New Routine

After qualifying for OT at the children's hospital once a week, in addition to the weekly PT appts we already go to every Thursday, we decided it was time for a little soul searching.

At the time of our decision, Sophia was getting a b23 appt every Tuesday, alternating between her teacher and her PT.  On Wednesdays we were going to a local gym/naturopath/physical therapist place for hour long private sessions, and then on Thursdays we make the trek into the city to see our favorite person of the week, our CCMC PT.

Now we were adding a 4:00 pm appt on Tuesday afternoons. I'm awesome, but I'm not that awesome.

People in my life (my husband, my mom, my best friend) asked me what was working the best, what I thought was the most valuable use of our time. There is no doubts in my mind that I made the right decision. I decided to go to Hartford every Tuesday and Thursday to get her therapy hours there. They are the best of the best and I knew that she was in the best hands there. They also TALK to each other, which is amazing :) I feel really confident that Sophia will excel from this routine.

Not only is her team at CCMC amazing (shameless plug, but I will keep doing it), her PT talked to the one of developmental pediatricians and was able to get us an appointment on July 31st, so much sooner than we hoped. She turns 2 on July 27th, so those two things are what we are most looking forward to next month!!!

OT Evaluation

Shortly after the X-rays and the Orthopedist appointment, we had another new experience. Our wonderful PT at CCMC had us go for an Occupational Therapy Evaluation (OT for short). This was a lot like her PT eval, just showing off what she could do and what she hasn't quite yet mastered.

Sophia IS doing such a better job with new people, and adapting to new experiences, but she was still a little hesitant, and demonstrated some "avoidance behaviors". She did her "temper tantrum" (laying on the floor in a "I can't do it" attitude) a couple times. I personally thought she should be used to cognitive testing at this point but ya know, she's 22 months old! She also acted a little tired even though she had a great nap. Must be exhausting :-)

The testing went well in my opinion, but when I got back the report, I was little surprised to see things like "attention problems" and "difficulty staying on task"- again, I personally chalk up a lot of to her AGE... but of course these are snap shots and they DID, at testing time, comment how smart she is... I have a very hard time imagining her on the autism spectrum, or having any cognitive problems, because of her brain power- multiple people have told me that she is quite smart- so I'm not just biased, I promise! 

Lately, though, I have started noticing small differences between her and other chilren. Not that it matters, and obviously I'm talking about more than just the glaringly obvious Not Walking part. 

I also have a hard time talking about the potty with her. She seems eager and has the vocabulary down pat, but it is my personal issues that I'm coping with - both losing my little baby (wahhh) and secondly, Do I want to be carrying a toddler to the potty 50 times a day? Of course she has her little potty, but she seems scared of the giant frog eating her peepee LOL!!! I am *trying* to let her do more things on her own.... so she will scoot to where she needs to be, or we walk by me holding her hands. She's supposed to be bearing weight on both hips so she reaches for a lot more things, or bends down, or shifts her weight, or whatever it is that she's doing much more often (before I would help her, get it for her... etc). If you say "crawl" she automatically switches to her hands and knees crawl (aka "creep") and then almost as a joke starts scooting at the end like "haha this is faster see ya later mom". 

Dressing her has become increasingly difficult..... as you can imagine we are outside a lot now in the nice weather and it pains me to imagine her legs all scraped up.. so she's in jeans if we are on the black top or playground, and sneakers, which get dragged to SHREDS unfortunately but what can ya do... 

Right now we are on vacation in Maine :-) She's doing a great job but I can't help but worry about when my uncle and cousins get here. She's going to have a tough time acclimating to that, and I know my youngest cousin will want to be all over her, something Sophia just doesn't tolerate. She's in BabyLegs 

 and just a diaper here because I'm so worried she'll get splinters or gravel embedded in her skin or some other such malady LOL. 

Orthopedist

Sorry for the long break in updating. SO much has happened in the month or two since I last blogged!

We went to the Orthopedist for the first time on May 21, 2013 at our B23 PT's recommendation to have all things checked out, if just to rule them out. Sophia saw a "mini-team" there and after seeing her do some standing and sitting and whatever else they looked at, asked to have her hips x-rayed again. She last had them x-rayed at 15 months old and there were no irregularities found. Because she was 22 months old now those xrays were considered "old" and so we went over to Radiation Blast to have them updated (*big pouty face*) Luckily we were called quickly and it was over in a matter of seconds, and we were able to meet back with the doctor right away. (Have I mentioned I love this hospital? I do). So her Orthopedist told us that her hips are immature for her age, which is to be expected with this severe a delay. She goes back to their office in March of 2014 for a re-check/ another x-ray to see how she develops.

A little Cruising in Maine - June 1, 2013

Here's a clip of Sophia doing some "running" with one hand on the couch and one hand holding a cookie ;-)