Ever since Christmas Sierra has been doing REALLY well in
therapy. She had not progressed much at
all during the year of 2013 and I was concerned. Speech has been especially bad. I had just talked to her speech therapist in
December about possibly adding another day of speech therapy (ugh) because she
wasn’t willing to try sign language and she wasn’t picking up on speech at
all. I was very concerned. Then one day it’s like a light turned on
inside of her. Everyone is
amazed at the progress she has made ever since Christmas. Brandon remembers the neurosurgeon telling us
that after her brain is done healing her development will start to speed up noticeable. We both think her brain was done healing
around Christmas because of how much progress she is now making. It took 6 months for
her brain to heal from all of that trauma.
The trauma of the cyst growing and moving her brain and then the trauma
of the surgery and her brain readjusting.
My Sierra is truly amazing. I don’t
blame her for not wanting to do anything for 6 months (or more). It has taken me longer than 6 months to heal
from her surgery and I still feel like I’m trying to heal from it. Let me list the ways she is advancing in
development. Literally all of the stuff
happened at once. Every week she is
doing something new, and she is speeding up in speech therapy the most. Erin
her speech therapist is so happy with Sierra right not.
Speech Therapy:
Sierra is now signing: Eat, Drink, Bath, Wash,
Music (Sierra loves music), Go, Bubbles, Cookie, bed time, please, more and All
Done. Sierra understand A LOT more sings
but they are harder for her to do.
Mommy, Daddy, book, baby, stop, in, blocks, ball, toys, kitten, puppy,
(other animals).
Words Sierra is
saying: Dadda, Ready Go, What, and all done.
She is mimicking words like Diamond and a few others.
Other Speech
Therapy Stuff: Erin is working really hard on her attention. She tries to read a whole book with Sierra
and have Sierra respond to questions and point to pictures like animals. Touch and Fell books are really great for
this. Erin is teaching her body parts
which Sierra is doing great at. She knows her nose, head, eyes, mouth, and
tongue. I think she knows more like her
toes, fingers, and ears BUT Sierra is SOOOOO shy and doesn’t like to do
it. Erin is also trying to teach her
commands like “Put In” “On Top” and stuff.
What has been so amazing is that Sierra literally was NOT
doing any of this AT ALL until about January first and then she starting doing
it all at once. It was slow at the
beginning (in January) but Sierra is picking things up weekly now when it had
taken her 6 month to just sign the word “eat”.
Erin was kind of giving up on Sierra because she was not doing ANYTING. She was very frustrated and kept saying let’s
just try to get her to listen for a few minutes. Or just respond to her name. Maybe I’m asking too much of her. Erin is frustrated but now she is so glad she
did not give up on her. She loves
working with Sierra now and feels like all the frustration was worth it. It was!!
PHYSICAL and Occupational THERAPY: Sierra started to crawl
on her hands and knees really well starting in December (instead of the army
crawl) and now is finally standing with NO problems and doesn’t cry when she’s
standing. Sierra is also easily going up
and down stairs. Corwin has been working
on this since last spring but she wasn’t getting it. Then one day around the first of January she just got it!! It was incredible. We were shocked. She is pulling herself into kneeling AND
standing positions also. Just one day
BOOM she had it. Her therapist are
working very hard on walking but Sierra is so afraid to move while standing. Her fear holds her back more than
anything. Cade, her PT, pointed out how
Sierra would come and just sit until they made her move but now she comes into
the room and roams all over and kind of takes control and he LOVES it! He loves the changes in her.
Babysitter: One of
the biggest blessing in my life has been Sharlene Bitter. She is Cameron’s new babysitter. I have cried many, many buckets of tears
(which my mom can attest to) because I have needed so much help with Cameron so
I can take Sierra to her Dr. appointments and therapy (which is four times a
week) and I have had such a hard time finding help (that doesn’t include other
family appointments, shopping, or other needs).
Sharlene is so sweet, so kind hearted, so willing to help, and the best
part is that she has a son Cameron and Sierra’s age and Cameron LOVES to go to
their house and play. Sharlene has been
a HUGE blessing in my life. HUGE. Another testament to me that we are were our
family is supposed to be.
I still get very emotional when I talk about Sierra and all
the struggles we have been through and are going through. But she is worth every single one of
them. She is beautiful. She is happy.
Because her heart is so pure you can’t ever get mad at her or frustrated
with her or ignore her contagious smile.
She is an angle sent to our family.
She is perfect.
My back is getting worse.
I was hoping that the problem was our mattress and that it would go away
with a new one. So we got one, but it’s
not going away. My back still hurts
really bad and is getting worse. I’m going
to schedule a doctor’s appointment this week.
Today at church the lesson in Sunday School was on Moses and when The Lord told Moses to preach to them but Moses said to God “I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto they servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue” and then the Lord rebuked Moses and told him that He will give him the words to say and make him what he needs to be. When hearing this in class I couldn’t help but think of my situation with Sierra and how I feel that I’m not giving enough to help Sierra and that I’m not strong enough either. I feel like I’m not qualified to be the mother she needs even though I try my hardest. I felt the Spirit council to me that if I would just lean on the Lord and ask for help he will give me the strength, he will guide me through therapy’s, he will help me be the mother and help me know how to provide her with the life she deserves. I just need to lean on the Lord and he will make me strong enough.
Sierra LOVES LOVES LOVES water
