I would love to tell you that my New Year's resolution is to be more consistent with this blog, and I will try, but sometimes even though I have these great ideas in my head for posts, they just don't come out as well as some of the blogs I read. Anyway, it's been over a month since I last posted things have been crazy here and our holiday's were good. Toy's R Us vomited in my living room and I almost had a complete breakdown about where we were going to put all the toys, but other than that we did well. I hope that all of you had a wonderful holiday season as well.
N's gait trainer finally arrived yesterday. We started the process of getting him one back in October and it took forever, and that was without insurance getting involved (no pre-auth needed) which makes me really nervous to think about how long things will take when insurance does need to get involved but I'll leave that panic for another day. N has been using this particular gait trainer (a snugseat Gator) at PT at the hospital once a week since September or so, and he does really well with it there. I've put him in his twice now (as advised for a minimum of 15-30 minutes each day to build up his tolerance) and he just doesn't seem to do as well. I am not sure if I am just not putting him in properly, if its not quite adjusted right yet, or if he just needs to get used to it. Yesterday he did well and, in a really cute and heartwarming moment, Z helped push him as he walked. Today all he really wanted to do was chew on the chest straps (he is working on his canine's) and sit. I removed the sling seat so he wouldn't be tempted and he did it anyway. I think that even though we have been waiting for this and I know it gives him his freedom and will hopefully get him to be able to walk on his own in a few years, it's hard to see him needing a walker to be upright and walking while Z is toddling around. There are times when I feel like I am doing so well, that I've accepted his diagnosis and all that that entails, and then I have days like today were I just wish he could walk like Z. I think that once he figures out how to really use the gait trainer and is walking all over with it, it will be a little easier. But there are still days where I just want to cry, and today was one of those days.
In other news, I am still pregnant and am almost 10 weeks at this point. Things are going well and I will go for my first MFM (high risk doctor) on the 20th. We already saw our OB for the first time and everything is on track.
In the meantime we are desperately trying to figure out what to do about our house. The gait trainer is actually not quite as wide as I thought it would be and it fits (barely) through the two doorways into the kitchen allowing N to do a full lap around the first floor. But he has to angle it perfectly and I don't know if he will be able to do that. Our living room and dining room are both a decent size and hardwood, and the opening between them is slightly bigger than a double doorway (its just a large archway) so that is good and gives him space for now. But we use our living room as a family room, so we have two couches and an entertainment center in there. The dining room is used everyday as although our kitchen is eat-in, its really only that way for two adults and definitely won't fit high chairs too. So while I have the table pushed as far to the side as I can, it still doesn't allow much more than a "passing lane" for N to go through. DH and I had tossed around the idea of switching houses with my MIL, and although she is willing to sell us her house she wants to downsize to a condo or the like (sidenote, I would PAY to see that, she has more crap than anyone else I know and I have no idea what she is going to do with it all) which isn't an option for us right now since like most of you the drop in the housing market puts us *slightly* underwater and in no way allows us to get enough from our house to pay the real estate commission or have money for a down on the next house. Additionally, we have heard that a lot of mortgage companies now want a minimum of 30% down and some want 40% which we quite obviously don't have. (who the hell does?) So now we are contemplating an addition. I am not sure we can actually do it, since we will need a construction loan and I don't know if we will be able to get enough to do what we want. But if we can, I am hoping to make our kitchen a little bigger so that it is eat in, add on a family room and make the 1st floor bathroom big enough for a walk in shower if we are in a place where N needs to be on the first floor completely someday. We currently have a den (we use it as a playroom right now) on the first floor that while not a great size -long but narrow- would work as a bedroom if necessary. (We will also add another bedroom upstairs.) If I can do this, I can then get a lot of furniture out of the living room and dining room, push the table out of the way and give N two pretty decent size rooms to practice walking in. I would love to just pack up and move to either a home that was all on one story or one that had a much more open floor plan and a bedroom already on the first floor, but it doesn't look like that is going to be an option for at least another 5-8 years.
I can't possibly be the only mommy who has worried about making her current home accessible. If we hadn't bought a home prior to getting married/having our boys, we obviously would have bought a totally different house in anticipation of N's (potential) future needs. But we bought this house long before our boys were conceived, so now its a scramble to make it work. What have you done/plan to do? For the mommies whose kids are older, did things turn out like you thought? Or did you need less/more accessibility than you thought? How have you made your home work?
No comments:
Post a Comment