs, last time we saw him he was saying Mikey wasn't really walking properly - but there was no mention of that this time. I felt much happier as I got the chance to talk to him about my fears with his eating (i.e. he only wants junk) but he told me that Mikey is a well proportioned, happy little boy and all that I'm doing is increasing the stress on me - and I should ignore all the advice I get from other people as he will eat when he is ready to. I was also told that I should be proud of my son and proud of what we have achieved so far with him. I have never felt that good after seeing a Dr, and at least I know now that I can feel proud of what I've done so far...just need to keep it up for a few more years!!
The day after the last speech therapy Mikey and I were happily considering hibernation due to a rather grey and cold day...thankfully after lunch my phone beeped to remind me that Mikey was having a hearing test...I had totally forgotten about it and Mikey was wearing most of his yoghurt from lunchtime! There was also a strong scent arising from his nether regions, so it was a trip upstairs and a very quick stripping of a small person and then a dash down the the Rainbow Centre. I should have been more relaxed as like any other NHS appointment they were running late and Mikey had time to have a good play with the toys in reception!
When we got in it was far more high tech than I have imagined! We decided it might be easier to have him sat on my lap while the test...he had 2 tiny plugs in this ears and when a sound was played in each ear a box on that side of him lights up. On the right we had Piglet and Roo and Pooh on the left. He actually was very good and the test itself didn't take too long, it finished up with an ultrasound drawing of each ear (at least I think that's what it was). The official report will be sent to the GP I believe but the testers were quite happy to tell me there are no problems or issues with his hearing and the heavy duty antibiotics he had in his first week have done no damage at all. (I believe it was Gentomiacin he was given - probably not spelt like that)
On Wednesday Andy had the day off and we turned the nursery into a big boy Pirate room! Mikey was at Debbie's for the day so we took the drop side off his cot. changed his lampshade, put his skull & cross bones rug down and Mummy got artistic with a load of pirate stickers!!
