Back 2 school

Time really flies, Jake has been back to school for a week already, and Max is almost 6 weeks old.

I have been looking for a speech therapist for Jake since the beginning of August, and so far we haven’t found anyone. There was one therapist who called and we spoke in length about Jake’s speech needs. But then she called me a few days later and advised me that after further consideration, she decided not to take Jake’s case. Perhaps I had scared her off? LOL I don’t know, but hey, I ‘d rather be honest and up front about Jake’s significant language delay than to have a therapist accept the case and only to find out he/she is not experienced enough to treat Jake. That would be a waste of everyone’s time and money in my opinion.

I haven’t been getting too many hours of sleep at night because of Max, so how I am still walking around during the day and being coherent is beyond me. Many people ask me how is Jake with the baby, and I have to say he is pretty good. He certainly acknowledges Max’s presence but he doesn’t demand attention if I have to attend to Max instead of him.



On the weekend, I am slacking off a bit in terms of working with Jake whether it be walking or using his computer, for that I feel extremely guilty. But I am sure Jake doesn’t mind it, he is just as happy if not happier sitting there watching TV or listening to his music, or doing nothing for that matter, that is Jake for you.

OK, now a little about Max. I have been placing him on his belly daily for a few seconds so he can strengthen his neck muscle… oh yeah a funny story on that. On the day that Max was being discharged from hospital after he was born, the doctor came in with some residents to do a discharge exam I guess. I asked her how is Max’s muscle tone, and that were there any sign of him being hyper or hypotonic. The doctor just looked at me, and looked back at the residents with this puzzled look. I guess not everyday she sees parents who ask this questions. OK, it is not that funny right now, but at the time, the expression on her face was pretty funny.

Jake and Max update

Jake is into the 3rd and final week of no school. During this time period, I wasn’t able to spend that much time with him because of the baby, but luckily, Melanie, his lone time respite carer comes in everyday and dedicates every minute of her working hours to his one on one care. Prior to the start of vacation, I made up an activity list and a daily schedule sheet for Melanie and Jake. Everyday, Melanie picks from the list which includes various PT, OT, and computer learning activities; she logs them on the daily schedule sheet as Jake does them. This is so that Jake’s days can be structured and he gets a chance to review all the activities/basic concepts.


Last week was an eventful week for Max, as he was hospitalized for 3 days. We found him with a 101.5 fever on Sunday morning, and off to the ER we went. We ended in the ER for 10 hours as they needed to collect urine, blood, spinal fluid from him in order to grow cultures to check for any bacteria infections. They also needed to put in an IV to administer antibiotics in case he did have bacteria infections. We were told that is the protocol for any infants who have fever above 100.4. After 10 hours in the ER, we were admitted to the floor, there he was getting antibiotics every 6 hours as he was being treated as if he had infection until the 48 hour culture report indicates otherwise. Luckily after 48 hours, none of the cultures showed anything, and we were discharged at around 8pm on Tuesday evening. It was so hard seeing him being stuck so many times by no less than 10 doctors/nurses/residents in the ER all trying to get the specimens and place the IV. I mean it was horrible, why can’t they just send in the best person in the first place rather than have 10 people try and try and fail. In the end, it was the attending ER physician who placed the IV and got the spinal tab, but that wasn’t done until 5 nurses, 1 fellow, 1 resident tried and failed. It was another doctor of NICU who finally drew blood from him after god knows how many people before her tried and failed. Anyhow, finally on Thursday, Max was fever free and since coming home, I have been limiting direct contact between him and Jake, and also having no visitors to see him since we still don’t how he got sick in the first place. That is for now, here is a picture of Max in the ER, poor baby, and another one after a bath.