July is a busy month in the Clark household. Not only is it Sophie's third birthday later this month, but Ellie is due for her six-month reviews with all of her specialists. We have appointments all over the state, I'm tired just thinking about it!
To begin our mad month, we got a letter in the mail today to say that she needed a speech review. This was one I didn't know about and I was a bit concerned about how we would squeeze in a second trip to Hobart in the month. But thankfully our speech pathologist, Sarah, had already thought of this, and asked in the letter for me to give her a call and we could work out if she needed to see Ellie in person or not.
Sarah is one of my favourite specialists. She's been in our life since Ellie was three days old, and has told us most of what we know to expect so far. She's very real. She talks "human" rather than doctor, and doesn't try to over power you with her knowledge. And now I could add thoughtful to the list too.
She returned my call in the late afternoon, and we had a nice long chat. I explained that things are going quite well for us right now. Ellie is happily drinking from a regular teat with a little bit of help from the Pigeon squeezy bottles, her weight is not a problem and she's getting the hang of solids.
We talked for a while about how we can help her speech before and after her repair. Without her palate she currently can't make the usual cooing and gaaing sounds that other babies her age can make. Her speech will be delayed even after the repair because she hasn't had the practice with these early sounds, and so now we need to start doing simple exercises with her, to help her develop the basic mouth movements. So we're saying a lot of "b-b-b-bubble" and "m-m-m-mum", which Ellie thinks is hilarious.
The only real issue I needed to raise with Sarah was Ellie's tongue. She has always favourited on side of her mouth for feeding. Before surgery it was the left side, which caused her gum to shift sideways. The lip repair correct that, and all of a sudden she would only feed on the right side, to the point where she gags when the bottle is on the left. Because she's happy we haven't bothered to change anything or force the point, but she is starting to poke her tongue out sideways now. Sarah agreed with me that for now we should just do whatever makes Ellie happy, but it will be something to keep an eye on as she develops her speech.
After our chat Sarah decided she didn't need to see us in person, and our next review isn't until she turns one, so that's one less specialist to worry about now!
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