Today we visited Children’s for Owen’s two year NICU follow up appointment. The follow up appointments are part of a voluntary program that the NICU offers. It’s a program that helps us gage how Owen is doing developmentally and it helps them track their NICU grads. They ask us to bring Owen in at 8 months, 15 months, 2 years and 4 1/2 years to be evaluated by occupational therapists, an RN and a neonatalogist. They have him do all sorts of little tasks, then rate him on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, then let us know how he is progressing and where he may need additional help. They then provide resources to help in those areas. From what we’ve been told, the Bayley testing is the gold standard, so we feel lucky to have the opportunity.
This past week, Owen has started with the terrible twos, so I was very fearful of how he would act. He’s become very independent and says “NO!” a lot. He keeps testing us, doing things he knows that he shouldn’t do, and then throws himself on the ground or against a wall when we tell him not to do it. Paul was gone all last week, so it was a very difficult week for me. I am used to a sweet little boy who rarely needs a time out and suddenly I have this little beast who is in time out more than not! It was a tough week. So, I was nervous about today.
Owen was a rockstar! I couldn’t be more proud of my little man. He was so patient and did so well on the testing. It is about a two hour process, which is a very long time to ask a two year old to focus! But he did very well!
Some of the things that they asked him to do were: stack blocks, put 10 blocks into a coffee cup, open a screw-top bottle, sort and put same-color pegs into different glasses, put together puzzles, put pegs in holes as quickly as he could, stack things IN a cup and ON a cup, thread a string through the handle of a coffee cup, color with crayons, feed a baby, give the baby something to drink, put the baby to bed, and figure out how to get a matchbox car out from underneath a transparent box. Then they would show him a picture of one animal, say a donkey, then they’d flip to a page with several animals and he’d have to find the donkey amongst all the other animals.
They watched to see how he grasped things, if he could run, jump, climb, and walk backwards. They also set objects like balls, a baby, a spoon, a cup, etc. on the table to see which he knew words for. They showed him a lot of pictures and asked him what the objects were.
He did so great on all of these things, but the areas that were hard for him were –ing verbs and pronouns. She’d show him a picture of kids swimming and want him to say “swimming,” but he doesn’t really know verbs yet. We’ve mainly been working on nouns. She also showed him pictures of one girl with a balloon and one boy with a balloon and asked him to point to the boy and his balloon. He didn’t quite get the pronouns.
Overall though, his scores looked great. 100 is the median score and then with the bell curve, 85 and 115 make up the high and low end of what is the acceptable score range. In cognitive, he scored a 140, which is equivalent to a child at 31 months old. The OT was so excited! She said that she’s never seen a two year old child get that high before! I was shocked and I have to admit, very proud! She said he’s very organized in his reasoning and has a plan for everything he does. He’s very methodical.
On his motor score, he got a 112, putting him at 26 months for gross motor and 26 months for fine motor skills. Finally, he got 118 on his language score, putting him at 31 months for expressive language and 25 months for receptive language. I think he would have gotten higher in the receptive language, but she started out showing him a picture of a ball and then he wouldn’t listen to her when she asked him to point out other things. He was obsessed with the ball!
As far as measurements go, he is 35.25” tall (75% on standard chart and 95% on preemie chart), weighs 28lbs., 4oz. (50% standard and 85th% preemie) and his head is 19.75” (80th% standard and 75% preemie).
When the neonatalogist came in, he said, "There really isn't much to say except that he's perfect." I said, "You should have seen him last week!" They all agreed that we just have to keep doing what we are doing because he is developing physically and mentally just like they hoped he would.
As we drove away from the hospital, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude and amazement. I wasn't expecting it, but I got really emotional. I don't know if anyone other than a preemie parent can understand, but you just go back to the day you think you are going to lose your baby and when the neonatalogist tells you, "A baby born at this point could be deaf, blind, have cerebral palsy...." and you just feel humbled that God has blessed you with this miracle and entrusted him in your care. Not only is he healthy, but he is developing just the way that he should be - thriving and flourishing.
I said it on February 23, 2010, and I will say it again today - I believe in MIRACLES!
