Do you ever look at your calendar and think, "How can I possibly fit more stuff on here?" Those were my thoughts today as I left the back specialists office. I spoke with her about Ivy's super sensitive gag reflex, and how she doesn't mouth things like other babies, and she told me that we would have to start working with a speech therapist.
When you think of babies, you think of slobber, and everything they touch being covered in it, right? Thats because they put EVERYTHING in their mouths. Not Ivy, she has never done that. When she picks up the worlds smallest crumb from the carpet, I don't instantly worry that its going straight to her mouth. I don't EVER worry that its going in her mouth, because it never does! Well, this sounds nice, but its actually a bad thing, and we need to fix it. She has what the specialist called an oral defensiveness (as opposed to oral aversion, since she takes a bottle and pacifier), and will now start working with a speech therapist (they work with everything having to do with the mouth, not just speech) to get used to having different textures and flavors in her mouth. Hopefully this will save me from getting puked on everyday, as well as help her gain some much needed weight.
But as I contemplate having yet another person coming by to work with her on things, I can't help but wonder if its ever going to ease up! We now have a huge number of people who want to see her on a regular basis, including: Nurse, physical therapist, back specialist, dietition, social worker, pediatrician, cardiologist, and now speech therapist. It makes for a pretty full schedule, not to mention that Corbin starts preschool next week, needs new glasses, and both boys still need occasional doctors appointments also. I feel like there is never any time for anything else. I can't help but feel a little overwhelmed. I just have to look to the future and think of her as a teenager, holding her head up straight, eating a sandwich (without throwing it up), and getting around as any normal teenager would, and it makes it worth it. And if I think of the alternative of if she hadn't lived in the first place, I am grateful for every appointment, frustration, and even every puke stained shirt there is, because I can't imagine life without her.
