Trying to Find Time to Fit it All In!

[Julie-work]

My daughter has a speech evaluation done yesterday and my suspicions were confirmed. My daughter is 22 months old and her verbal skills are at the 16 month level. (Fortunately she was in the 88th percentile for cognitive skills.) Therefore she qualified for speech therapy, 2x week for 30 minutes. This gets added to 2x week PT for 1 hour and pool therapy 1x week for 30 minutes. The place that did the speech evaluation also has "play groups" run by speech therapists and PTs or OTs so I decided that my daughter would benefit being around other kids "playing" while she receives some therapy too. This is all in addition to talking with a social worker 3x month for 1 hour about all the family issues that have come up. We are going to do have one speech therapy session before the play group and the other one in conjunction with a PT visit at our house. I guess I'll see how my daughter handles all this because I know it is stressful for me! I also feel like I don't have time for my 4 yr. old who I have been very hard on lately. She is having stool withholding problems that we have had to talk to the pediatrician about, which I know is a direct result of all that has been going on. I know you guys can understand where I am at right now so that is why I came here to vent. Thanks for listening.

[Alice]

Sometimes life does get hectic with all the therapy appts and dr appts, not to mention if you have other children. I have three children and boy is it hard fitting it ALL in. Just remember to take time for yourself otherwise you get burnt out and moms are no good when they are burnt. Just remember its OK to cancel an appt if you need to. Good luck.

[m&mmom]

I know it stinks but sometimes when it get too much something may have to go. So far I've been able to juggle it all pretty well. We just got the ok to cut down Matthew's chiropractic visits from every week to every four weeks (mod quad helped with that) but he still have pt twice a week, ot twice a week but soon that's going back down to once a week, speech once a week, and we were going to throw acupuncture back in but he told us to try more therapy first and see what happens. All of this and working on top of it is nuts!!!! Hang in there.
Cindy

[marymom]

a child spells love T I M E
my fav quote
If its any consolation, I had a "late" talker, he wasnt my BPI- and I pretty much shun all that formal speech therapy stuff but he went on to be very bright and straight A student(for a while anyways, then he became a teen but thats another story
Not saying that the therapy isnot good- if you have to work its probably what you have to go with- and is a blessing for you- the kids are going to get the time input whether you are working or a sahm, I dont know how moms working outside the home do it- you must run on LOVE

[TNT1999]

I'm a SAHM and it's very challenging to get everything fit into our schedule. I've come to the point that if we have to cancel an appt or if a therapist cancels, it's usually easier to not even try to reschedule it b/c there's not usually any time slots available anywhere else. I see from your ID that you work, not sure if that's outside of the home or F/T or P/T, etc., but is there any way you could cut back on your work hours to help (not just to do therapy-related stuff, but just for more time in general with your children)? Also, as for the ST, would it be effective enough to go 1x/wk perhaps and have the therapist show you things you can work on during the week? If your daughter is in the playgroup, do you always stay too or is that a time when you can leave at least occasionally and do something fun with your 4 y.o.? Perhaps you're not looking for suggestions, but just wanted to vent and that's okay too. Take care. -Tina

[Julie]

Tina,

I do work part-time (3 days a week since my second daughter's birth). I find with all the therapy I want to be involved and know what is going on. My 4 year old goes to pre-school 3 days a week in the morning so I try to schedule my other daughter's therapy when the 4 yr old is at school. Fortunately the younger one naps so I can spend time with the 4 yr old on my days off. Once the play group stuff has been going on for awhile I do plan to use the time to spend alone with the 4 yr. old but I never seem to find time for me or for my husband. He works a strange schedule (7am-7pm 2 days on, 2 days off, and every other weekend 7am-7pm) so many times I feel like a single Mom. I often feel overwhelmed and that I am not a very good parent, but I also don't like to ask for help. My Mom often helps out watching one or both kids when I have appts. so I hate to ask her to do anymore. I know that I am not alone in feeling like this so that is why I come to this board to express myself to sympathetic ears. Thanks for listening.

[sharlon]

how do you know when speech is delayed. marlin is 2.5 and i always thought she was doing fine with it but lately i have noticed that other children her age are much more advanced in clarity and sentence structure, she seems to understand the definitions of words though.

[francine]

Sharlon - get a speech evaluation by a speech therapist... you can do this through Early Intervention or you can do this through your primary. Maia just recently had a speech evaluataion and we learned that she had a lateral lisp from jaw instability but that she was not speech delayed. It was a very interesting evaluation - I enjoyed watching and listening to it. Maia had a good time too.

[christy]

There is one thing we have noticed with this injury and that is that it makes you as busy as if you had 3 babies instead of one! We do alot of juggling, reminders to each other, etc. Most mornings I go into work at 5 in the morning just so I can slide out at the last minute to take Katie to therapy. Alot of housework has gone by the wayside too..lol, I don't miss that very much. We are doing outside therapies 4 days a week right now and are about to add two more so we know exactly how you feel. Sometimes one of us has to take a time out but it really helps that there are two of us working on it instead of just one. Is there anyone else that you can get to attend some of the therapies for you and come back with notes? Grandma's really do like to help out and be included so that may be a help every once in a while. makes us feel useful.