Getting to Know you Great Moms

[9tigger]

Wow, when I started this group, I never thought it would be this big.  As of today, 70 members. 

I know when I started group that I was not alone in this world with a child with Apraxia and I was hoping that I could find other Moms that were going through the same thing as me and just wanted to have someone to talk to, but WOW!!!!!.  You ladies are amazing!!!!  Always positive advice and encouragement, thank you!

I was thinking, may be, we should get to know each other a little better.  I know that we could go on our profiles and see all the info, but I thought maybe we could try to help some Moms get together if they could really see where the other Mom is from (make sense?) 

So, start telling the good stuff............

Me......... My name is Jen, I am a SAHM (Not really! The mess could tell you that) of five wonderful children.  I have a 20 yo son, who is currently in the US Army, a 17yo daughter, 6yo twin boys (one with a mild speech delay and one with Apraxia) and my little guy, who is 5yo.  I have been married to my wonderful husband, Brant, for 5 years.   I currently live in Pasco County, Florida, which is just north of Tampa (About 25 miles).  I am originally from a little town outside of Indianapolis (lived there the first 26 years of my life). 

Now, if you want more info, let me know.... at this stage in my life.... I'm a open book.   (I may not like all the chapters, but..... that's life!)

So, look forward to reading all about you wonderful ladies and getting to know you better!!!!

Oh, by the way, if you won't mind I would like have your birth date, NO, I don't need the year, because I'm not sharing that information!!!!  I just would like to start a little birthday post type thing after the first of the year!!!!!!!!!

Have a good one!

 

 

[mynameismuerte]

Hi there!

I'm Amie, SAHM to 2 precious little boys.  My youngest is 6 months and my oldest is Brandon.  He just turned 3 a couple of weeks ago & it's been a long and rocky ride with him. 

Long story short he's in Speech, physical & occupational therapies.  He has seen 3 ST's and all 3 have said they don't want to diagnose him at this age so we'll just call it 'Apraxic Tendencies.'  We've just been through so much with him and we're hoping to be ruling out CP as a cause for his issues when we see the neurologist in Dec.  Don't get me started on the feeding issues we dealt with, lol.

He is the most wonderful child.  He's happy, sweet, loving, determined and eager.  He really doesn't give us much trouble but I just feel SO bad for him at how he struggles to express his wants, needs & feelings.  You can even see his frustration now.  The older he gets the more obvious it becomes that "something isn't quite right."

He's come a long way this past year though.  Learning to sign has really opened him up.  He's developing his own language.  He calls his brother 'Abbie' instead of Bryan.  Hubby & I always joke that people are going to think we named our son Abigail, lol.

I'm really looking forward to getting to know other mom's who can understand what we're going through though and learning from you as well.

 

ETA: My birthday is May 2

[tinaott]

Hi, Im Tina.  I'm 30 years old (ughhh) and live in South Jersey.  Im 15 mins from Philly and 30 mins from Atlantic City.  I've been married for 5 years and we have 2 boys ages 3 and 1.  I work full time and my husband works second shift so the kids arent stuck in day care all day.  Im also currently trying to finish my masters degree. My 3 year old has speech apraxia among some other developemental delays as well as sensory issues.  Currently in distress about neurological findings of a thalamic leision.. still doing testing.  A few months ago we started some natural suppliment intervention and have seen a lot of progress.  He is enrolled in preschool disabled where he is recieving his speech and OT therapy (being evaluated for PT today). 

My 1 year old has approached 18 months and isnt saying a whole lot.  We feel he will be/is delayed in speech as well but will give him a little more time before we call early intervention.   With 28k in student loans and all these drs visits, its hitting our pockets hard. And EI in NJ is family cost share and we are responsible for some of the payment.

I'm very greatful for cafemom.  I've met a lot of wonderful mothers on here. 

My birthday is September 28th. 

[jacobnatesmom]

hi, I'm Mary.  I'm a sahm to 2 boys Jacob who's 7 and has a slight speech problem.  Nathan is 5 and was diagnosed was apraxia.  He is getting speech therapy at school and they're also having him tested for OT.  They think he has really low muscle tone which is causing some difficulty with school.  Nate is doing so much better with his speech therapy and  I am so proud of him.

We live in nw PA.  My birthday is Feb. 4.

[MyRuger22]

Hi My name is Samantha and I am knocking on the door of 37 yo DOB 11/07. I am a SAHM to Jordan he is 18 yo, Amy she is 16 yo and Ruger (pronounced Rooger) he will soon be 4 yo on 11/22. I have been married to my husband Randy for 8 yrs. We live in VA 45 mins from the Atlantic Ocean.

Ruger was diagnosed w/ apraxia a yr ago and he has been attending a program through our  public school system called PEEP (Program for Educating Exceptional Preschoolers)  for 10 mos. He attends speech therapy 2x's a week. He started not saying maybe 3 words now he is a chatter box. Last night he sang his first song to me and Randy. I feel fortunate that we found this program. b/c my insurance was not going to cover speech therapy for him.

Jordan graduated from HS this yr and is working full-time as a Chef's apprentice and part-time for a lawn care business.

Amy is in the 11th grade. She started working her first job about a mo ago. I think she likes it, she is working in a shoe store; she says that she like helping people that come in to get shoes for their LO.

 

[haydensmomma24]

My name is Ashley, im 24 years old and am a SAHM to my son Hayden (2) and Kaitlin my step daughter (9). I live in Jeffersonville IN. Ive been with my husband now for 5 years but have just been married for 8 months. My son Hayden is in Speech Therapy and OT and has suspected Apraxia and SPD. he will not be diagnosed till he is 3 and leaves First Steps. We stared therapy this year in May after my son had only one word mama. He now says between 35-40 words and has been progressing great. He's also had a ton of improvements in OT and it getting smarter and smarter every day.    My b-day is 11-25-83.  

[CamsMom1016]

Hi I am Courtney and I am stay at home Mom.  I am 37 and live about 2 hours outside of Boston, MA.  I have been married for 5 years and have one little beautiful son Camden who just turned 2 last week.  He was diagnosed last month with Oral Apraxia, Speech Apraxia, Feeding Disorder and Expressive Language Delay which both are a result of the Apraxia.  I have know something has been wrong with his eating for a year now and noone could figure it out.  I am thankful for his diagnosis so now we can work on the exact issues.  He has been in Early Intervention (0-3) since last year, but now we will be increasing his speech to 3 times a week and OT once a week. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will help my little angel.  He has a poor appettite and hard time eating real food which limits his food intake.  He has some words but hard to understand.  He is so motivated to learn though so I have faith.  I will do whatever I need to do to help him. I am glad I found this group because there are so many people still out there that do not know what Apraxia is and the severity of it.   So it feels good to connect with others.   My next struggle is figuring out the insurance end of coverage.  It so frustrating to fight for coverage and having expensive copays.  I just ordered some Omega 3 DHA liquid for Camden because I have read some great stories of progress so I will keep you all updated.  I welcome anyone to email me and look forward to making some friends.

 

[Mammaof2girls]

Hello!

My name is Dawn and I am a SAHM....although I recently started working a couple evenings a week just to get out of the house.  It helps me de-stress and to be a better wife and mommy. :)  I've been married to my husband for almost 7 1/2 yrs.   We live in central Jersey. 

We have 2 girls.  Angelina will be 4 on Nov. 26th and she was diagnosed w/ verbal apraxia when she was about 2 1/2 yrs. old.  She also was diagnosed w/ mixed expressive language disorder - which has gotten a whole lot better.  She also has sensory issues as well and low muscle tone (hypotonia).  Because of the apraxia, you can see that she's a bit delayed for her age.  Also, as she is getting older it's becoming quite more obvious to people when they see she cannot talk clearly and they ask "how old is she?" (gee, don't you just love that?).  She is in the preschool disabled program which has been wonderful!  She gets OT once a week and speech 4 x's a week in the school.  She also goes to private speech once a week.  She sees her neuro every 3 mos.   She is in a special needs soccer once a week, in which her daddy is the asst. coach and she does gymnastics once a week too...both are soooo good for her and she enjoys it so much.  She has come such a LONG way w/ her apraxia, and although she has a long road ahead of her, just looking back a year ago it's amazing the progress she has made.  From barely being verbal to me being able to have little conversations w/ her now ...it's just amazing!!!

Her sister Alexia is 6 1/2 yrs. old and is in 1st grade.  She is diagnosed w/ anxiety, stuttering, tourette's, and selective mutism.  Despite all that, she is our competitive gymnast.  Alot of hours are spent at the gym and she will start competing at this level in December. 

I've always enjoyed this board and whether I wrote a post or just read others, it's great to know we're not alone.

Oh, and my birthday is April 17th. :)

[Shamanssong]

Hi,

  My name is Michele.  I'm 40 and mom to a 16 yr old daughter and a 4 yr old son with verbal apraxia.  We live with my boyfriend and his 16 yr old daughter and 9 yr old son. I am the director of a child development center and have worked in the field of early childhood education for over 20 yrs.  We live in Canton, Michigan.

  A.J. has made remarkable progress since his diagnosis a year ago.  He has been in special education preschool 4 half days/week and individual speech therapy 2 hours a week through the speech clinic at Eastern Michigan University.  He has gone from 40% intelligibility to 80% in one year.  His Mean Length of utterance has increased dramatically and he has been working on consonant blends (sp, st, sn, sw, sk, sh etc.).  It is hard to believe that he is the same child who was falling on the floor having fits because he could not communicate last year.  There has been some question as to whether he was misdiagnosed but the treatment he has been receiving for apraxia is working very well so we are staying with it.  No one has an idea of what else he could have so...

  We did try Fish Oil as a supplement but he had some huge behavior issues that coincided with taking the fish oil which also stopped when we took him off of it.  I cannot be sure that the two are related but since he is making progress without it we aren't using it for now.  If he hits a plateau and doesn't seem to be progressing we may try it again. 

  I am thrilled to find this group and am happy to be able to share a success story especially with moms who are new to the diagnosis and are overwhelmed with the fears, and questions that diagnosis first brings.  I have great faith that all things are possible and have witnessed many blessings and miracles in my life. 

  Thank you Jen for providing us a place to vent, celebrate, share best practices and support one another.

Michele

My b-day is May 1st.

[comom2twinboys]

HI everybody! I am Leia, and I'm the single mom to 3yo twins Ethan and Hunter. We live in the Denver area in Colorado. We are all September babies with my b-day the 2nd and theirs exactly a week later on the 9th.

Ethan has typical speech and sometimes seems to never stop talking.

Hunter is my CAS kiddo and usually a pretty happy guy. He just started preschool so that he could get some extra help in addition to his 1x week therapy at Children's Hospital. Because he only goes 2 1/2 hours a day 4 days a week he only gets in minutes a day with the SLP and the OT gal. But the main thing  I think for him now is the socilization. Ethan got to start a week after him which is good and they are in seperate classrooms which I think is best for them.

The biggest problem we have around here is getting Ethan to understand that Hunter cant talk and has to use other ways to get across what he wants. He had told him to just talk and when signing thank you to just say thank you not blow a kiss.

[momma2fourKids]

Hi, I'm Amanda

I'm 29 yo. I have 4 kids. I live in Oklahoma.

My birthday is 2/11.

I have a daughter, Jennifer that is 8 yo. She is 3rd grade. She wasn't very verbal when she was a baby and then sometime around age 1. she just started talking. My daughter, Mandi, She is 6yo and in first grade. She was the same way just started talking all at once. Then I had a Little Boy named Michael (We call him Joseph). He is almost 4. ( jan. 18th). He babbled a little as a baby , but When he went past two and he just didnt seem to say many words,I kept worring and didnt really know what to do. So I called our local health dept. Normally they will help you figure out something. I was told that the following week they will be doing speech and hearing test to bring him in. I did. And of course We had to come back for further testing.

We came back for the testing that next week.  He scored of the charts on things he should be able to do and he was testing higher than a 4 year old. But, He not able to speak many words. Like if you show him a picture of a horse he can't say horse so he will make the sound that a horse makes. The words he cant say he finds a way to communicate them. She says what his problem is that he understand everything we are saying but when he goes to say it .

This is what she told me,

When his brain gets the signal it fine he understand it but its when his brain sends the signal for his mouth to make the movements to say the word back. Thats when he having the problem. He not having any eatting problems, He stopped having meltdowns a long time ago. I'm not understanding any of what is going on with him. We start going to see her( ST) last month. Tomorrow will be this 3rd speech session.He goes once a week for 30 minutes? How long and how often do you go?

I am so glad I found this group. I am so upset cause i dont understand any of this and I don't know what to do or how to help him and I want to do everything I can to help him. I've cried a many nights. I decided to take it day by day And be glad in any way I can help him and just focus on  what I can do  and that  is taking him to speech and doing my best to try and understand him.

If any of you understand this more that me please help me. I dont understand alot of your abbrvations. I'm so clueless! How am I suppose to help him if I can't even understand it. Is there more that I can do? Please help me??

I also have a 3 month old daughter. She already starting to coo and we are loving have another baby in the house. I just didnt want to forget to tell you about her.LOL!! I can't wait to get to know all you Moms, & get to talk to all of you about our wonderful and amazing children.  We are all pretty lucky to have our children.  Being a Mom is the best thing I have ever done.