Wonderland

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Wonderland

Preparing for our trip to Pittsburgh was more emotional than anticipated. Not the routine gathering and packing of things, but sifting through medical reports to provide background on my son’s experience coming into this world. Early on I assembled a binder divided into sections – hospitals, early intervention clinics, along with a dozen others – for collecting the medical and therapy reports that would accumulate in time. Jasper is nearly two years old. His baby book remains incomplete, lines left blank for milestones he did not reach on time, empty squares where photos should be. Instead the priority is managing this medical book, rearranging, expanding, updating. Consulting the book is emotional. Gathering those early reports is particularly difficult. Remembering, reliving. Reading about my newborn son in cold medical jargon is a harsh reminder of how difficult our beginning was.

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Return to Wonderland

Originally published November 12, 2013

Pittsburgh Zoo

In the weeks leading up to our October appointment with Christine Roman-Lantzy, I debated going. Jasper’s developmental Renaissance, which began in early summer, was still going. Global improvements in communication, speech, feeding, auditory processing, and vision. Another new mom once said to me, “My baby changes so much every day, he’s constantly learning something new!” At the time, Jasper was about a year old, and doing Ok, but the words struck me. Changes so much… every day?? I had no idea what that meant. My experience was different from that of other new moms. Continue reading “Return to Wonderland”