Rough Night and IFSP Goals

Dylan had a really rough night last night. Mommy woke about midnight to find Dylan with a temp of 102.5 and some fast breathing. He was also tossing and turning in his sleep. With the help of Tylenol and some cold apple juice she was able to bring his temp down a little to help him sleep a little more peacefully. This also helped his breathing slow down which was really concerning her. It was a long night for her since she stayed up to make sure there weren't anymore "breathing episodes" but he seemed to be fine after a few hours.

This morning, Dylan woke up apparently feeling fine. He's a little congested but his temperature is almost normal. Just in case, Mommy cancelled Dylan's therapy appointment with Eileen. Over the phone, we did set some new goals for Dylan on his IFSP. For those who don't know what an IFSP is, it is a six month set of goals set by the parents and therapists. We come up with items we feel are areas that Dylan should be addressing (physically and cognitively) and then set up his therapy to see if we can achieve them. Dylan's physical goals set by Eileen and Mommy are as follows:

1. Move forward on his own.
2. Move in and out of sitting without assistance.
3. Put toys onto things (such as a toy ring on a stick) without coordination problems.
4. Pulling to his knees without assistance.
5. Pulling to standing with bent knees.
6. Playing with books (we actually have accomplished this one).
7. Uses first finger and thumb to pick up items. These items can include cheerios, carrots, smaller toys with a thin diameter such as the hammer to a xylophone toy, etc.

We have alot to accomplish in the next six months. During our conversation we also reviewed Dylan's previous goals and it is a little disheartening when goals that have been set were not reached from the previous IFSP. For example, Dylan was supposed to be moving forward on his own by now. We are certainly very, very close. He turns on his stomach, scootches backwards on his tummy, but does not really move forward with much success yet except when on a smooth surface such as linoleum. This particular goal has been a hard one for Mommy. She often gets parents asking her how old Dylan is. When they find out he is a year old, they automatically assume he is crawling and she has to explain that Dylan is a little "behind". Or the other parents will talk about how their kid started crawling at 8 months and was into everything by that age. Mommy knows they mean well. It is good to have the support of other parents of children with special needs who listen and know exactly how you feel around times like these. It's also good to remind ourselves just how much Dylan has accomplished over so much adversity during his one year of life. Way to go Dylan. We'll get the crawling thing down in time.

Hopefully Bug's illness from last night was just a short-term event. We'll let you know how he is feeling.