Back when we were still in the NICU, the resident social worker asked if we wanted to take part in a program called Early On.
Basically what it boils down to is a program through your local school district where a registered nurse comes to your house once a month to evaluate the physical, social, emotional, etc. development of your new baby. Babies should be doing certain things at certain ages. If the nurse sees a lack of development in any of those areas during one of her visits, she'll come back with a specialist to evaluate, advise, and set goals.
It's all about setting goals and making sure your kid is on track in all these areas and making sure he gets the right person to help him and us reevaluate, reach, and set new goals.
Any baby, newborn to 3 years, who have some sort of development "need" or who where born premature qualify. And the best part is it's at no cost to us.
Today we had our second visit, and instead of having Max get his two-month evaluation, the nurse decided we would wait another month due to the fact (according to his due-date) developmentally he's only two weeks old. (ummm. duh..) And if we sit down and think about it, it makes perfect sense. We figure, with some of the progress he's made since coming into this world, he'll be ahead of the game a bit when his evaluation finally comes up.
It seems like a great program, and so far we really like our nurse. Her name's Joy by the way, and boy was she named right. Anyone, in my humble opinion, would be a complete idiot to turn down this program if it was offered.
You get Dad's crazy mother driving twenty minutes to spell out "♥U" with red food coloring in the snow, plop down and make a snow angel, and then gaze lovingly through a steamed up living room window to get just a little Max fix. And then drive back home.
