Danny's education continues to get in the way of my blogging efforts these days, as he always has to take the laptop with him to do research and write papers. I can't imagine that his degree is more important than my semi-daily updates...
I'm kidding.
But, I am way behind on my blogging, so I'm taking a little while to attempt to catch up.
You know, before the laptop disappears again!
Last Thursday, March 18th, Lydie had her formal assessment through the Alexandria Infant and Toddler program. They warned us that it could take up to three hours, but I thought that was more of an over-estimate just so we would be prepared to be patient. Well, at the 3 1/2 hour mark, I was no longer thinking they were being liberal with their estimate; rather, I was wondering if we'd ever be finished!
The first hour and a half was spent talking with the two therapists while they observed and tested Lydie in all areas of her development. She was definitely suspicious of them, but she only cried when one of them tried to pick her up. After that, she slowly came around and decided they might be okay people.
Many of the tests they initiated were ones we'd already been through before. I feel like I could be a developmental specialist or some sort of therapist after all this because I've seen what they do so much lately. I feel like I'm certainly capable of certification!
Once all the testing was over, the therapists left the room and went to another room to write up their reports. We waited and played and waited and drank a bottle and played some more.
Finally, they came back to report their findings to us and set a plan in motion to get Lydie on track.
Thankfully, the therapists determined that Lydie was at or above an age-appropriate skill level in all areas except gross motor skills. I was thrilled to find out that they didn't see any speech, adaptive, or cognitive delays. That means she'll only need physical therapy once a week until she's where she ought to be developmentally.
The physical therapist suggested that some of Lydie's gross motor issues could be because of slow inner ear development. Since she was so constipated early on, it was painful for her to be on her tummy very much (although we often tried). Part of tummy-time is necessary for muscle development, but the other part is to help with inner ear development and, as a result, the ability to move around and make physical transitions. Since she never stayed on her tummy much and since we were fairly careful with her, the physical therapist felt that a little rough-housing might do the girl some good.
In short, she gave us a prescription to wrestle and spin and flip and toss and basically do anything that might challenge Lydie's inner ears to make some progress. And, I'm thrilled to report that since the assessment last week and a healthy dose of treating the princess not so much like a fragile vase, she is standing on her feet and is trying her best to crawl.
Had I known that was all she needed, we'd have been having wrestling matches a long, long time ago!
We are optimistic that Lydie will catch-up before too long. In fact, her six month goal is that she'll be walking by August 18th. It almost brings tears to my eyes to think about! Seeing those first steps will be the result of a whole lot of work on the part of all of us close enough to work with her, but, boy oh boy, will those be the sweetest little steps we will have ever seen!! I just can't wait!
Now, we're in limbo as we wait for all the insurance paperwork to be completed so that the physical therapist assigned to us can get started. Technically, they have thirty days to begin her program, but we are hopeful that Lydie will begin therapy as early as late next week.
Words can't express how thankful we are for Lydie and how she's blessed our lives. She has certainly brought some interesting challenges to the table and forced Danny and I to stretch our parenting wings a bit, but that precious, dimple-faced girl is worth every single second. We are absolutely, head over heels in love with her. And, to prove it, we're gonna go throw her around a little bit...
I'm kidding.
But, I am way behind on my blogging, so I'm taking a little while to attempt to catch up.
You know, before the laptop disappears again!
Last Thursday, March 18th, Lydie had her formal assessment through the Alexandria Infant and Toddler program. They warned us that it could take up to three hours, but I thought that was more of an over-estimate just so we would be prepared to be patient. Well, at the 3 1/2 hour mark, I was no longer thinking they were being liberal with their estimate; rather, I was wondering if we'd ever be finished!
The first hour and a half was spent talking with the two therapists while they observed and tested Lydie in all areas of her development. She was definitely suspicious of them, but she only cried when one of them tried to pick her up. After that, she slowly came around and decided they might be okay people.
Many of the tests they initiated were ones we'd already been through before. I feel like I could be a developmental specialist or some sort of therapist after all this because I've seen what they do so much lately. I feel like I'm certainly capable of certification!
Once all the testing was over, the therapists left the room and went to another room to write up their reports. We waited and played and waited and drank a bottle and played some more.
Finally, they came back to report their findings to us and set a plan in motion to get Lydie on track.
Thankfully, the therapists determined that Lydie was at or above an age-appropriate skill level in all areas except gross motor skills. I was thrilled to find out that they didn't see any speech, adaptive, or cognitive delays. That means she'll only need physical therapy once a week until she's where she ought to be developmentally.
The physical therapist suggested that some of Lydie's gross motor issues could be because of slow inner ear development. Since she was so constipated early on, it was painful for her to be on her tummy very much (although we often tried). Part of tummy-time is necessary for muscle development, but the other part is to help with inner ear development and, as a result, the ability to move around and make physical transitions. Since she never stayed on her tummy much and since we were fairly careful with her, the physical therapist felt that a little rough-housing might do the girl some good.
In short, she gave us a prescription to wrestle and spin and flip and toss and basically do anything that might challenge Lydie's inner ears to make some progress. And, I'm thrilled to report that since the assessment last week and a healthy dose of treating the princess not so much like a fragile vase, she is standing on her feet and is trying her best to crawl.
Had I known that was all she needed, we'd have been having wrestling matches a long, long time ago!
We are optimistic that Lydie will catch-up before too long. In fact, her six month goal is that she'll be walking by August 18th. It almost brings tears to my eyes to think about! Seeing those first steps will be the result of a whole lot of work on the part of all of us close enough to work with her, but, boy oh boy, will those be the sweetest little steps we will have ever seen!! I just can't wait!
Now, we're in limbo as we wait for all the insurance paperwork to be completed so that the physical therapist assigned to us can get started. Technically, they have thirty days to begin her program, but we are hopeful that Lydie will begin therapy as early as late next week.
Words can't express how thankful we are for Lydie and how she's blessed our lives. She has certainly brought some interesting challenges to the table and forced Danny and I to stretch our parenting wings a bit, but that precious, dimple-faced girl is worth every single second. We are absolutely, head over heels in love with her. And, to prove it, we're gonna go throw her around a little bit...
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