New Family Photos!
Submitted by kim on Sat, 08/23/2014 - 15:20 in Parenting
Rankin Family 2014
Allow me to introduce this fantastic group of kids:
Our oldest son, Jon and his wife, Allie.
He's the Black Me and I'm the White Him
Submitted by kim on Wed, 08/13/2014 - 15:36 in Lessons for Mom
I have spent a lot of time talking about the death of Mike Brown with my sons this week. It is not out of the ordinary for our family to talk about the news and especially how current events intersect the lives of young people. One particularly hasty conversation took place standing up in my bedroom after they told me they wanted to drive thirty minutes up the highway and join the protests. "Unarmed teens should not be shot dead in the street, Mom. I've been stopped lots of times by the police. I've never been shot at. This isn't right."
Augmented Communication Part 3 - A Talker
Submitted by kim on Mon, 08/04/2014 - 11:57 in Augmented Communication
Warning: This probably should have been two or three separate posts over the last few weeks. But here we go... a lengthy update on where we are with augmented communication for Nathaniel. The reward is at the end - videos!
Nathaniel and I had our first difficult mother-son conversation a few weeks ago. Well, in reality I was talking; he was not. That was what made it difficult.
Discouraging Decision
Submitted by kim on Tue, 07/29/2014 - 20:42 in Nathaniel's Story
I made a very hard decision today to discontinue all of Nathaniel's oral feeding. He is aspirating. I have know something was wrong for months. I have grown increasingly frustrated with oral feeds which most days produce coughing fits and increased suctioning needs. Often the coughing spells end in vomiting. His occupational therapist was aware of the problems. She spent half her weekly therapy session on feeding. Her solution was that the more he ate, the more he would get over his 'gag' sensitivity. I felt like I was getting no answers to my growing concerns and decided to get a second opinion.
