4 Months!

Today marks Johnny's 4 month "birthday". We met with reps from Early Intervention to assess Johnny's growth physically, mentally & emotionally. As I had guessed, (hence my reason for calling the meeting) he is very very advanced in some ways, and not quite keeping up in others. He qualifies for the program, and will be working with a therapist from Strawberry Fields.

Advanced:
Talking -- very much so!
Rolling
Sleeping on his side
Overnight sleep schedule
Eye contact, following items
Grip
Getting on hands & knees

Normal:
Following Sound
Smiles
Tummy time experience

Behind/Abnormal:
Arching his back
Jerky movements
Excessive movement
Excessive energy
Eating schedule/amount
Napping schedule/amount
Temper

With the help of the Strawberry Fields therapist we are hoping to catch him up or fix the third list above. Apparently the issues he is having and the advances he has made in other areas are a sign of a predisposition to ADHD like his daddy, and bipolar disorder with a possibility of aspergers like his mama. Nothing would be diagnosed for a few years, so those are the things we are to watch for. I'm glad we have the resources and foresight to be watching for these things. When I was a kid there just wasn't much awareness of such problems, so nothing was explained or discovered with me until I was a teenager. If he does have any of those issues, it will be much easier to adjust his lifestyle accordingly when starting to do so at such a young age.

Overall, I believe it was a very good meeting and I feel like we are doing a great job with him. Not that I would wish any of those problems on my child, but I truly believe that if he does have any we would be able to handle them fairly well and keep them from having much in the way of a negative impact on his life. Hooray for being informed and prepared!