Twins, speech development, and CDS

When I found  out I was pregnant with twins, I of course, turned to the internet to find out what I should expect from pregnancy, infancy, toddlerhood and beyond.  I found that people will ooh and ahh over your babies more so than singletons (which I will cover in more detail in another post... most likely after a particularly annoying trip to the mall, Target, or grocery store), they will most likely be born early, you need to eat a lot more when pregnant with twins, and they may have some developmental details.  We have lucked out in that the boys were a healthy weight, required no NICU time (which is good, considering the small, southern Maine hospital I delivered in didn't have a NICU or a baby nursery for that matter), and were able to leave with me after a 4 day stay to control a fever and some dehydration on my part.  Keaghan did have to travel by car bed for about two weeks and we had frequent weight checks, but they were super healthy twins and have stayed that way.  They are super active and have amazing fine motor skills and developed and conquered many of the physical milestones ahead of the curve.  They do however have a speech delay.  They excel in receptive language (understanding what is said to them) but have very limited expressive language.  They use two signs from American Sign Language with no prompting (please and thank you) and a handful of others with some prompting, but do not use words for most requests, answers to questions or conversations.  When they vocalize their most prominent sound combination is "mama" with various inflections for different meanings. 
At their 15 month check up I expressed concerns about their speech, and was told to wait it out, because kids will often have a word "explosion" where they are saying no or few words and will suddenly start saying many more words between 15 and 18 months.  When they hit 18 months and still no change in their speech patterns, I pushed further and the pediatrician sent a referral to Child Development Services to set up an evaluation. 
Whew, that was a crazy day.  The evaluation was done here at home and 4 people from CDS came to evaluate the boys in a general spectrum of their skills to determine that speech was the only thing delayed.  They sat on the living room floor with the boys playing games and talking to them for 2 hours.  At the end of the evaluation it was determined that while the boys were average or above average in their development for most things, their expressive language was well below their receptive language and they qualified for services.
We wrote an IFSP (Individualized Family Service Plan) for both boys and were told we would be contacted to set up service times.
We have been seeing one of the evaluators as our service provider for about 2 months now, two times a week for an hour at a time and it is a great experience for the boys.  I am hoping for our word explosion to come soon, but until then I will wait patiently and do everything in my power to help them learn!
This is getting long (and it is the short version) but if anyone reading this has questions about twins, speech development, or Child Development Services, feel free to contact me!

Whew, Its been awhile

Things have been crazy in this neck of the woods in the past few weeks.  Remember what I said about my love hate relationship with being a camp director's wife?  Well its starting up now, hubster has meetings at least a couple of nights a week so I am busy being parent numero uno to the boys and it is exhausting!   We have fun and it is great that we are able to go play outside a little bit more now but by the time they go to bed at night and I get everything cleaned up for the day and ready for the next day, I am just ready to fall asleep. 
We are also planning a vacation for next week, so expect a post after this week with pictures and a run down of what it is like taking two two year olds to Washington D.C.  It was a little nerve wracking during the government shut down talks to be planning a trip and not knowing what we would be able to do while there, but the government got it together enough so trip is on!
Because, oh yeah, the boys will be two on Sunday!  I am so  excited, we aren't doing a major celebration because we are leaving that night for our trip, plus we are also going to a birthday party for the boys' girlfriend, Elliot, who will be three that day.  It is so fun having friends with kids who share a birthday with the boys, fun to see what a difference a year or two makes in development!
Speaking of development, I will be writing a post in the near future talking about our experience with Child Development Services and the speech development of the boys. 


Ok this post is all over the place and I just wanted to update to let everyone reading (however many of you there are) that I haven't forgotten, and will try to get back into it, just as soon as I get back from a nice relaxing road trip!