• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Tales of The Anti-Preemie

Following Sam as he grows and his impact on our family

  • Home
  • About
  • Press
  • All Posts

Six years and counting

September 16, 2016 by melragent 2 Comments

My sweet boy.

It has been a while since I wrote just to you. Life with you is never dull – and I am so thankful for that. There are a few things I could do without- lets never have to be hospitalized for an impacted bowel again – ok? The reality is, you have overcome so much, but more than that, you have just become such a lovely and funny kid.

The leap from five to six is huge. Aside from all the growing and changing you did, things in your life really changed too. Just a small snapshot of some of the bigger things that happened in the past year:

  1. Your 5th year of life was kicked of with your very own fan for your room. It may seem like a silly gift when you look back on it years later, but you love this fan.
    Sam the Anti-Preemie: Year in review
  2. You spent 3 nights in the hospital in December for an impacted bowel. It sucked. It really sucked. On the flip side, since that hospitalization, your bowel issues have gone away. You are off all medications and herbs that you have been on since you were nine months old. Its like being in the hospital this time cured you. Plus, it was on this trip to the hospital that you got Layla and Laura… and earned the nickname “Dr. Sam”.
    Sam the Anti-Preemie: Year in review
  3. You got to spend Christmas in Tahoe – with a ton of real snow. With that came a reinforcement of your love of sledding.
  4. You were fired by your gastroenterologist. This was huge!
  5. You underwent your triannual IEP review – which led to a nine month fight for your mom with the Oakland Unified School District. I will spare you the details – but just know your mom fought for you and fought for you… and won. Nobody but nobody was putting you in an isolated special needs classroom.
  6. You got to spend time at Lake Tahoe, playing with your sister and hanging out in the lake.
    Sam The Anti-Preemie: Year in review
  7. You mastered reading – before starting kindergarten. Oh wait, you mastered reading in TWO languages before starting kindergarten.
    Sam the Anti-Preemie: Year in review
  8. You graduated from preschool!
    Sam the Anti-Preemie: Year in review
  9. You started Kindergarten (at a spanish immersion school) and celebrated your first day with frozen yogurt. Did I mnention you started Kindergarten in a mainstream classroom. Without an aide – and kicked butt?! No… cause you did.
    Sam the Anti-Preemie: Year in review
  10. More than anything else – you made my life more fun just by being the big silly, happy, difficult, stubborn, funny, cute, loving, annoying (put that one in for your sister), all around amazing kid you are.
    Sam the Anti-Preemie: Year in review

Keep being you baby – because you are amazing.

Related posts:

Leaving on a jet plane

Waking from a long slumber

The Witching Hour(s)

  • share:
  • Recommend on Facebook
  • Pin it on pinterest
  • Share with Stumblers
  • Tweet about it
  • Subscribe to the comments on this post
  • Tell a friend

Filed Under: Five to Six Years, Life at home, Parenting, Six to Seven years

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tashia says

    November 27, 2016 at 4:19 pm

    I’ve been reading your blog and you and your son inspire me. My second daughter is currently undergoing evaluations at her preschool, and it looks like she might be mildly autistic, but definitely needs speech therapy. We’re a bilingual household and my oldest daughter attends our neighborhood public dual-immersion school, and one of my fears right now is that we might be pushed out of getting our middle daughter into the same school when she is ready for kinder. How did you go about getting a SLP and speech therapy in Spanish? Are you paying for that out of pocket, does your insurance cover it, or did you somehow get the public school system to offer that service? I didn’t even realize that it was a possibility, but now I’m determined to get our daughter speech therapy in both of her languages, and I plan to fight for her right to attend the same dual-immersion school as her sister, if it comes down to that. Thank you so much for sharing your story

    Reply
    • melragent says

      January 4, 2017 at 1:10 pm

      Hi Tashia. I am so sorry it took so long to respond to you. As I am sure you can guess, life is a bit hectic!

      My son has only been evaluated in Spanish, but he does not receive any therapies in Spanish. Finding a Spanish speaking speech therapist is like finding a unicorn. In m=our case, having my son only receive therapy in one language has been a blessing. I firmly believe that Sam’s Spanish brain functions closer to grade level than his English brain. he is more conversational in Spanish than in English. I think having learned Spanish organically, has led to him being more comfortable in Spanish it’s one of the reasons I fought so hard to get him place at a Spanish immersion school. I felt it would set him up better to make friends and succeed socially.

      If you want her in the dual-immersion school – fight for it.I have no regrets right now – at all.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

One Pound, Twelve Ounces

Available now. Learn more at melissaharrisauthor.com

Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

About Me

I’m Melissa. My life was turned upside down when my second child, Sam, was born just 24 weeks into my pregnancy. This is our continuing story. Memoir about our experiences due out Nov 2, 2021

Follow Me

  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

From the Gallery

Sam the Anti-Preemie: Opening Judy's great gift (cute rain coat!) Sam the Anti-Preemie in Paris 4thbday_20

Categories

Footer

Recent Comments

  • Amy Harter on Welcome to PTSD Season
  • Linda Goldfarb on Welcome to PTSD Season
  • Sam on Day 13: September 29

See Us on Sutter Health’s TV Ad

Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Sam

© 2025 · Melissa Harris

»
«