Jackson's 4 Year Old Well Check Up

Last Monday, we went for Jackson's 4 year old well check up. My doctor in Columbia had been warning me about the FOUR shots they get at 4 years old, and so we had plans to go to Monkey Joe's afterwards which we did and it was the only thing that calmed him down. He was fine for the first 2 shots, but then after the 3rd shot he arched his back and had a total meltdown.

They gave me a 48 Month ASQ-3 assessment test to fill out, and everything was good except speech, but he was actually not in the gray when I filled it out.

Here are some things we are working on from the questionnaire:

1. Does your child name at least three items from a common category? For example, if you say to your child, "Tell me some things that you can eat," does your child answer with something like "cookie, eggs, and cereal"? Or if you say, "Tell me the name of some animals," does your child answer with something like "cow, dog, and elephant." (I had to check sometimes with this because he we are working hard with categories at speech and he is improving a lot, but still not 100 percent there).
2. Does your child tell you at least two things about common objects? For example, if you say to your child, "Tell me about your ball," does she say something like, "It's round. I throw it." (Sometimes)
3. Without you giving help by pointing, does your child follow three different directions using the words "under," "between," and "middle"? For example, ask your child to put the shoe, "under the couch." Then ask her to put the ball "between the chairs" and the book "in the middle of the table." (Sometimes)
4. Without you giving help by pointing or repeating, does your child follow three directions that are unrelated to one another? Give all three directions before your child starts. For example you may ask your child, "Clap your hands, walk to the door, and sit down," or "Give me the pen, open the book, and stand up." (Sometimes)

Jackson was 35 pounds which was in the 25% (he was 37 pounds at some point and we are going back to the GI doctor in a couple months to check his weight gain since he is still on Miralax).

He was almost 3 feet 5 inches (so technically 3 feet 4 inches), and in the 50% for his height. He has grown like 5 inches this year I think. The doctor said he looked good on the growth chart.

"Thank You For Sharing a Wonderful Day Mommy"

Just to warn you this is going to be a mushy post...

Last night while putting Jackson to bed for the first round he said,

"Thank you for sharing a wonderful day Mommy."

I know he got this phrase from a book or show but cannot think of it right now. I was thinking how sweet he was when he goes on further and says,

"Thank you for taking me to Chick Fil A today."

"Abigail and me, love you very much."

Oh wow, tears start coming.

"Thank you."

It is a phrase moms of Preschoolers rarely get to hear it seems.

My love language is definitely words of affirmation now since being a mom of little ones you do not get "thank you," too often. Growing up, my parents were so great in affirming me and I am so thankful for them for that.

Also, this appreciation is something I did not think I would hear from him for a while, since he was tongued tied and has had a lot of catching up to do after his surgery. He can really express his emotions so well now.

Jackson was re-evaluated recently and is doing so well. Overall, his speech is at a 3 and half year old level, but his expressive speech is almost exactly where it needs to be with his age. So I guess he is only three or so months behind now.

He will not be getting speech therapy this summer, but his speech therapist is giving me a folder of stuff to work on this summer. I will be hopefully posting some of the things we are working on throughout the summer.

He will get speech at the school for 30 minutes a week next school year with the therapist at Bethware, and we have singed him up for Resurrection Lutheran Church Preschool for two days a week with his buddy at church.

God gets all the glory for bringing Jackson almost right where he needs to be, and next year he might not even qualify for speech. It has been so awesome to see God's glory shine through my little baby boy who is growing up so fast.

Thursday's Tip: The Book of the Month

is

The Letters are Lost for Preschoolers

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

is another book that goes well with it. This is the book that they are working on at Oak Grove back in Columbia for this month during speech time.

I also just picked up "Ready, Set Preschool!" worksheet by Sesame Street at CVS. Anytime I put Abigail down to sleep Jackson begs to do a worksheet. I am just thankful he enjoys learning right now.

What is your tip for teaching Preschoolers? What has been working for you recently?

New Books We Are Working on

Jackson is still going to Oak Grove Elementary School on Thursday mornings at 7:45 am for speech (one hour sessions). He has done really well in January and is speaking in 4 or 5 word sentences now. He is saying so much in speech his teacher says she is having a hard time writing it all down. She said last time he was like, "Look, that is a diamond shape." I am so thankful! This time last year he was hardly saying anything. Now, he is almost non-stop talking...if I will not listen, he will talk to himself.

Every month they try to work on one specific book every therapy session. The books they are now working on for February are Emma Kate by Patrica Polacco, and The Three Bears by Paul Galdone. I got both of these books off half.com for under $5. I will not pay more than $5 (this includes shipping) for any book or dvd I buy for them, because we are at the stage where books get eaten by our little goat, Abigail. I am so excited about these new books!

I still do school time daily with the kids since they are not going to Preschool. I have started strapping Abigail down in her seat during this time as well and doing activities with her (we are trying for her not to use her pacifier during the day).

Here is our current 'school' schedule at home:

Mondays: Car and block day (he works on copying what I build)
Tuesdays: Bubble day
Wednesday: Puzzle day
Thursday: Animal day
Friday: Art day
Saturday: practice ball (putting, soccer, etc).

At the end of "school" time (they are both strapped down) they get a Popsicle as a treat. This kills some time and is good exercise for their mouths.

With Jackson, we are working on obeying Mommy the first time I ask him to do something. This requires me really meaning what I say, and getting down on his level, making eye contact, and speaking in a calm but stern voice. If he does an action that deliberately hurts his sister, or harms himself (i.e. running out in the middle of the street), he gets a spanking with the "rod." (wooden spoon).

Proverbs 13:24, "He who spares the rod, hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him." Proverbs 22:15, "Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him."

Ultimately, my primary goal for my children is to know Jesus. Jesus' death and resurrection is their only hope. My goal for my children is to teach them to strive to live a life where their goal is to die to themselves and depend on God.

How we live this out in their little lives may look like this: when my kids are sick, we lay hands on whoever is sick and pray in Jesus name that He will heal them. When mommy struggles with something, I pray out loud to the Holy Spirit that He will give me strength to overcome whatever I am struggling with. When Jackson is obsessing over what PJ's he is going to wear at night, and who got the certain PJ's for him, if it is us, I say, "Mommy and Daddy got them. Daddy works very hard so we can have money to have PJ's. But ultimately, Jesus graciously gave us our money and everything we have." God is completely in control (it might not be our plan but it is His plan, everything that happens to us that we have no control over). Also we sing such songs as, "Yes, Jesus loves me" and read stories daily all about Jesus from Read Aloud Bible Stories.

I have really been thinking a lot recently about parenting goals and how to practically live them out. One of my friends recently experienced an extreme family tragedy. There really were no words that I could say to comfort her. However, the Holy Spirit gave me words for her through a song. I texted her and said, "Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Christ and His righteousness". He is the only reason we can get out the bed the next day, he is our ONLY HOPE. We can keep our eyes fixed on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith. The Holy Spirit will give you the strength (that you do not think you havr) to set your hearts and your thoughts on Jesus. Our only hope is His blood and His righteousness. That is my "sermon" for today...ha!

Thursday's Tip: The Mitten

The Mitten by Jan Brett is the book they are working on this month at Jackson's school/speech time.

The school uses the Read It Once Again curriculum in choosing what book to use for the month. The last book was Silly Sally and definitely more on his level. He loves this book and asks me to read it to him every day. I think he might have it memorized now.

The Mitten is an excellent book, but has some big words in the book, and is a little long for him. I read online that this book is appropriate for children four years and older. However, after talking to the speech therapist she assured me that she is breaking this book down to his level. She also reports that he is having a hard time answering questions and focusing during book time. So, of course, we got this book of amazon used and very cheap. He is starting to like this book more and more, but since it is so long, he does not ask me to read it to him again yet. He loves books right now, and he will sit down with me for very long periods of time while I read, so it was surprising to hear he was having a hard time focusing during book time.

However, overall he is doing so well. The other day, he came into the room where me, Charlie and Abigail were, and said, "Hey guys, what is going on?"

Other milestones in the last couple weeks:

• "saying J-A-C-K-S-O-N Spells Jackson by memory"
• He knows what are names are and his full name and that he lives in Columbia SC and says that Gigi and Grand live in Spartanburg, and daily we hear, "KK went back to Georgia."
• He makes knock knock jokes daily. For instances: "Knock, knock, who is there? Zoo, Zoo who? Zoomed to you expect"...this is from a Wiggles dvd
• Non stop talking with us all day.He speaks in sentences all days as well. Such as "I see the stars. The moon is behind the clouds."
  
• Counts to twenty, and counts everything. Count out his 14 cars, and then says, "I have fourteen cars." The other day he even said one and one is two, and I have never even touched on that. He is gifted in the math side of things for sure, just like my dad (there is no real differences in my dad and Jackson).
  

Back to The Mitten
We are suppose to be asking him

• How many animals are in the mitten?
• Tell me what you see?
• Does it snow when it is hot outside or when it is cold?
• What did Nicki want?
• What is the boy's name?
  

Next book, they will be working on is From Head to Toe by Eric Carle.

This is all very helpful to me because I have no idea how to teach Preschoolers!

What is your child's favorite educational book right now?

Updated Pictures: Fun Facts about Abigail 10 months old

They love each other so much!

Sunday after church (outfit from cousins Christopher and Becky...we are very thankful!)

I get this cute Polo outfit at the Tot Trade. The Tot Trade is wonderful!

Standing at Mimi's and Pop Pop's . She is so close to taking her first step.

Doing her favorite activity watching the Wiggle with Jackson. I got this very old Wiggle dvd from the Tot trade and they love it!

She has gotten a lot more hair recently!

Feeding Millie Boo

Abigail at Chick Fil A

Sick Abigail chewing on her saline spray.

Fun Facts About Abigail: 10 months old

Teeth: She now has six teeth that have broken through (four at the top, two on the bottom). Two more might be on the way. The pain of teething has not seemed as bad as it was with Jackson. She is not quite as dramatic as Jackson yet. She seems to roll with illnesses and pain a lot better than Jackson did at this age.

Favorite Show: Wiggles, Cedarmont Kids dvd, Yo Gabba Gabba

Words she can say: "mama, daddy, hey, she can say Pop Pop, and she is starting to say the beginning sounds of a word. I will say, "can you say cup, "ku ku" and she will repeat the ku ku ku part. It is really a blessing I have had all this speech therapy training! She sings along with songs by humming. I do think she has meaning when she says "mama" because she usually wants me when she does it. I know it would be great for her to have 10 to 15 words she can at least say by 1 years old, but development can come at any point. From 18 months to 2 years old is the huge jump in words usually.

Favorite Toy: Stuffed balls, her baby doll (she does really like all Jackson's toys...)

Favorite Thing to do that she is not suppose to do: EAT PAPER! She really loves to eat paper. She will crawl into a bathroom so quick and start eating the toilet paper before I can even blink. It is so crazy. Jackson never would actually eat things, but then again he has never been a big eater.

One of the best things About Abigail: She is really easy to take places and does so great in the church nursery. She does not fuss when I leave her, and every where we go (even at soccer games and practices) we always get the comments on what an easy great baby she is.

Jackson did not cry when I would drop him off in nursery situations either until he started walking and I took his formula away and gave him nothing but milk which caused him to be constipated and very unhappy in general. I will not make that mistake again. I will not be giving Abigail whole milk in a bottle, I will still give her bottles with formula in them and just try to get rid of the middle of the day bottle for one week, then the lunch bottle the next week and the last two bottles I will get rid of will be the morning bottle and the night bottle. I will give her milk in a cup, but will not be giving her 27 ozs of whole milk a day through a bottle like a did with Jackson which really turned out to cause him some major gastric problems.

*Added later: Another trick to getting rid of the bottle is to always offer food before the bottle. I can do this all day with Abigail accept first thing in the morning. Do you have any more suggestions on how to get rid of the bottle?

Our Goals for Jackson with "School"/Speech This Year

Jackson is not going to Preschool this year. I have prayed about this a lot, and the bottom line is that he is not begging to go to school. Also, I have learned how to be his teacher through all of our wonderful therapists that we have had in the last year (not to mention the $100 a month two-day-a-week fee plus a non-refundable $100 deposit at the beginning for preschool).

I feel pretty certain that God has given me the gift of teaching. Since I know that He has given both me and Charlie the gift of teaching, for Jackson’s 2 year old year and maybe even his 3 year old year we will be teaching him at home. Because of his September birthday, He is only in a two year old class and I know what his school goals would be. He does go to Oak Grove Elementary every Thursday morning bright and early at 7:45 am for an hour for speech and he did great this week! The teacher said he was a parrot.

I do not feel very confident in teaching 2 year olds, or Preschool-age children, but God is teaching me so much about my role as teacher. I feel really nervous about ever teaching him how to read since I did not learn to read using phonics. I learned to read in the 80's using some crazy memorization way (this is one reason why my spelling is so bad). I want to go ahead and start learning how to teach my children to read when they are ready, so if you have any recommendations and good books on Preschoolers learning to read or any books explaining how to teach little ones to read, I would love to know what books you recommend.

Since I am trying to have school time with Jackson at least twice a week, hopefully more, I think I will start posting some recommendations on what is working for us (especially since he has speech delay) on Thursdays of most weeks.

Most Southern Baptist churches use the "Wee Learn" Curriculum from Lifeway for their Preschools throughout the year. You can actually go online and view it and see a lot of great ideas. The first section is entitled "Learning About Myself." The first unit is entitled "I am growing." They encourage you to spend a week teaching about how your little one grows in height, and how Jesus grew in height as well. A song that relates that you can sing with your two year olds is "Head Shoulders, Knees, and Toes." We plan to teach this curriculum at church on Wednesday nights to our bored 2 year olds.

Overall his goals in school are:

• Being able to copy me when I build a tower with blocks. He really just wants to build a tall tower his own way. When we have school time, we mainly play with toys while he is strapped down in a high chair.
• Him to copy me when I draw a circle, straight line, etc.
• Him to speak in short sentences and to have 1,000 words (that we work on all throughout the day).
• Him being able to point to the correct object when asked, "What do we watch our shows on? (Answer: point to the TV).

If your child has speech delay and is not talking much or at all (we were there not so long ago), I would strongly recommend having "school time" and strapping your little one down to a high chair and it least trying to say the beginning sound of a word. For instance, with Jackson, I would say to him, “Say, ‘f’ for frog.” I would step away if he got frustrated, but never gave up hope that he could say the "f" sound. When he finally said the sound I wanted him to say, I would give him a high five, and go on and on about what a great job he did. I would start out with working on 10 words from the First Word flashcards that you can get pretty much anywhere. Start small, and do not be frustrated if they can not say the entire word. Just saying the first sound of a word is a huge step! At first we would only do school time for 5 or 10 minutes. Now, just the other day, we were able to do it for 30 minutes.

If you have a child Jackson's age and even if they go to Preschool, figure out what the next step is for them. I am sure that there are times of the day when they are bored at the house, and it would be a great time to push them to the next level. Maybe they can even practice writing their name or letters during "school time." Let me know if you have any more suggestions on how to have "school time" at your house with a child Jackson's age.

Great Post on How to Make Your Own Baby Food / Update on Jackson

Go here to see an excellent post on how to make your own baby food by Money Saving Mom. I totally agree with her and think that baby food is way overpriced. Lately, Abigail has been eating a lot of people food. She wants to eat whatever her brother is eating, so the other day she had cheerios, cereal bar, cracker, grill cheese, etc. Since she swallows so much paper, I thought I might as well teach her how to eat real food. She is now 19.3 pounds! She still eats two jars of veggies and fruit.

I really meant to post yesterday, but this has probably one of the busy week I will have all year. Jackson's birthday is Saturday and we are throwing a small party here at the house (I started off by just asking 3 friends since he will be 3 years old, but of course it got bigger). Also, we are having a million transitioning meetings with the school, and I am trying to get all my stuff ready for the tot trade which is very time consuming (there are many rules!)

The school psychologist called yesterday and said that Jackson does not qualify for the school at all. He is where he is suppose to be, and he is not even close to qualifying for the school. All the glory goes to God! It is a miracle where he is right now. He is singing, and telling me what he did when he goes to Puggles, Sunday School, etc. He will say, "Fun Puggles, coloring, play with toys, singing." I am very emotional this week just thinking how far Jackson has come in 2 months. Even in May and most of June, he was not saying a whole lot. We did see some immediate results right after his surgery in March such as him saying "yellow," which he had never said before, but then he seemed to regress some in May and June.

It is unbelievable where he is now, I probably cannot count how many words he says a day. He speaks in phrases all day long. He can sing his Abc's by himself now as well as God our Father song, count to twenty, can say all his colors, and shapes. God is good all the times, all the time God is good. He will still go to speech therapy once a week at Oak Grove with two other kids his age for one hour. His tongue is still 40 percent weak and I will continue to do oral motor exercises on him. God was so gracious to send us the best speech therapist ever, and we are going to miss her so much.

Update on Jackson: Prayers are being Answered!

Speech Therapy:

• He is saying new words everyday which is the biggest blessing ever! This morning he said "my bunny" to Abigail and tears came flowing from my eyes (I get real emotional when I do not get good sleep and Abigail is still waking us up all throughout the night). Today, so far, he has said: "flag wave, tree, moon, baby, daddy, mommy, dog, bears, girl, clock, up, role, wipe, paci, me, water, pig, skate, cheers, Pete, push, his version of surprise, fruit, play, five, stop, many numbers, and many letters. He will say two words when I ask him to like, "Hi Manning." I am writing all his words down today to see exactly how many words he has. We are working for 100 words by the age of three (that is one speech therapy goal). Added latter: He uses about 70 words a day! We are so excited.
  
• He knows his numbers, letters, and shapes. When you put up a random number or letter he correctly says that number, letter, or shape.
  
• At my parents the other day he said to my dad, "I want my mommy!"
• He does not always say the words right and sometimes leaves off the end sound of a word. If you child has trouble saying a word, say the beginning sound of the word over and over and ask him to to repeat just the beginning sound of the word.
  
• Please keep praying for Jackson and that he will clearly say words (and always say the end sounds of words) and start saying two words together throughout the day.
• He is the happiest I have seen him since he was a baby, and was so proud to show how he could say all his colors to his Sunday School teacher. Jesus has loosened his tongue and healed his stomach. The therapist explained to us that after the surgery they have to babble again, and then basically learn how to talk all over again. He loves eating ice cream cones now, which he could not do before surgery.
  
• He will still need speech therapy when he turns 3 years old, so he will be evaluated in August on his speech to see if he qualifies for a speech therapist and/or a classroom at Oak Grove Elementary School. We are zoned for White Knoll, but they do not offer this program. He can attend this school the day he turns 3, which will be September 12.
• These video have helped him in so many ways (especially with his speech)
  
• He loved being in the Liberty pageant and waved his flag on stage so proudly. He loves to be the center of attention. He is so much happier than he was this time last year.
• He is constanly making jokes with his actions, and he is so funny!
  

Gastro Doctor:

• Jackson has been trying all kind of new foods since he is cleaned out after taking an adult dosage of Miralax for a week (hamburgers, bacon, spaghetti).
  
• The doctor explained to us that he believe Jackson had a painful bathroom experience and has decided that because of that he is not going to be able to have a "normal" bowl movement till he is probably 5 years old or so.
  
• He has to be on Miralax for another 6 months to a year
• The doctor said we will not need to try potty training for another 2 months.
• We have to go back again to him in 4 months.
• The x-ray showed lot of stool, and all the blood work came back good except one category under celiac disease that is non specified. He said that he does not have a glutten allergy or celiac disease.
  

• God is so good, and it is so wonderful to see prayers answered daily for my sweet funny boy!
  

Happier

Jackson is so much happier since he had the surgery!

• He can eat so much faster and better. Yesterday at the doctor he weighed 29.6 pounds and before the surgery he weighed 28.4 pounds
• One the most exciting new event is that Jackson can say the colors of his bouncing balls. Sunday at church he wanted to show all his teachers how he could say green, blue (he says blue real well), pink, yellow, and orange (orange is hardly recognizable though). He carried these balls around all day on Sunday and would say the colors to whoever would listen. I, of course, got teary eyed and so did one of my good friend.
• He has never said the word "yellow-" your tongue has to move a good bit to get that word out.
  
• He has gotten far less spankings since the surgery and is not nearly as frustrated (this might be in part that I have his days now planned out).
  
• However, some days he still resorts back to "gaga" for everything and his tongue is still weak. We are doing intense physical therapy on his tongue every day now. The surgery is not an instant fix (which I knew), but boy has it helped things and we saw some pretty immediate results.
• Jackson has also had some intestinal issues that we had to see the doctor about yesterday. Without going into too much gross detail, he has not had normal bowel movements for the last two months. He is actually going to have to be on miralax for the week and these intestinal issues have caused some crazy breakdowns recently. He just might always struggle with constipation since he has since he was 8 months old. So he might be on straight Pear Juice for a while only with miralax every other day.
  
• I was trying to get a picture of his tongue and frenulum here in these pictures. They left some skin between his front two teeth for a specific reason and the doctor will explain why tomorrow. In the first picture, his tongue is moving more than it ever has. He loves bath time, and would stay in there for hours if we would let him!
  

Update on Jackson after His Surgery/One Year Toddler's Bible?

The speech therapist came Tuesday and here is an update on where we are:

• She was very happy with his tongue movement from top to bottom but side to side is still not really moving near as far as she wants it to, so that is where using the Z-vib will help. I will be interested to see how weak his tongue is now after the surgery (before it was 90-95 percent weak which is a big reason why we decided to do the surgery)
  
• She agrees with me that his top lip frenulum being attached affected his speech as well because there was limited movement with his top lip for labial words. She says your checks, lips, tongue is all connected with speech and I am so glad we had both his top lip frenulum clipped as well as his tongue frenulum
• Just in case you are wondering what she does the hour that she is here goes like this:

1. She gets shaving cream on his hands and tries to stimulate a part of the brain that is usually not stimulates...this somehow helps with the part of the brain that deals with speech. He hates it usually and then she tries to get him to wash the ducky with the shaving scream
2. While still strapped in the high chair she uses the z-vib on his mouth going all on the outside of his checks and then especially on the inside side of his checks to get his tongue to move far from side to side.
3. Next, she moves to the floor to play usually using bubbles. She tries to get him to blow the bubbles and say combo words and sounds. Last time she tried to get my stubborn little boy to say "my turn." I was in the hallway listening to all of it because right now I am a distraction in the room. He said "my turn" and tear came running down my face. I am so glad see could not see me crying. I have never heard him say a "t" sound! I was so happy. He only said it one time though...haha
4. Finally she uses flash cards and ask him what he sees and tries to get him to say the animal or whatever it is correctly

If your child is struggle with speech, you can do most of this at home with your baby. I would highly recommend flash cards with pictures on it. It is a great time of learner for your toddler. Also, I would highly recommend Baby Babble DVD's. They have taught him how to make all kind of sounds, and Baby Babble 2 teaches a hundred words with the first sounds that a baby can say "p, b and m." I only let Jackson listen to educational dvd's in the car so he has seen these dvd's along with Signing Time dvd's a lot.

Jackson also has been making the "f" sound ever since he had the surgery which I have never hear him make. Overall, my speech therapist was very happy with his movement of his tongue and lips and really thinks that he can now say most all of the first words a child gets. Now comes the hard part, breaking Jackson of his bad speech patterns. A lot of times, I think he just does not want to say the word even though I know he can. Please pray that God give Jackson a desire to now talk and that God will show Jackson that he is now able to make the sounds he could not make before the surgery.

His eating is so much better as well! Also, now when he gets upset and cries real hard his tongue moves to the top of his mouth which it has never done (praise the Lord Abigail's tongue moves to the top of her mouth because short frenulum is hereditary).

Daily, we are using the Z-vib in the high chair while his favorite show is on to distract him. Also, I am now reading The One Year Children's Bible to Jackson before he goes down for a nap. It does pictures for most stories. It is probably way to advance for him but it is a short little summary of a major Bible story every day. He was trying to read my One Year Bible with me one day and so I got him the best one year Bible out there for little ones that I could find. Another new invention: The One Year Toddler's Bible. I know how to read to toddlers now, so today we studied about Balam and his donkey and there was actually a picture of the donkey and he said donkey for me and I explained how God spoke through the donkey after I was done reading. Do you know of a One Year Toddler's Bible or One Year Preschool Bible? What is your favorite Bible that you read to your little one? We have ordered a new Bible to read to him before her goes to bed called "My Very First Bible" for toddlers and I will let you know how I like it.

Thanks again for loving and praying for Jackson!

Prayers Were Answered, the Surgery Went Great! God gets all the Glory!

I really was hopeful that I was going to be able to update yall yesterday, but we are in the process of buying a used car and that all happened yesterday as well.

Here is a run down:

• At first Jackson was not calm but shaky, and so we laid hands on him and prayed in Jesus name that he would be calm
• After we prayed, he got real calm. Praying in Jesus name with authority is so powerful! We were able to semi trick him and walked behind him like we were going back there with him and I do not think he realized we were not with him till they had started the gas. All they ended up having to give him was gas to sedate him...prayers were answered again.
• The doctor said that both his top lip frenulum and his bottom tongue frenulum were really tight (I think she said tighter than she thought) so he ended up having 10 stitches and prescription for Tylenol with codeine. Wow, and to think we had one doctor say this was not even necessary. She originally told me it would be 2 or 3 stitches up top and then under his tongue and only Tylenol would be needed for him.
  
• The only real problem was once the numbing medicine wore off he could not suck his pacifier because of the top frenulum being clipped. He also had no interest in drinking and I think he only had 4 ozs of juice yesterday max and I thought he might be getting dehydrated. He did eat scrambled eggs and yogurt. He was pretty upset the first 3 hours after surgery, until I could get the codeine in him.
  
• The only time I got real emotional was when he was eating his yogurt. He ate it so fast and his tongue moved side to side like it was suppose to and he did not do any of the tongue thrusting craziness. I just feel so bad for him, he has been through so much in his short life, and I just get so upset when I think about all the opposition he has had, even opposition in doing this surgery
• He had great tongue movement now and we are so happy. His top lip is still pretty swollen, so he is having hard time saying his labial words, so we will probably not know about his speech until the swelling goes completely down. However, I will say now his tongue moves when he speaks, so that is a huge improvement.
• Jackson is doing great today and he is acting like he never even had surgery. We are so blessed and thank you for praying.
  

Double Frenulum Procedure Scheduled for Jackson on Friday March 7th

We went to a wonderful (Christian) ENT doctor today and we will be getting Jackson's lip frenulum clipped (it is connected through his front two teeth and will have to be clipped before his permanent teeth come through anyway) and his tongue frenulum clipped. It will be a outpatient procedure and they will give him gas as long as he stays calm. If he gets really upset they might have to put him completely under. He will have 3 stitches on the lip frenulum and 3 stitches on the tongue frenulum (they will dissolve), and he will probably not be able to eat solid foods for a couple days. Please pray for him because he is pretty dramatic sweet little boy. We are hopeful and know it will at least help with his eating and might even help with his speech.

Jackson has all his labial words (words that we use our lips to say) "p, b and m" but no words that involve his tongue and his tongue is very weak.

Here is our prayer for Jackson. Jesus healed a man with part of Jackson's problem while he was here on earth. This passage is found in Mark 7:

³³After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue. ³⁴He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, "Ephphatha!" (which means, "Be opened!" ). ³⁵At this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.

People were overwhelmed with amazement. "He has done everything well," they said. "He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."

I cannot wait to see what Jesus is going to do for Jackson! His tongue will be loosened...God gets all the glory for showing us this problem the day after we were on our face praying for answers.

More Answers about Jackson

It has been another crazy week, and God has been so good to reveal so much to us. God gave us a new coordinator and speech therapist and I think they might both be the best you can possibly have. My new coordinator is incredible and Jackson has progressed so much with her weekly (she has been coming for 3 weeks now). She has him saying "ball" so clearly now. My new speech therapist is an expert in oral motor issues and hardly has any openings, but she can meet with us on Tuesdays at 9:15 am which is perfect because Jackson is so alert then. We get all these services free through Baby Net (Bright Star), but because of the budget cuts if we had not gotten Jackson in when we did, we might not have been able to get these services.

Here is a run down (I have updated many of you through facebook)

• Tuesday morning we all went to see an ENT doctor very early. We have been at the doctors a lot recently. He said he would clip his tongue frenulum but if it was his son he would not put him through it and that there was a less than 5 percent chance it would help with his speech at all. He can stick out his tongue out a little past his teeth. I was very frustrated with the visit and I am not going to have the procedure done with a doctor who has no hope.
  
• On wednesday our new speech therapist came for the first time. She did a complete oral motor examination and evaluation. She said that is tongue was 90-95 % WEAK! This seems pretty extreme. She also said his lips were 30% weak. She said it all ties in to the tongue and it really hurts that he has a short frenulum. She watched him eat and said that he does not have much movement of his tongue when he eats, and therefore, has to work twice as hard to get the food down. Ah! No wonder eating time is so hard with him.
  
• I really think that Jackson has Charlie's recessive gene of a weak tongue (Charlie cannot curl his tongue to make a hot dog shape or stick it out very far) combined with a short frenulum. We will start Beckman Oral Motor exercises next week and a Z-Vib It is going to be hard because he hates when we go messing in his mouth...he really does not understand why we are putting our hands in his mouth.
  
• We have had three doctors and a speech therapist tell us he has a short frenulum. Therefore, we are going to get a second opinion and proceed with getting it clipped in the next couple of months. Pray that it does not take forever to get in with another doctor (the doctor we are being recommended to has had success with improved speech after this procedure). One of my doctors called today and she said she has always seen at least some improvement in speech after this procedure. Even if it does not do much with his speech, it will at least help with his eating and give him a much wider range of motion with his tongue. Him having a weak tongue does explain why sometimes he can say words perfectly and other times they comes out crazy. No matter what, we will need to be in therapy for a while to strengthen his tongue. He is learning so much right now, he just cannot verbalize what he is learning so I can understand what he is saying. Some kids with short frenulums push through and still use their tongue and are able to speak fine, but Jackson is not one of them.
• Keep praying for Jackson. I think God has big plans for him and I have always felt that there is a demonic attack against him from day one. I still cannot believe he had a major fire in his room. I cannot wait to see how God is going to use Jackson to reach people for Christ. Demons might when some battles here, but we know that God wins the war. Praise God! This whole ordeal has made all of us stronger and our prayer lives where it should be. We are so thankful to have such a loving and amazing son.
  

Love to hear your feedback and any experience you have had with a child having a weak tongue, short frenulum, or needing speech therapy.

God Answered Our Prayer for Jackson

It has been a crazy last couple of days. Thursday night Charlie and I prayed that God would show us what is specifically wrong with Jackson. I was at my breaking point, tears and all. It is really hard when he is sick and cannot tell me what hurts or what he needs and he just cries and cries. Friday morning, Charlie was playing with Jackson and noticed that his top frenulum was attached through his front teeth to the back of his roof of his mouth. We thought this might be God answering our prayers because I have known that is there is something wrong medically with Jackson, we just have not been able to discover what exactly is wrong with him. We were so excited that we wanted to talk to the doctor, but talked to the nurse instead and she said that it was his top frenulum that was hurt. I did some research online on what a frenulum was and discovered that you also have a bottom frenulum under your tongue and if that is short you are classified as “tongue tied.” If your frenulum is short then you have limited tongue movement, cannot say certain words, and usually cannot breastfeed. I have never seen Jackson stick his tongue out past his lips and was really thinking that this could be his problem. He could not breastfeed and still cannot suck a drink out of a straw.

So, Monday we went to the doctor and she confirmed my suspicion…her words were “he has a short bottom frenulum.” Tears almost came flying. Why did they not check this when I tried to breastfeed for 7 weeks and could not ever figure it out (I was not in Columbia then)? No, I am not going to play the “what if” game. This is God’s timing for Jackson and He gets all the glory for answering our prayers the next day and showing us what has been going on with Jackson. This explains why everything is “gaga.” This explains a lot for us. You have to wrap your tongue around a straw to get liquid up the straw. The only issue is that he does have some movement in his tongue (he can move his tongue side to side when he eats) and it is not a very obvious issue when you examine him. We are being referred to an Ears Nose and Throat doctor and they are going to check out everything. They will test if there is fluid back behind his ears. I read online that many doctors do not want to do anything to the frenulum, but if they do not want to I will be getting a second opinion. I just do not know how it could hurt him having this procedure done since he does not have that much movement wit his tongue. I have read of amazing stories online about children being able to speak prettty quickly after this procedure was done. Additionally, the doctor does not think the top frenulum is a big problem, but she wants it all checked out. His case is not as bad as the ones I have seen online, but I really do believe it is hindering his speech. He cannot even pucker his lips up to kiss me, lick on ice cream cone, etc.

What is tongue-tie?

Tongue-tie (ankyloglossia) is a birth defect in which the tissue that attaches the tongue to the bottom of the mouth (lingual frenulum) is abnormally short. Movements of the tongue may be restricted, depending on the degree of attachment to the mouth. It is more common in boys than girls.

I am a hopeful realist. I know getting his frenulum fixed may not solve all Jackson’s speech problems and he will probably have to be in speech therapy for a good while. And this might not be the entire problem, but God is starting to show is what the issues are. I cannot wait to see what God is going to do through my baby boy! Jackson not being able to communicate with me has probably been one of the hardest things I have ever had to go through. I have felt so helpless, and clueless on what to do for him. I want to have all the information possible to understand what is going on with Jackson.

If your child has speech delay, get his mouth examined by a doctor and I would recommend demanding that your child go to an ENT doctor. It will not hurt anything to have everything checked out, especially if he as had ear infections.

Have any of you ever heard of this problem?

I am trusting Him with everything. God is so good and working out everything for our good and for His glory. Thank you for your prayers!