Wednesday

Today Tracey and Lucian came over to play with us and meet Sally, Holly’s PT. Since Tracey Studies kinesiology, and is doing her theses on baby Movement, she was very curious on what type of work Sally does with Holly. Holly is coming up on her 6 month assessment, so Sally was testing out some skills today to help prepare her report.

First we played with the ball, and Holly was not very excited about this today, she didn’t want to be on her belly, but we did sit her on the edge, and tilt her left and right and she was righting herself and using her core back muscles. 2 weeks ago when Sally was over we noticed at the end of the session that Holly’s back was rounded and we think this was because she was tired, so we made a point to look today when the session began and her back was strait and she was using all of her muscles.

We practiced sitting with her legs tucked in tight in a cross legged pattern, this is so she doesn’t use her hamstrings and heels to stabilize herself but uses her core trunk muscles. We also decided to use some of the tape on her today, two strips on either side connecting from her shoulder down her long back muscles to her but, this was to provide some resistance when she reaches with her arms to activate the back muscles and strengthen them. We tested some of her falling reflexes, and they were all present, at first they were a little delayed like she moved the correct way but in slow motion, but we let her “fall” several times in different ways and she reacted fast on several occasions also.

Holly’s biggest gross motor delay continues to be her ability to hold her head up at a high angle. When playing airplane she looks down, or maybe up at 30 degrees, which is equivalent to 3-4 months, at 5-7 months she should be at least at a 45 degree angle, and working towards the 8-9 months 90 degree angle. I forget what this looks like because I am so used to Holly, so I held up Lucian, to see how far up he holds his head and he was already at a 45 degree angle at 4 months, but he got tired very quickly and dropped his head, so my concern with Holly, is she doesn’t even do it for a few seconds and then get tired, she just doesn’t do it. But in reverse with gravity’s help we have extended her head and back knowing that when she wants to her body does move into that position, so it is possible.

Later when Tracey and I spoke about it, Tracey reminded me that Holly’s head size is in the 78 percentile, while her height and weight are like 28 percentile, so in that respect her head is really big for her body, and it must take a lot of work to keep it up. So who knows, it’s not like I am super worried about it, I just want to keep working with her on it, and do what I can to help her out.

After Holly’s PT Session her and Lucian played some more, they were adorable, Holly is like a little doll, and Lucian is like a teddy bear, speaking of which, Tracey had a teddy bear gift for Holly which she adored and immediately ate its tie. The teddy bear was about as big as her, so it was completely understandable for her to think that Lucian was another teddy bear toy for her to play with. She liked to hold his hand and leg and reach for his face, but I had to pull her back, I didn’t want her to scratch him. The two of them played facing each other, each between Mommy’s legs, it was very cute. I enjoyed having Tracey’s company, and Lucian was getting so big. He is much less floppy, holding his head up strong and showing resistance when you passively move his arms. He makes cute little grunty noises also. He has a very adorable smile, it’s sometimes crooked, and he just raises one side like he is being sly.

After playing for a while we decided to go out and get some lunch, we drove down to 4th street which is a semi-shishi shopping area and went to this great little Mexican restaurant, we sat outside in the breeze, and I had a delicious limonada. In that shopping area is an Italian pasta and cheese shop, where I picked up some fresh garlic linguini and fennel sausage for dinner, as well as a slice of pumpkin cheese cake for Joel and Boston cream pie for myself. They had great samples of Honey, Cheese, Crackers, and Salsa. Afterwards we walked over to a toy store called the Ark, it was great. It had all kinds of wooden toys, and developmental toys, and soft animals and books, we only had time to look over one small section of the store, there was even an upstairs that we didn’t get to go to. I had to resist from buying anything, but I am sure I will go back.

We said goodbye, and Holly was tired, she had been awake since Noon, just before her therapy, and was cranky and had a bottle while we were eating our late lunch, but it was already 5:30, so the second I put her in the car seat and started driving she nodded off to sleep. I drove over to my old job to pick up a veggie box, we prepaid for several weeks, and they are dropped off there on Wednesdays. I called my friend and old co-worker while there to check in on how things were going and she came out to chat with me. She was happy to see me, but things are not going well, there are a lot of holes that I left behind unfilled, and with limited staff it will be difficult to keep the department running. I feel bad for the situation they are in, but I had to do what was best for me by leaving my job.

I left there at a quarter to 7, just in time to pick up Joel from work, That night we enjoyed our fresh pasta and had a great dinner. When Joel first got home I decided to feed Holly some peas, we had such a busy day she had not had a chance to eat yet. She doesn’t really like them, and she is getting really clever at finding ways to get “her” spoon into her mouth without opening it wide enough for me to give her a bite of food. It was fun for Joel to get to watch me feed her, as I usually do it when he is at work. Holly stayed up while we ate, so we took shifts and she fell asleep around 10:00. When I went to bed at around 2:00 I gave her a small bottle while transitioning her to the co-sleeper from the swing, which is why I think she slept in so late the next morning.