Judecorp.

Punk had her 6-month re-evaluation for Early Intervention, and as I suspected two months ago when they scheduled the appointment, they pushed her out of the program. I say "pushed" because technically, and by technically I mean according to the actual operating standards of EI in Massachusetts, a child who qualifies based on diagnosis rather than delay is eligible for an entire year of services. And she did, six months ago, qualify based on a diagnosis of abnormal muscle tone.

I also think they did some wonky scoring with the gross motor part of the evaluation because they scored her at 12 months, but when she was evaluated at my job during our training inservice she scored 11 months. She has not developed any new gross motor skills between now and then and since I was heading up that training and I am pretty much known for being a hard ass I feel like it was pretty accurate. I'm trying to mentally go through the evaluation and see where they could have passed her. It was amazing to see someone else interpret (wrongly) the test items. For example, there is one that says, "Standing: Throws ball with some cast" and basically is looking to see if the child is sturdy enough in standing to throw a ball with an overhead motion. So PT asks me if she can throw a ball and I am quick to say, "Yes, but not in standing, because she cannot stand." And she tells me it counts if she is standing against a sofa or table and I'm all OH HELL NO because umm, clearly it says "STANDING" and it comes after the test items like "Stands unassisted," and "Takes steps unassisted," and "Walks well (starts, stops, turns)." Seriously, people, you should not mess with my ridiculous knowledge of EI eligibility.

But whatever, I pretty much hate them anyway, so after they told me that my daughter wasn't eligible anymore (but oh, she is), I said, "That's good, I knew you were going to push her out anyway. You didn't want to come see her last month, either, and that's fine. I will keep my eye on her and if I am still concerned in a couple of months, I'll call a program in Springfield and start up again." And the director is all, "Why Springfield?" and I start by talking about how Punk is in a new child care in Springfield so it would make more sense and made sure to tack on 'and we don't really agree on how things are done anyway.' AND I HATE YOU.

She was totally not performing today and the house was full of contractors and plumbers and natural gas guys and electricians but even still she is a genius and way too cute for their stinking program anyway. And the stupid PT was going on about her progress when she is basically doing the same things she was doing at 11 months. So eff them.

Yes, I know she will walk someday. I am completely confident of this and have no real worries that she won't. But I don't understand why they are so reluctant to work with her. I mean, the whole reason I pursued this EI business 6 months ago was because she had the funky tone and wasn't delayed then and I wanted to make sure it stayed that way. But guess what, now she's delayed. Turds.

I am a 898983478934789374289 times better worker than they are. Argh.

My office was having an all-day training on the assessment tool that we're required to use for EI services. It is not the greatest assessment tool ever and people tend to be trained poorly on it, so it was a good idea. At my agency, I'm pretty much the go-to expert on the tool because there was a TON of training at my last job and because the directors were real sticklers about following the tool exactly (so we learned the "right" way).

I volunteered Punk to be a guinea pig because they needed someone around her age (they also had a 6 week old, a 20 month old, and a 30 month old). Hey, it's always good to see how your kid is doing, right?

I am proud to say that she totally rocked the house. I sat her in the chair with the tray because she is too eager to move around, and I thought she would HATE it. But she didn't, she sat there and played with all of the toys. I was pretty much stunned. She also was consistently doing items in the 16-19 month range in all areas of development except gross motor, of course. Which I knew. Because she doesn't stand or walk or whatever. Eh. (The assessment tool basically caters to the lowest common denominator so a typically-developing child tends to score ahead.)

She really impressed me in the fine motor section, even though I know that's her big strength. She put a peg in the pegboard. She stacked two blocks (which I knew). And she even put the circle shape in the shape board which I was NOT expecting. And she actually scribbled with a crayon instead of just eating it! She really was in rare form today. She hugged a baby doll which was the cutest thing ever, so I think I will have to get her a baby doll. I could have died of cute. And she busted out two words during the assessment - baby and bye-bye. (She said 'duck' (da) for the first time today, too!)

She didn't take a morning nap and was STILL in a good mood. Seriously, I was so impressed. Then she fell asleep in the car on the way to day care (10 minute car nap), stayed up for lunch at day care, and then only took a 50 minute nap at day care from like 12-1pm. She fell asleep like a big log at 6:45 tonight... but has been really whiny and fussy on and off in the night. *sigh* Last night was a terrible night and I don't have high hopes for tonight, either.

She is the awesomest ever but she would be MORE AWESOMER if she would sleep. Srsly.

I am really pissed about my kid's early intervention services. Or lack thereof.

When it all started, they were going to assign my kid a PT. Great! Except she's really busy. Boo! But she runs a swim group once a week so we would get to see her every week. Great! Except that it was right smack in the middle of the very important morning nap. Boo! So we went twice and it was simply too much. So then we were going to meet her at the Y before the swim group, so we could get some one-on-one time weekly and then go home and nap. Except she cancelled two out of the three times we were supposed to do that, and then I went to work on Thursdays.

After pushing and pushing, she finally agreed to go to the day care and meet with Jen. And I had to push her into it. And then she wanted to be "flexible" with the time ("Let's say some time between 12 and 2") and I had to 'gently' remind her that Jen was coming from work so she nailed down a time. I kept waiting for her to cancel, and my heart sunk when she called at 9:30pm the night before... but she just decided THEN to ask for the address. Argh!

And then when she finally did go and see my kid, I left Jen a whole list of concerns and things to talk about and the freaking PT was like, "Oh wow, that's great you notice that, it's really subtle, blah blah, it will be fine," and then said she will check back in another month.

OH HELL NO.

I have no idea why this is acceptable to her. A month is a HUGE amount of time for an infant and she's getting to the point where we've gone from being proactively monitoring things to HELLO, SHE IS DELAYED. Kids that were crawling and pulling to stand MONTHS after Punk are now cruising and standing alone and lowering themselves to the floor and all kinds of things that she is clearly unable to do. In a month she will be a year old and then what? THEN they will say she's a late walker and they should do something? Or maybe then she'll say, "Oh well, TECHNICALLY a kid's not a late walker until 15 months..." and then see her again in a month?

I am making a huge stink about this today. Just because I work in EI doesn't mean my kid doesn't deserve to get the right amount of services. I'm more than prepared to go to the Director today.

So I have been trying to call my pedi to find out why I never heard from the EI program. (I start a lot of entries with 'so.') Come to find out, I was supposed to call them. Whoops, thanks for telling me. But whatever, she's not going to qualify so I've got time.

I called this afternoon and when the scheduling person called me back we got to chatting and she asked if I was familiar with Early Intervention and I told her I spent almost 3 years doing EI in Boston. She said, "What are you doing now?" I told her I was home with the baby but should probably find something soon and she said, "I will stick an app in with your materials."

Ha ha ha, if I walk into a job because of my kid I will laugh my way out of town. It certainly could be fun to do EI work again, although I would have to do all of the pesky certification that I dodged at my last shindig. But still, she made it sound like they were looking for people and I should be in touch.

~//~

When we were going through the questions, she asked my name and Punk's name, and then asked for the father's name. Really? In this town? Tsk. I told her there was no father and a bonus mom and gave Jen's name, and later she said, "Do you know the father?" Does it matter? Enough with the father, lady!

~//~

There's a spot on the referral forms (heaven knows I've seen enough of them) for race and then ethnicity. I said, "Portuguese" but I was tempted to say, "Portuguese, Ukrainian, French Canadian, German, Irish, and more!" I also told them her race was Caucasian but I guess technically she is half Jewish. Whoops.

~//~

They have PTs at their program. Lucky, we had a heck of a time hiring a PT at my place after Coworker Gina left. EI pays so much less than the hospitals and stuff do. But yay, I can pick a PT's brain!

Yesterday my Secret Stork from july2007babies sent me a present from our baby registry. Man, those cute little hooded towels NEVER GET OLD. I mean, I want one for me - grown-up size. Please? I have a small head. Also, my Secret Stork is awesome because she sent my kid the CHICKEN HAT that I have been drooling over. I shall have to take a photo. I mean, CHICKEN HAT. Also on the list of things I want for myself.

Former Coworker Gina sent us a whole breastfeeding extravaganza, including a Boppy and cover, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, and some Lansinoh cream. Man, that girl is always thinking. I just love my crunchy friends.

Speaking of former coworkers, or at least former work, I don't know how anyone can seriously work in Early Intervention and then get pregnant without going nuts. For starters, I was always obsessively watching ultrasounds looking for things like anencephaly and heart defects. And then when I hit 20 weeks I was obsessed about micropreemies, because I worked with so dang many. Now that I've passed the micropreemie stage, all I can think about is IUGR - which gets worse every time someone tells me how "tiny" I am. Because, you know, I can rattle off causes for IUGR like nobody's business and let me tell you, none of them are good.

Too Much Information Girl strikes again!