Polar Express party at preschool

Andrielle had a Polar Express Christmas party at preschool last week. She wore pajamas, and Santa even came!

Genetic Test

We just back from the doing the blood work for the genetic testing at the doctor's office. Poor Andrielle just does not like needles (but, really, can you blame her?). Her veins are also really hard to find. They finally found her vein on her left arm and just after they started collecting the blood they needed, her vein collapsed. So they had to use her right arm. Thankfully, they were able to get enough blood from that arm. They're sending in her blood samples and we should have the results back in 2-3 weeks (but it could be a little longer because of the holidays). Hopefully this is the last test we will have to have done for a while.

More testing

I've been in contact with Jeremy Schow, a man who works for Lineagen. Lineagen is the company that does genetic testing. I personally talked with my insurance company and they told me that they didn't cover genetic testing. Jeremy had a conference with them and filed a dispute over it and he won the dispute! They are going to cover the testing! Originally, we were only going to have to do a buccal cell test (the swab inside of the cheek to collect the skin cells), but in order for insurance to cover it, they want to do the blood work test instead and we also have to do a karyotype test (another blood test). I'm not exactly sure what the karyotype test will tell us, I know it has something to do with chromosomes. It looks like we'll be doing this blood draw tomorrow and hopefully it will go well and we'll have the results back soon. Since it's Christmas this week, I'm sure it will take a little longer to get them back, but hopefully it won't take too long!

Preschool

Andrielle started preschool on Monday. She did awesome. She got right on the bus with no problems. I, on the other hand, smiled and waved until the bus was out of sight and then ran back inside and bawled. Then I got Grayden ready and hopped in my car and headed over to the school to spy through the window for a few minutes before I went back home and actually did my workout, got showered/dressed, did the dishes, and even got a short nap in before Andrielle was dropped off.

She had school again today and she was excited to see the bus pull up. She ran right over and climbed in. I'm so proud of her! Now I just need to keep up the motivation to workout while she's gone. We'll see how that goes :)

East Meadows Preschool!!

We just got back from our transition meeting at East Meadows Elementary School here in Spanish Fork. I met with Mrs. Kemble, who will be Andrielle's preschool teacher, and also got to meet the school's speech and physical therapists. As far as placement goes, she got preschool Mondays/Wednesdays and Baby 3 class on Fridays. So she'll be going 3 days a week! Yay! Mondays and Wednesdays are from 8:30 - 11:00 (12 kids in the class) and Fridays will be 9 - 10:30 (5 kids in the class), and I will get to go with her on the first Friday of every month! She will also be riding the bus, something I am really nervous about, but I think it will be good for Andrielle. I really like her teacher and couldn't be happier about how things worked out for her! She will start preschool the Monday after Thanksgiving break (Monday, November 28th). I'm really going to miss the Kids Who Count program, but I think this is going to be great.

Transition Meeting Preschool Placement

Andrielle has her transition meeting with the school district for her headstart preschool placement today. I talked with the early intervention therapists and teachers that have been working with her, I am hoping she gets 2 days a week in the preschool and one day a week in the special Baby 3 class. The Baby 3 class is a class for kids that will have almost 3 full years in preschool before they start Kindergarten. I guess right now it only has 3 kids in it, so she would get a lot of one-on-one attention and I would attend that class with her. Connie (her Cognitive therapists and playgroup teacher) talked with the school district already and told them that is what she would like to see happen for Andrielle. If she got this arrangement she would have all three days at one Elementary school (East Meadows). She also told me that if she were to hand-pick a teacher and speech therapist, they would be these 2 that work at the East Meadows Elementary. So, I'm praying we get what's best for Andrielle.

EEG

Andrielle had her EEG test on Friday (the test to check for seizures). Since they needed Andrielle to sleep for this study, I put her down to bed late and got her up at 5:30 am. I dropped Grayden off at my mom's and we went in at 10:30 am to Utah Valley Hospital. We had to wait about 45 minutes to actually get in for her testing. By this time, she is overly tired and cranky. She didn't want to sit still for the person performing the test and I think she got to the point that she was past sleepy and just really grumpy. She was screaming and crying and the lady left us hoping that I could get her to fall asleep. We tried turning on movies, singing songs, and I even layed by her in the hospital bed, but nothing we did would get her to sleep. Finally the lady came back in, we wrapped Andrielle up in a sheet with only her head sticking out and her arms pinned to her sides (all this while she's screaming). I ask if they have a Dora movie we could put on (they don't) but she did have a Winnie the Pooh movie. Andrielle has never watched Winnie the Pooh before, but the combination of the movie and her being completely worn out from crying and fighting us, she finally fell asleep. The tester lady was able to hook up all the little probes all over her head and shoulders, and Andrielle slept for the 30-minute long test. We left the hospital at around 2:30. We should have the test results back in the next day or two. Fingers crossed everything looks normal!

I feel so blessed that Grayden is such a good baby and for my parents who are so willing to take him for me so that I can go to all of these appointments with Andrielle. I don't know what I'd do without them!