Neurodevelopmental Assessment and me, well.

Yesterday Kayden did his two year Neurodevelopmental assessment.

And passed, sitting in the average box for it all, cognitive abilities, fine and gross motor skills, language comprehension and expression.

Although his language does score within range, I do feel it is a bit lacking. He often says ‘baba’ for anything he wants. It is getting harder to guess what he is after without offering him everything, which is a strategy I don’t want to use. I don’t feel it will benefit his language if he is getting presented with a plethora of things for ‘baba’. At his age the thing he originally wanted would likely get forgotten or something better would be shown and he would take that instead.

So, we have some work to do on language and I’m Miss Racheling the shit out of it: Car , Car, Caaarrrrrrrrrr, it’s a car.

I really hope you all read that in Miss Rachel’s voice.

But yay! He passed. He will still get assistance with language and has been referred for a new Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) from the Ministry of Education.

We are still working on his weight gains. For his actual age he is just touching the bottom of the chart at 9.8kg, I was really hoping for that 10kg. And for his adjusted age he is nearing 10%, but that' is all about to go.

As of November 21st, Kayden is officially 2 in everyway and they will no longer reference his adjusted age. They will always take into consideration his rough start but he will be charted on scales for his birthdate. They consider micro premature babies to be caught up by 2 years. I don’t truly feel we are, he still need more time.

Especially in regards to his weight and I have truly done everything for him. I don’t understand why it just doesn’t stick to his bones, his calorie intake should theoretically be causing gains. Its been a hard struggle for me and unfortunately is one of those obvious visual things that people comment on.

Otherwise, he is a very cheeky and overall happy boy. He has a similar disposition to Sylvie, he is rather chill and sleeps so well. He is very social, outgoing and completely obsessed with messy play. Still loves to tip the dogs water bowl out and put toys in it.

We actually popped into NICU on our way out after the NDA. We got to see some of our favorite nurses and I’m going to name drop, Megan, who miraculously intubated Kayden in a cold resus. station moments after he was born. Quite an impressive feat on 565 grams baby and it raised his Apgar scores within the first few minutes, giving him a fighting chance. Megan, if you do read this, I know I’m awkward sometimes in person, but I will truly never forget what you did for us.

And me, well you know it never seems to settle.

I had a cardiac ablation in August, done keyhole via femoral artery. That was certainly interesting, I have not done conscious sedation before and was able to watch the whole procedure to my opiatic delight. I could see and hear everything and feel; kind of. I could feel movement and pressure but not pain. I did feel the cauterization itself which was unpleasant. I was very impressed with the medical staff at cardiology in Auckland City Hospital, I was up on my feet walking the halls with a nurse only a few hours later, once the fentanyl wore off. They did a final ECG before discharge and it was normal. Essentially, the burnt off my Wolff Parkinson White syndrome and hopefully I am no longer at risk for sudden tachycardia episodes.

I have been a bit chicken lately though, I haven’t been drinking much coffee or alcohol. Im very aware of my heart rate and I don’t like raising it for silly things like running up and down the stairs. I have a follow up this month that will hopefully put my mind at ease.

I am still wondering if I should do something on the 21st to mark Kayden dropping the adjusted age. Please, feel free to comment or message me some ideas.