Update Hodge Podge

So, the word is out. This family is indeed growing. I'm nearing week 13 with a due date set for July 26th. This pregnancy has proven to be wildly different than my pregnancy with Oia. It's been physically and emotionally challenging but I'm able to manage one day at a time with the support of one patient husband and an extra push from a little girl who keeps her mommy moving.
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It's been a little over a month since Oia's first round of Botox injections to her right calf. Immediate results. Positive results. Trouble is the results were optimal for only about 3 weeks, foot almost flat and calf relaxed and easy to stretch. Ankle could be effortlessly stretched to neutral, or 90 degrees. It was 3 weeks of a good thing then with each passing day after that, Oia grew tighter and tighter until she ended up back to her pre-Botox level. Actually, the jury is still out if she is even tighter than pre-Botox. She is growing and bearing the majority of her weight on her left side which only invites tightness, therefor short calf muscles, and all sorts of asymmetrical issues. Oia hasn't even had her follow-up appointment with her doctor yet, who now won't even see what gains she did receive during the optimal 3 week period. I'm a little frustrated by the short lived results. It was a bit of a tease. We'll see what her doctor suggests at her next visit at the end of this month. I'm pretty open to hearing what options we have at this point (night splints, surgery, etc) but I'm pretty much set on not repeating Botox at this time. There are still too many unknowns in the world of Botox for my mommy heart to rest easy and for what.... just 3 weeks of a good stretch? Much to consider.
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I recently had a meeting with Oia's preschool speech therapist. As you know, Oia's language delay is significant. Current assessments show Oia's expressive language skills are approximately at the 20 month level, vocabulary of less than 50 words. Her ST also bounced the term Apraxia my way as something to think about. Clearly, Oia has enough stacked against her making language so difficult. For the longest time though, Rob and I have felt like Oia was "right there" and at any moment great words were on their way out of her sweet little mouth, which is why we've drug our feet on getting her any form of assistive technology. I feared AT would be a crutch. EI therapists had given her picture cards but the girl was so uninterested in them and frankly I thought they were a joke too. I realize these work for many people and have for many years but at the time, they were not right for us. Rob and I have had many discussions about getting her an iPad and thankfully, her ST has located one for us to use as a loaner. It will have several apps to explore and I have hope that this will be an outlet for Oia and a great way to help facilitate more verbal language. In a perfect world, we should be getting the loaner next week. Oia will be beside herself to have a computer that she is actually allowed to play on. My laptop is generally off limits and it kills her.
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Tuesday we head to northern VA for another ophthamology appointment. This appointment is just the usual 6 month check-up but Rob and I have question as to whether or not Oia's left eye is beginning to cross, or look inward, more than usual. It's always been the straight eye. Could it be that it's time for left eye to have surgery now? (sigh) We shall see.