Thinking

Ruby is crawlng... yeah!!!!  Since our last PT appointment, I have really focused on making sure she has at least an hour a day of PT with me, this morning I trained Sherry so she can take 20 minutes here or there.  It really is making a difference.

Now that I have Ruby under control, the next kiddo that needs my attention is Sam.  We have a meeting with the school next week, and I'm nervous about what they will want to do with him.  I know he has attention issues, I'm pretty sure he has difficulty with auditory processing, and for sure fine motor skills.  So, I've been thinking of things I can do with him at home, though, I must be honest, it's such a chore just to get his homework done I don't know where I can fit anything else in.  I ordered some materials for The Listening Program, which is a set of CD's that's supposed to help the brain process sound better.  That's an hour a day of just listening, though he can play legos while he does it, I'm not sure if he can read while doing it.  I've been thinking I need to do Handwriting Without Tears with him, and that is another 15 minutes per day.  So, this process leads to this... there is not enough time in the day.  Am I going to have to homeschool him?

Panic.  Panic.  Panic.  There would go ALL of my freedom.

But, if that's what he needs, it's what I'll do.  Sigh.  Stay tuned...

Phew.

When we went to the opthamologist last week, he mentioned concerns that there may be some underlying nerological reason that Ruby has vision AND motor problems.  Like Cerebral Palsy.  Panic.  Panic.  Panic.  So, we went into the physical therapist at Kaiser today to get her assessed and determine if she needs an MRI.  

I'd never thought I'd be so relieved to hear "hypotonia and severe gross motor delay."  The PT does not see any signs or reason why she needs further neurological testing.  If she does not continue to progress, that's another story.  But since she started crawling yesterday, I don't think that's going to be a problem.  

  (I'm just taking as many pictures of her sweet face as I can before the glasses come:)

However, being in PT is going to require some work on our part.   So, I got out a carpet remnant to put in the living room to give her a surface with more traction to work on.  And, at the instruction of the PT, we got the shoes.  The dork patrol shoes.  They actually are a size bigger than her tiny feet because that's the smallest they make, but the PT said that as she bears weight her feet should start growing fast. I think they're going to be trashed in like 5 seconds.  She wore these for about 2 hours today, and 1 hour and 45 minutes of that was in a high chair or the car.  Yeah.  See those pretty flowers?  They're toast!  At least I think they're hideously ugly so if she wants to ruin them she can be my guest.  The hope is that they will help prevent her from scooting and nudge her to crawling, which is the best exercise for the muscles she needs to be able to walk.  

Looks like we've got our work cut out for us.  Good thing she is such a sweet baby!!!  I have hopes that by the time summer comes we can get her some cute sandals to wear and they will be used like they are supposed to... for little feet to toddle in:)

Emma Jane

Annie had her baby on Friday. She smells perfect and looks like an angel. We are all in love!

Glasses

Ruby has to get glasses.

A few months ago I did an evaluation of a little girl with extreme farsightedness.  Her mom brought her without her glasses, so she was crossing her eyes and trying so hard to focus on things that were close.

Shortly thereafter we went through the process of getting Ruby assessed for her lack of walking.  When the caseworker asked me if I had any vision concerns, I paused.  Because just a few days prior to that I had noticed that when Ruby was looking at things close up, her eyes were crossing.  So, we decided to tell the pediatrician about it at her appointment last week.   I mentioned my concerns and she gave us a referral for a pediatric opthamologist.  We got in within a week.  That appointment was this morning.

I had noticed mostly the left eye crossing, but over the past few days I noticed the right.  As I look back at pictures, they both cross.  (see above?  And look at the closeup from the last post... definitely crossing).  Apparently, it's better if they are both crossing, it's less likely that there is something physically wrong with her eye.  So, today, the nice lady noticed that she was crossing both eyes, and she had to be dialated for a full exam.  She was so funny!  When she was fully dialated, she couldn't focus at all, and her eyes were crossing out of control.  She sat still enough that the Dr was able to determine that she was farsighted, not much, but enough that it's making her eyes cross, and we don't want that.  The good news was that the physical structure of the eye is just fine, which was the other possible cause of crossing.  The Dr was surprised at the amount of crossing with a slight prescription, but she's too young to really do any further testing (he mentioned bifocals!!!  Can you imagine?)  So, we wear glasses for four months then go back to get checked again.  Maybe glasses will help her walk?  We can only hope!  So, I most certianly have a special needs baby now:)  The good news is that she should grow out of the farsightedness by the time she hits kindergarten.

But she looks awfully cute in her whale spout.  And she's going to look pretty cute in her light pink baby glasses:)

Big Deal

Ruby is a special baby.  Remember that video of her scooting that was sooo funny in early october?  Well, it's not quite so funny now, especially since she's 15 1/2 months and not standing on her own.  I mean, not standing without considerable support from me, and panicking about 5 seconds in.  In mid- December, we got her evaluated by an infant educator and an early intervention physical therapist.  She is at or above age level in all areas of development.  

Except for her gross motor skills.  That's right, she is classified as "severe orthopedic delay"  She's at a 7 month level.  Ouch.  So, we started with some exercises that the assessing PT gave us, and we've had one in-home visit.  I've already seen a lot of improvement, she is starting to pull herself to stand when I have her in a stable seated position.  But this was a first.  

 I removed the crib mobile and lowered the bed at like 6 months of age, turns out, I needn't have worried about that so soon, as she didn't decide to stand up in her crib until this morning, at 15 1/2 months.  

 See how her little toes are on top of each other?  It's like she just locked her knees and by sheer force of will and arm strength she pulled herself up there.  

She was pretty proud.  And so was I.  But she was glad when I rescued her, standing up like that is hard work!!!!