Babies are great!
Early Intervention came today to follow up on Jackson and Tabitha's evaluations from last week. Their computer was down so they really couldn't tell us anything. How lame is that?! Norah works with developmental assessments daily and they score them by hand if they need to. This just reinforces her views that EI folks are under-trained and unintelligent. These are my first EI folks and I've seen nothing to dispute my wife's claims. They do what I do with a different title - and they make LESS! I looked at EI jobs, I'm more than qualified but they really make crap. How could I support Basel and Norah in graduate school on that salary? And I'd be indifferent homes each day, dealing with diverse situations, varied parents and doing what? Encouraging parents, making suggestions, telling them what is appropriate at what age, what exercises they can do to benefit specific developments, and then I'd just leave and hope they were taking some of my suggestions to heart. Whereas in my job I do all those things plus I lead by example every day.
Enough about me, I enjoy my work and only ask a tad more respect when I tell others what I do because I make a difference every day. Update on the babies.
Late yesterday afternoon Jackson raised his head almost two inches off of the blanket - hooray Jackson! He also freed his left arm which had been pinned under his belly - all by himself! He vocalized while he worked but didn't cry or give up. I am very proud of him.
He is still having trouble eating. After a burp/once he becomes sleepy he has trouble beginning. He can suck, swallow, breathe but the initial suck gives him trouble when he's tired. It is exhausting for him and us but we are working on it every feed. He's still eating well and sleeping perfectly during the night. Again with the eleven hours.
Tabitha is getting more demanding with her desires. If she turns over in her sleep and fusses she can get herself back to sleep when given the opportunity. When she is "soothed" at this point it vamps her up and she fusses unhappily for quite a long time. She's still eating during the night and Sara has decided she's using the bottle to go back to sleep. Not what we'd like to see. The current debate is whether to decrease the amount she's offered, drop the bottle cold turkey or replace the bottle with the pacifier. I vote drop it cold turkey, she doesn't need it, she's waking up before it at times then not taking it, she doesn't finish it, soothing her with the pacifier entails various visits and re-insertions, eventually we'd need to wean her from the pacifier (she doesn't take it any other time than the middle of the night to stretch to a feed and never regularly) and soothing her with the pacifier would take as much work as soothing her without it.
Roger and Sara are still spending a lot of time at home. I thought I was fine with it but it is getting exhausting. I get glimpses of freedom, seeing what a day could be like without them all over the babies every twenty minutes and it makes me long for the days of baby-care rather than parentcare/consulting/re-doing what they mess up. But this is my job and I love it, right?
