IEP and Synagis Makes For a Busy Day!

Today I kept myself busy. Noah had his 6th (and last) Synagis shot and 1 year well child check-up at the pediatrician's office. He is getting so big!! He is up to 20 pounds exactly (13 percentile), 29 inches long (20th percentile) and 45.8 cm head circumference (they didn't tell me the percentile on that one). They had me fill out a developmental questionnaire and he continues to be about two months delayed. That is fine since he was about two months premature. He showed the biggest delay in his gross motor area. That's because they weight everything according to the baby actually walking or pulling up to furniture. Seeing as Noah is not even close to this he didn't score so well. The doctor then asked me if Noah was even interested in pulling up on furniture. I answered no. The doctor then asked about his temperament. I said he was a pretty happy go lucky baby that was pretty much happy with rolling around, sitting up, scooting and eating anything off the floor (delicious!). The doctor was ok with this. He said it is pretty hard to make a baby want to walk if he is pretty much content with what he is doing--which explains Noah to a "T". Noah is as happy-go-lucky as they come--thank goodness for baby #5 especially in our household!! We will see if he gets that walking motivation in the next two months, though. The pediatrician did suggest contacting Early Intervention just to check him out. I'll try and add that on to my hectic week ahead of me...Here is my happy "non motivated slug boy" baby who loves to smile and laugh at just about anything:

Thank goodness his spitting up has decreased significantly!! However, he still has it somewhat as you can see the evidence of the nice white spot on the carpet behind his head. I try to clean it up after it happens, but he is the silent barfer so a lot of the time I don't see it until it is partially dried and has already left a white spot. YUCK!

In other happenings today Matthew had his annual IEP (Individual Education Plan) meeting today to set his educational goals for next year. That's the meeting with the principal, regular education teacher, special education teacher, speech therapist and us lowly parents. I got a phone call from the principal last Monday. When I saw the school's phone number on the caller ID my heart sank. I answered wondering what bad news they had to give me about Matthew. Luckily, it was only to set up the IEP appointment. Whew what a relief!! Anyway, the principal had to call to set it up because Matthew's learning center special ed teacher is on extended leave with no one knowing when she would be back. That news was quite surprising. I knew Matthew had had a substitute for the last few weeks, but I didn't think anything about it. I tried to find out what happened to his teacher, but no one would say anything today. Hopefully nothing too bad is going on with her :(. Anyway, I wasn't too happy to have a substitute special ed teacher who doesn't even know Matthew try to set his education goals for next year. However, she turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The substitute teacher had spent the last couple of days in the classroom trying to get to know what makes Matthew tick. Hey we have lived with the kid for almost ten years and we still haven't figured that one out!! Anyway, she had some insightful goals for him next year. He will be attending a different school next year and we don't know where he will be yet. We should find out May 1st. Hopefully, we can get a teacher that will work well with Matthew. The teacher he has had these last two years didn't work as well with Matthew as some of the teachers we have had in the past. Getting a good teacher is always a big concern especially with Matthew!! As for the educational goals for next year she actually came up with some logical ones that should really help him. Now we only need a good special ed teacher to implement them next year. Crossing our fingers and saying our prayers for that one!! I am glad to have the IEP meeting out of the way until next year--barring any problems between now and then....I can't believe he will be starting 5th grade next year. 5TH GRADE!! I still can't wrap my head around that one!!