Janelle Improvement

Praise the Lord. I know God is putting his work in progress in Janelle. We have been seeing improving in Janelle these few weeks. Looking forward to have more to share with everyone the goodness of God.

Last Friday morning, when i walked Janelle to the door for school, she turned and hugged me, says "bye bye" with hand waving to me. So sweet of her... That's melted me and brighten my Friday instantly. This is her first time doing this and yes, words started to come out from her and she did it with correct purpose and meaning.

Now, she started to "sing" songs.
At times, she will voice out the last word of the lyrics of the songs.. For example: There were nine in a bed the little one said "Roll over, roll over"So they all rolled over and one fell out. and Janelle will says "Out" :)...Or sometimes she will sing along with the song with words that we don't understand.

In school, maid had feedback that Janelle has improvement. She willingly to sit down more (maybe 5 minutes more) to listen to the teachers instead of walking around. And she is now sitting down in the chair and finished her lunch, no more walking around and need helper to catch her back to the chair.
Thank you for those who had prayed for Janelle. God had heard our prayers and he is putting his works in Janelle. Amen.

Good Bye Pacifier

Praise the Lord, we have finally says good bye to Pacifier.

We had been trying to quit her from her pacifier many times but never success. Without the pacifier, she cant sleep and once she over tired  and she will has fits. People blamed me for introducing pacifier to Janelle, and people blaming me too for not giving her Pacifier and caused her overtired.

Blessing in disguise, because of HFMD, she started to reject pacifier due to discomfort. Followed the flow, I decided to go for another attempt to get her quit the pacifier. Managed to waive off for the night but maid having problem to get Janelle to take her afternoon nap. Ended up these 2 weeks, i have to put her to bed myself, 2 hrs each time with songs and prayers. When i was about to give up, the only shop that carries the brand of the pacifier closed down and mum & babes discontinue to carry the brand. Told my maid she had no choice but have to do it. 

And Yes, Janelle did it, manage to fall asleep on her own without overtired. Praise the Lord. 

Janelle and the lion dance

This year is the first year janelle watched a lion dance. Initially I was afraid that the loud noise or the lion will scared her off just like sj. I carried her tight and far away. But I'm wrong.. Janelle love it... She started to giggler when she heard the drum sound up. We need to keep pulling her back as she likes to move to the very front to watch the performance.




My bro was telling her, sayang the lion.. But She pulled the lion ear when she saw the ears keep moving.

The last "aiyo" you heard was my sis voice, my guess is that she was hit by the oranges. Lol.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Another milestone

With helper around, their idea is to get the child has their meals as fast as they can without much mess. So ended they are feeding the children and they loss the chances to learn feeding themselves in the early stage.

Days without helper, I'm teaching janelle to be more independent. :) so indeed of me feeding her breakfast, I want her to feed herself. We started with her taking fork to feed herself (good job) but she would throw it to the floor... :( day1, mummy morning exercise was picking up fork for her. Slowing telling her that she need to put the fork on the plate/table after each mouth and it's comes with encouragement and rewards with "yeah!!!" in a super high tone every time she did it. Day 2, yes, she managed to do it, she would put fork on the table :)

Next step, mommy is training her how to pick up the food herself. According to PT, That's not a easy job for them as it's required fine motor skill and need her to focus and concentrate. Really hope in the near future I have another clip to share.

But this is a good start of 2012, am looking forward for more.

First day in Nursery

As we know, janelle having slow development and she started the Childcare with Playgroup which is 2 years below her age. After trial for 2 months, Janelle had teaches the Playgroup classmate with all bad habit like mouthing of things, walking around the classroom not paying attention as they are in the stage of imitating. So this year, tr suggested that janelle goes to the class that is at her age group (Nursery) where the classmates are more stable and able to understand better. Would give janelle a better example than the PG.

As a requirement, one caretaker will follows as janelle needs lots of hand over hand help which tr is not able to provide.

First day in Nursery, helper not yet in and mummy need to report to work to make necessary arrangement for the next 2 weeks, so daddy kick start the journey with janelle. However, Daddy hide himself in another room and she is doing very well without daddy and mummy. Good job, Sweetie!!! Tr Kelly saw me hiding at one corner checking on janelle during lunch, she says "Don't need to worry, today she has her eyes on the new teacher".

She says ....

With routine, Janelle knows how to says "UP" when she want me to carry her up to the bed for milk every morning.. I used to count "1..2...3.. Up" before i carry her to the bed... then slowly when i count "1..2...3.." and she says "Up" and now, she comes to me and says Up herself without counting.. :) mommy 6 months hardwork is not wasted..

At times, when she is playing alone at a coner, or on the floor beside my working area.. i heard her saying "Daddy... Daddy.. Daddy"... And there was once, she run towards hus when he is reading newspaper and called him "Daddy", hus eyes immediately filled with tears... Guess he had waited for this moment very long... of cos, You want her to says the 2nd time, it's depends very much on her mood. so now, when she is in mood and missed her daddy.. "Daddy.. Daddy.. Daddy" still around her mouth but infront of hus.. he will need alittle more patience and luck..

Yesterday night, after work, i sat down with Janelle and we sang along with YouTube's ABC clip. When the music ended, she looked at me and says "Again"... Mommy jumped up with joy, though that's the first and last time i heard her saying that but i believe it will come very very soon...

Janelle, mommy waiting to hear more words from you... Jiayou!!!

Development Assesment

Janelle is coming to 3 next month, mummy gets very worries of her development. Her classmates are having much more improvement than Janelle. and janelle had one huge problem, is that she cant sit still and listen in class. If this she cant do it, how can i sent her to mainstream?? So I would like to solve this problem, and had been seeing KKH OT and School OT for coming to 1.5 years, no improvement with her at all, so now i started to looked out.

Referred to Tr Sanjeey, a senior OT from ex-rainbow who had sees many special needs children. He did a developmental assessment for janelle and a few points and goals he set for Janelle:

• Although Janelle is 3 and can walk, but her development is at about 8 months... she doesnt walk freely.. she will locked herself by facing down to walk.. this gives her the control of herself not falling... but she dont look left and right or even front.. that's why she tends to trip and fall or knock into some things.


• Her truck muscles seem to be very weak, hence she cant focus while sitting down.


• She needs to do things with a meaning.. She can do it... Now activates to her are meaningless hence she is not learning and progressing.


• Need to get her seizure controlled, else we will be going round the cycle.. today she can do it.. after seizure... she cant do it again..

Tr Sanjeey mentioned that he will start sourcing for toys for janelle... toys where she will enjoyed and learn something... and will start with her next weeks and need something that she can had a huge progress to catch up.

All the above he mentioned, it's all very challenging to me. after the assessment, i got burned out, feeling very low and depressed. Asking myself what else i can do.. how can i do better??

Next day we had an OT at KKH, i flagged out my concern with the therapist. and then she did a reviewed with janelle and restructured the program. I dont like KKH OT as they dont set a goal for janelle... they are doing the same thing each session without assessing much on her... even there is no improvement, nothing changed till parents flagged out. Will be dropping KKH OT.

Met GH, Janelle's PT outside the OT room.. she asked me how is Janelle.. I gave her a sigh and when we talked, i have no ideas why my tear just flowed down infront of her... so embarrassing.. She wanted to meet me over the weekend to catch up, but i know she has 2 kids to take care, so didnt want to disturb her free time. anyway, thanks GH!!

After the OT, we had doctor reviewed on the same day. The same old things.. "let's monitor and change drugs.", i didnt asked much and just returned with a smile and "Ok".. just before i stepped out of the room, dr asked if i need parents support, he can help me to arrange... The OS in me is that "as long as you can help janelle... that's already helping me"... i shaked my head and walked out the door with tears around my eyes.

This strong mommy no longer strong.... these 2 days i tried to escape from janelle.. have been going to into office to take some time off away.. so that when i returned home, i have more energy and appreciate every minutes with her. i really dont know what's the next step i can try... told me hus, let's try TCM... but his silent had tell me off. what else??

God, you gave me pretty janelle but you forget to give me her health.. can you return it to me... I just want her to be a normal child who goes to school like normal kids.. play, talk and run around like them...

MMR vaccines

A month ago (9May), finally brought Janelle to complete her last vaccines - MMR which suppose to give her when 18months.. we had delayed for a year. The MMR vaccine is an immunization shot against measles, mumps and rubella (also called German measles). It was put on hold as we afraid that the virus in the vaccines can worsen her seizures. There are some vaccines on the records that cause seizures ie: prevnar.. As i wanted to enroll her for next year's preschool, so MMR is a compulsory vaccines for any government school in Singapore. After deep thoughts and asking around, we decided to give it to her.. once and for all to rest my mind of worries, and hopefully with the BRT treatment, it can help her to remove any strains from the vaccines.

Before i gave her MMR, from BRT it shows that in janelle body, there are some strains of measles and mumps virus which the therapy guess it could be from 5-in-1 or others vaccines, and after the MMR given the virus are gone, but there is an increase of Mercury strains in her body. The very next day she developed rash on her buttock areas where the vaccines given. I afraid was allergy hence rushed down to the clinic, but doctor says it's not. Doctor concluded that's nappy rash. How is it possible? All along she was ok, the diapers used and frequency changing on diapers remains unchanged. Thanks god, the rash went off after a week and at the very least she was still very active and no fever after the that.

Brushing

It's time to teach her how to brush her teeth... Used to us having a war with her.. Now getting her to do it herself. Every morning, she will wakes me up with her lovely smile and will make her morning milk with colostrum. Then she will follow me into bathroom and brush teeth.. But she is more like biting the toothbrush then brushing. So every time when I'm done, I will do one round of quick brush for her. See how cheeky she is.







- Posted from my iPhone

Stand up without support

Finally she clicked the milestone of stand up without support on her 29mths...

It seems very easy for all children to stands and go... But this doesn't comes in as easy for janelle. Had been doing squad to stand daily to build up her strength in knee for the past 1 year... And finally, this week she had constantly do it..

- Posted from my iPhone

With Janelle in school

It had been a while that i sit in Janelle's class. Today i made it. It's so happy that seeing Janelle having improvement. During the OT, she managed to do things that the OT excepted her to do.. Seeing her having better response to the teachers and able to think before she acts.

After stopping for swim for about 4 weeks because of her flu. Today she is into the swimming pool. She loves it. You can heard her laughter and see her kicking and jumping in the water. That's really nice.

During the feeding, this is the first time i saw her feeding herself from fork. Just need a little help from teacher to pick up the fruits to the fork and she can bring it to her mouth and take away the fork from the mouth once she put the food in. Amd she can uses both hands. that's really very nice.












And when going down the stair, she has better balancing and knows that she need to move her hands to get the balancing. That's nice too. Next step is to let her hold on with 2 hands and come down herself. Looking forward to that.

Today, one of janelle's classmate was accompanied by his mom. Had a chat with her to find out more on how she improve her son's progress. her son is a downsyndrome child, but his improvement is so much better than Janelle. She told me she started Glenn Doman's program with him last june. within 7 months, he started to talk and can response to people. This make my interest to go and try. This program is quite expensive and not always available. Will depends on when he is coming to Singapore to hold the program. Will check it out.

Improving

Today, brought janelle for PT at KKH. She was in good mood today, walking without support for more than 5 meters in the PT room. According to therapist, janelle just need practicing to get her balancing up. Climbing up and down the stairs will help her that.

Janelle love the bicycle, she keep walked towards the bicycle. She tried in it, and it seems that not too bad. Can exercise her knee. Tmr will drop by toy r us to check up the bicycle.

Now janelle know how her express herself better. When she don't like, she starts the cry.. When daddy says bye bye to her in going out clothes without bringing her out she will cry. Kind of annoying but also happy, at least she know how to express herself. Her likes n don't.

These few days, when she see me, she will very close to me. She will comes and hug me, kiss me. Stick to me.. My girl grow up lo. Starts can understand instruction. :)


- Posted from my iPhone

early childhood development checklist

When in janelle's school, I spotted an early childhood development chart.. Stood there and read from month 1 to month 12, doing check list for janelle as of aug 28 (25mths).

Month 1 to 3 - all reached as of aug 28 (25mths)

MOVEMENT
 Raises head and cheek when lying on stomach (3 mos.)
 Supports upper body with arms when lying on stomach (3 mos.)
 Stretches legs out when lying on stomach or back (2-3 mos.)
 Opens and shuts hands (2-3 mos.)
 Pushes down on his legs when his feet are placed on firm surface (3 mos.)

VISUAL
 Watches face intently (2-3 mos.)
 Follows moving objects (2 mos.)
 Recognizes familiar objects and people at a distance (3 mos.)
 Starts using hands and eyes in coordination (3 mos.)

HEARING AND SPEECH
 Smiles at the sound of voice (2-3 mos.)
 Cooing noises; vocal play (begins at 3 mos.)
 Attends to sound (1-3 mos.)
 Startles to loud noise (1-3 mos.)

SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL
 Begins to develop a social smile (1-3 mos.)
 Enjoys playing with other people and may cry when playing stops (2-3 mos.)
 Becomes more communicative and expressive with face and body (2-3 mos.)
 Imitates some movements and facial expressions

Month 5 to 7 - all reached as of aug 28 (25mths)

MOVEMENT
 Pushes up on extended arms (5 mos.)
 Pulls to sitting with no head lag (5 mos.)
 Sits with support of his hands (5-6 mos.)
 Sits unsupported for short periods (6-8 mos.)
 Supports whole weight on legs (6-7 mos.)
 Grasps feet (6 mos.)
 Transfers objects from hand to hand (6-7 mos.)
 Uses raking grasp (not pincer) (6 mos.)

VISUAL
 Looks for toy beyond tracking range (5-6 mos.)
 Tracks moving objects with ease (4-7 mos.)
 Grasps objects dangling in front of him (5-6 mos.)
 Looks for fallen toys (5-7 mos.)

LANGUAGE
 Distinguishes emotions by tone of voice (4-7 mos.)
 Responds to sound by making sounds (4-6 mos.)
 Uses voice to express joy and displeasure (4-6 mos.)
 Syllable repetition begins (5-7 mos.)

COGNITIVE
 Finds partially hidden objects (6-7 mos.)
 Explores with hands and mouth (4-7 mos.)
 Struggles to get objects that are out of reach (5-7 mos.)

SOCIAL EMOTIONAL
 Enjoys social play (4-7 mos.)
 Interested in mirror images (5-7 mos.)
 Responds to other people’s expression of emotion (4-7 mos.)

Month 8 to 12


MOVEMENT
 Gets to sitting position without assistance (8-10 mos.)
 Crawls forward on belly
 Assumes hand and knee position
 Creeps on hands and knees
 Gets from sitting to crawling or prone (lying on stomach) position (10-12 mos.)
 Pulls self up to standing position
 Walks holding on to furniture
X Stands momentarily without support
X May walk two or three steps without support

HAND AND FINGER SKILLS
X Uses pincer grasp (grasp using thumb and index finger) (7-10 mos.)
X Bangs two one-inch cubes together
X Puts objects into container (10-12 mos.)
 Takes objects out of container (10-12 mos.)
X Pokes with index finger
X Tries to imitate scribbling

COGNITIVE
X Explores objects in many different ways (shaking, banging, throwing, dropping) (8-10 mos.)
 Finds hidden objects easily (10-12 mos.)
X Looks at correct picture when image is named
X Imitates gestures (9-12 mos.)

LANGUAGE MILESTONES
 Responds to simple verbal requests
 Responds to “no”
 Makes simple gestures such as shaking head for no
 Babbles with inflection (8-10 mos.)

OBSERVED
X Babbles “dada” and “mama” (8-10 mos.)
X Says “dada” and “mama” for specific person (11-12 mos.)
X Uses exclamations such as “oh-oh”

SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL
 Shy or anxious with strangers (8-12 mos.)
 Cries when mother or father leaves (8-12 mos.)
X Enjoys imitating people in his play (10-12 mos.)
 Shows specific preferences for certain people and toys (8-12 mos.)
 Prefers mother and/or regular care provider over all others (8-12 mos.)
 Repeats sounds or gestures for attention (10-12 mos.)
 Finger-feeds himself (8-12 mos.)
 Extends arm or leg to help when being dressed

Month 13 - 24

 walking (13-16 mos.)
 Carries large toy or several toys while walking (12-15 mos.)
 Begins to run stiffly (16-18 mos.)
 Walks into ball (18-24 mos.)
 Climbs onto and down from furniture unsupported (16-24 mos.)
 Walks up and down stairs holding on to support (18-24 mos.)

HAND AND FINGER SKILLS
 Scribbles spontaneously (14-16 mos.)
 Turns over container to pour out contents (12-18 mos.)
 Builds tower of four blocks or more (20-24 mos.)

LANGUAGE
 Points to object or picture when it’s named for them (18-24 mos.)
 Recognizes names of familiar people, objects, and body parts (18-24 mos.)
 Says several single words (15-18 mos.)
 Uses two-word sentences (18-24 mos.)
 Follows simple, one-step instructions (14-18 mos.)
 Repeats words overheard in conversations (16-18 mos.)

COGNITIVE
 Finds objects even when hidden under 2 or 3 covers
 Begins to sort shapes and colors (20-24 mos.)
 Begins make-believe play (20-24 mos.)

SOCIAL
 Imitates behavior of others, especially adults and older children (18-24 mos.)
 Increasingly enthusiastic about company or other children (20-24 mos.)
 Demonstrates increasing independence (18-24 mos.)
 Begins to show defiant behavior (18-24 mos.)
 Episodes of separation anxiety increase toward midyear, then fade

Looks like Janelle's development is at Month 8 to 12... and her weak point is on fingers skills (fine motor skill), observed and cognitive. Need to be more forcus here...

She is not a baby anymore

Went to OT with Janelle yesterday.... And the OT had says something something which wake me up...

"SHE IS NOT A BABY ANYMORE... NO MORE HELP SHOULD BE PROVIDED.. ONLY BABY THAN WE GIVES HANDS TO HELP"










Yes, lesser help will be offer to her from now on.. she will need all kind of training to learn what she needs to learn..

I always hope that Janelle can walk on her own by 2.. so have been trying to do lots of things with within a short period of time.. the focus is not there... I'm going to change my strategy.. focus stay focus.. one at a time.. so now.. my focus is to improve her drooling.. and lots of mouth simulation I'm going to provide to her...

Tips provided by OT and SP
1. once see her drool, will need to tab dry and remind her to close her lips
2. give her some tasty drinks and let her feel her tongue and remind her to swallow
3. give her more opp to chew to train her mouth's mausle
4. Learning to use a straw for fluids can improve drooling.
5. reduce pacifier time

Janelle improvement from school

14th July 2010.. Wednesday


Now getting my maid to accompany Janelle into the pool as there are more children for the 2 teacher to handle:







16th July 2010.. Friday

Took time off from work cos my mom was having fever, help her to fetch my niece and do run do some marketing. Brought Joey to sit in Janelle's class after our marketing shopping.. and just nice for her soft play time... have quite a while didnt accompany janelle for class as busying with work.

I see janelle improvement when playing with her in softplay room.. Now she can crawl almost every where in softplay.. She can crawled up to the "tunnel" and went across it without us doing much encouagement... with teacher helps, she can crawl up the slope and throw herself into the ball pits. In the ball pits, now she dare to make a little bit of movement. In the past, when i put her in, she will freeze, dont dare to move at all.

Good job, janelle.. Mummy love to see each improvement.

Drinking milk

Finally she is willing to hold her own milk bottle :) it's take me to 21mths to train her... Good job sweet sweet.


-- Post From My iPhone

Updates of janelle

07 May 2010, Friday

It had been a while for me to update about Janelle's milestone..

Now she is 20 months old, and she can

- cruise. She will walk along the sofa.

- pull herself to stand when she is sitting on the floor

- having more eye contracts with us

- take things out from a box.

But her words seems to be lost.. didnt heard her saying papa and mama anymore.

now we are training her more on her fine motor skill like give and put..

My Little cutie pie

24 February 2010, Thursday

This morning my little cutie pie woke up at 5am, gave her some milk and put her back to sleep and i returned to take a nap before going to work. A while later i heard laugher from her, woke up to check on her, found that her eyes were closed... guess she was having sweet dream. then i relised that she was actually laughing at her daddy's snoze. the tempo were there. when daddy goes zzzz, janelle will laugh.. when daddy stopped, she stopped too.. my little cutie pie.

Janelle woke up when i'm taking shower, hence maid bring her out to the living room to prepare her for grandma's house. After my shower, saw her alone on the floor, hence went to play with her for a while. This is the first time i witnessed her crawling... as usual i put her toys about a meter away from her, and she crawl... on her 4's.. Yes, my girl starts to crawl in her 18months. Quickly took down a video clips on that... and mummy tears just flowed down.. i'm so happy to see her met another milestone. Well done Janelle.. Mummy waiting for you to walk and communicate with me.

Janelle, show meimei how to clap

23 feb 2010, wed

Brought jx to playground this evening and we met n know our L7 neighbour. She and her 9 months old girl.

She is kind of proud, but I guess all moms are the same, just very very proud on our child. She was there telling me how clever her girl is. At 9 mths, started to cruise, she knows how to clap etc etc.. She wanted to show off to me and keep asking her girl to clap, but she ignore her.. Hee, then I look at janelle.. "janelle, show meimei how to clap".. And janelle goes n clap her hand.. Haaa.. Although she is kind of overage for this milestone, but still mummy feel proud of her. :)



-- Post From My iPhone

Janelle's updates

19th January 2010, Tuesday

Now Janelle is 17 months...

When she woke up in the morning, she pull off my blanket and wake me up asking for mum-mum; which is milk.
When she saw her milk, she will laugh, and quicky lie down to her bed waiting for her to feed her.
but if she saw saw walk away with her milk, she will cry.
She can steps out to move with support, she can steps up stairs with support. (more improvement is required)
when we talked to her, she can response us with her baby words...
she can move her butt slowly, bit by bit to reach out for toys that was place about 1m away from her.
she started to scream at high pits..

her seizure wasnt good... she used to have to 10 days once, then was 7 days once, then 5 days, 3 days; we then quicky up her dosage before the seizure went hywire again... haiz..

have moved the therapy session to twice a month as her development gap seems to be bigger now. will remain at 2x a month till put her into EIPIC