Hudson

 

I wanted to write about the past year of Hudson's life so I can look back on this time and remember the little boy he used to be.

Hudson is almost 3, which is so hard to believe. This age by far is my favorite so far. He is so loving, silly, compassionate. He is obsessed with all things cars and trucks, can name almost any type of truck, can count to 10, knows his colors, is potty trained. 

The summer after Hudson turned 1 was terrible. He was so whiney and cried all the time. Unless we were outside, he was inside crying and it frankly was miserable. There were times when he would just be screaming and holding onto my leg and I would break down and just cry with him because I was so overwhelmed. I had no idea what was wrong with him. This also was the time where his speech regressed. He used to be able to say a couple words, "duck" and "ball", but he stopped saying them. Instead he just started growling all the time.

We reached out to his pediatrician at his 15 month appointment and they told us to just "wait and see" because he wouldn't qualify for speech because he understood everything. At 18 months they told us the same thing, but Hudson wasn't saying any words at all at that point so we pushed to be seen by Early Intervention. By the time we finally got evaluated, Hudson was 21 months. It was also all virtual due to the pandemic so they had to evaluate him over a zoom call. Because Hudson understood everything (his receptive language), he didn't qualify for speech services at that time but they told me to reach out in 6 months if we didn't see any improvements.

It was summer then and Hudson had just turned 2. He started saying a couple words but they weren't consistent and he obviously was very behind his peers. I was due with Nora in like, a month when I reached out to Early Intervention again. They were able to come out in person that time and evaluated him and thankfully he qualified for speech. I remember that evaluation, Hudson didn't say a single word and he growled almost the whole time. His growls meant different things depending on the tone of them, and I always knew what he meant. It was pretty funny.

We started speech therapy the next week with Diane. I'm not sure if it was a coincidence or her tricks, but he started talking soo much more immediately. I think it was a combination of both. She also asked us if we had ever had Hudson's hearing tested. We said no, that we didn't think he had any hearing problems because he responded to us just fine. She told us that we should still get him evaluated just in case.

We had Hudson's hearing tested right after I had Nora. Trevor took him to the audiologist and to our surprise, he had fluid in his ears and it affected his hearing A LOT! Like his left ear he could hear 2/5 and his right was 3/5!! They said that his hearing was like he was underwater. We were shocked at how significant his hearing was actually affected. After that, we were referred to an ENT. Because of the fluid in his ears and also the speech delay, he qualified to have tubes placed immediately. We were put on the OR schedule for the end of September.

Hud had his tubes placed and i'm not kidding when I say that he made leaps and bounds every single week with his hearing. He even started following directions much better, probably because he could finally hear what we were asking! He was much less whiney, and every single week Trevor and I were amazed at his progress. Even to this day, I swear he's a different kid every week. He's speaking in sentences now. He did still qualify for speech from ages 3-5 but we are so thankful because they are benefiting him so much. 

I always wonder where we would be today if Hudson wouldn't have had the fluid in his ears. Would he have had a speech delay at all? I think about the summer where his speech regressed and also he would just whine and cry all day... is that when he developed the fluid in his ears and thats why he was so upset all the time? Honestly that just makes sense. But we are so thankful that Diane told us to get his hearing checked or else we wouldn't have even considered it.

Hudson today weighs 36lbs, is in the 90th percentile for both height and weight. (He hasn't been measured since October so I'm not sure exactly how tall he is currently). He's in 4T clothes. He loves Nora, Timber, and Kitty. Still loves being outside. Is obsessed with cars and trucks. He is SO silly, and purposely is always trying to make us laugh. We are so proud of all the progress he's made recently and he's such a joy to be around, most of the time.

He will be going to preschool at Penn Mont Academy in the fall. He already is in the toddler class there now, but he will be transitioning to the pre-K with 3-5 year olds. I'm so excited to watch him learn and grow more there. I can't believe he's only 2 years away from kindergarten!