Background

Just for a little background.....Preston Walker Bennett was born March 23, 2006. He weighed 9 lbs 2 oz. and came via a planned C-Section. It was an uneventful pregnancy after what seemed like an eternity of trying to conceive. We took fertilty drugs at one point and discussed Invitro as well as IUI with my OB who was doubtful we would conceive without medical intervention. We finally threw in the towel in December of 2004 and took a cruise in January of 2005 set to be a family of four. That summer, we decided to add to our family and adopted a dog from the Humane Society. Milo moved in and 4 days later I conceived Preston....This baby was as near to a miracle as we could imagine.

After a pretty normal first 16 months or so of his life, we went for his 15 month check up (we were a month late) and Dr. Roziona (Pediatrician) asked about his words. At that point Preston only said "hi" (although emphatically) He had said dadda earlier in the summer, as well as mama. But no longer said those words. He didn't appear to have any sort of naming convention for Mike or I or anything else for that matter. Dr Rozina suggested that we contact Johnson County Infants and Toddlers Assn. for an evaluation.

I met with Nikki Weideman in August of 2007. She scheduled LaQuita Rabanaal to come in and evaluate Preston's speech and language. At that time, he was assessed at a 3-6 month level and everything else (behviorally and cognitively) he was right in line with where he should be.

Over the next several months we had lots of progress and a few setbacks. At the time of Preston's 6 month evaluation, it was suggested that Angie Steiger come in and evaluate him, since he was having "attending" problems with LaQuita. He seemed to be getting up and leaving and was hard to keep him attentive to LaQuita's visits. He was really having issues with LaQuita at the time. He seemed to be avoiding her and not making eye contact and playing only with me and paying attention to me but not to her. No matter what fun toys she brought he wanted nothing to do with her. It may have stemmed from a 3 week period that we decided to put him in his high chair for their sessions. He may have been "punishing her" for trapping him in the high chair-lol.....Once Angie started (one hour a week)seeing him weekly, he seemed to be ok with LaQuita and allowed her to play with him and started making eye contact again and was having fun with her.

Angie's evaluation let us know he may be sensory seeking. An Occupational Therapist was called into do an assessment. It was decided after the assessment that 2 hours a month would be allotted for an OT to come into the house and work with Preston regarding his sensory issues.

Carrie Grossdider our newly assigned OT came out April 17th and we began working with her.
The last several weeks have seemed to show quite a bit of progress. Which is why I decided to start keeping this on-line journal. My cousin asked me if I was tracking his progress personally like as in a journal and I thought a blog would be much more along the lines of something I could handle updating!