Thursday, October 25, 2007

Dadadadada...***Edited with video***

It's official...E.J. is now saying "Dada dada dada."
Daddy is in heaven and said to me tonight, "isn't it the most special thing when a baby says dadda for the first time?" He went on to say it "brings a great joy to my heart hearing him say dada."
Edwin says the cutest things. This is right up there with the "even if you have crebable palsy, or whatever it's called, I still love you."
E.J. does say "mmmmmm", but hasn't put the "a" on the end yet.
Of course E.J. doesn't know he is calling Daddy's name yet, but we are trying to get him to associate the two. For now, it is so good to hear him dadadada-ing away!

I only hope in January with our second bronchoscopy we will have a better understanding of what it will take for Serena to use her voice to make vowel and consonant sounds. (For those who don't know, her left vocal cord is paralyzed most likely from her PDA ligation.)
I can't wait to hear my baby girl say "mmmm" and "dada" too!

Sorry it's so dark...I have to figure this video camera out. But you can most certainly hear his say dadada and daaaadeeee

8 comments:

Miracles said...

Congrats another milestone! Even if he doesn't associate the two now, he soon will.

I remember when the girl's said their first words, I broke down and started crying in front of everyone who was in the room. They all looked at me as if I was crazy but to me it was another milestone and the most amazing sound ever. A day I'll never forget.

Shannon said...

SO exciting!!! I cannot wait for Ashton to say ANYTHING!!

Emily said...

Cute video! What a happy baby!!

Nathali said...

That is so cute!! I'm sure daddy is in heaven :)
I hope Serena will follow soon. Does she get ST?

23wktwinsmommy said...

Serena does vocalize but it is more like growling noises, which are oh so cute as well. We will be beginning ST soon, although I have to admit I am skeptical. I really hope it will help, but I guess I need to understand more if her inability to babble like Edwin is due strictly to her vocal cord, or a combination of being delayed in speech and her vocal cord. And if it is her vocal cord, then I guess I wonder what ST can do. I am putting in a phone call to her ENT on Monday just to see what his experience is with kiddos like Serena. He has seen a lot with her condition, because he is actually one of, if not the best ENT with respect to pediatric voice and airway in the world. He has said sometimes vocal cords improve as the child grows, but I have not seen much change with respect to her voice (or her breathing while asleep as she still requires O2) so I am anxious to find out what can be done. Most kids I read about on blogs who have paralyzed vocal cords seem to be vocalizing without any surgical intervention, and do not have the lingering airway issues requiring O2 while asleep so I wonder what's going on with my Beanie...

abby said...

I love the dadadadas (though we're still holding out for a few mamamamas in this mommy-centric universe of ours).

Question: does Serena make any vocal sounds (vowels, not consonants)? That was our experience with Hallie for the longest time, and then finally, after much hairpulling and speech therapy, the consonants finally kicked in. If that is the case, I'd pursue speech by all means (it's nice to have someone to panic to, at the very least) but I wouldn't be overly concerned. If not, and even if so, it's worth checking with an ENT to see if the paralysis is at midline (I suspect it must be because she's eating pretty well, not aspirating---and if it weren't close to midline she'd be having a whole lot more in the way of problems). Anyway, let us know if you want to bounce any ideas off of us because I suspect we've been there and done that.

23wktwinsmommy said...

Thanks Abby. I can't tell what noises she really makes...it doesn't seem like clear vowel sounds either. She does aspirate, however choking is easily avoided with thickened formula, and she has no issues with her purees and table food. I will video tape her "talking" and see what you guys think; I guess she does make vowel sounds, but she is very "growly." I told EI this past Friday that we need to begin ST. Hopefully they can be in soon. Good news is she responds very well to language and noise, and it is so easy for me to know what she wants even with the particular growl she makes.

abby said...

Just make sure that the speech therapist you get has some experience with babies, preferably preemies. Our first one was totally incompetent in this age group (her clients were all over 3) and this was a pretty bad match for us; we were lucky since our crackerjack OT knew a good ST and they often worked together on cases. It made it easy to fire the first one (we gave her a month) and to get Jenny instead. One thing to look for is whether Serena is watching you speak; try to get her to watch how you shape your mouth and repeat sounds (b is one of the first, also d as you know) over and over. Introducing sign will probably help, too. And maybe practicing with a straw to get Serena to round her lips will be useful. These are all some of the tricks we've learned.