PT Evaluation

Last week, EasternStar went for her physical therapy evaluation. It went well, despite the fact that she hated every minute of it! 8 ) Her basic diagnosis is muscle weakness, muscle incoordination, and difficulty walking. This is moslty stemming from a lack of strength and flexibility in her legs - specifically her hips. So, our goal over the next few weeks/months is to increase her flexibility in her hips by doing stretches and to increase the strength of her leg muscles. We think the cause is from how she learned to sit - she likes to sit with her legs wide open - almost in the splits!

She hates, hates, hates doing her stretches! But, we blew up on of our exercise balls, and she likes sitting on it and using her core to hold her up while I roll the ball around. We use the ball to help with some of her stretches and we are having "fun" trying to get her comfy laying on her belly.

As far as walking goes, she is getting more comfortable walking and holding on to just one of our hands, but she leans forward really far - almost as if she is bent in half and walking forward.

She is very curious and I think that once she has the flexibility and can get her body to move the way she wants it to, she will be off! She loves to go up and down steps, and in fact started climbing the stairs (on Strangers watch!) yesterday afternoon. We have two steps and then a landing and then the rest of the staircase. It takes her a while, but she can get herself up the steps and onto the landing! Of course, she refuses to go up stairs the way most babies do - on their knees. She insits on bending over and putting both hands on the ground then then - with a straight leg - putting her foot up on the next step. She almost leans over, almost totally to the ground on the opposite side trying to get a leg up.

We are going weekly to phsical therapy for now and taking it one week at a time.

As far as adjusting goes, I think she is settling in very nicely. She no longer wants to be held *all* of the time (although she still has her moments like all babies do!). She is exploring the house and she LOVES TinyDancer's baby collection. She picks up the babies and puts them on her shoulder and pats their backs. So cute! She still hasn't found the dogs food bowl or water dish - so thankful for that! She is always thirsty so I'm sure once she finds the, she'll be there a lot! 8 )

She is sleeping great - at least I think so! She doesn't cry or make any noise when she wakes up - she just sits in her crib and plays with her feet or her blankets. I checked on her one night at midnight and she was just kicking her legs in the air and sucking her thumb. I was like "What are you doing? I put you to bed 5 hours ago!" But, eventually she went back to sleep, so we'll take it! We rock her to sleep for a few minutes before we put her down and everytime she gives me this look like "This is more for you than for me - I don't need to be rocked!". But, I like rocking her and singing to her, so we keep doing it. Everytime I ask her if she is ready for bed she laughs and smiles and then she laughs as I put her in her bed.

She's learned to blow kisses - but only to me or TinyDancer. She blows me kisses after I tuck her in and while she is eating. Speaking of eating, that is the only area where we are struggling. 8 ) She is a junk food junkie! And picky like all toddlers. She will only eat Jennie-O turkey italian style meatballs. Not homemade meatballs. And not any other brand of meatballs. Only Jennie-O. And she will only eat chicken if it is in the form of a chicken nugget - fried. Luckily we are getting creative with hiding fruits and vegetables in the homemade versions of food that she will eat. (As a side note - anyone know how you can hide something healthy in a rice krispie treat? If so - do share!!) One of our neighbors gave her a rice krispie treat and now, just like oatmeal and yogurt, she MUST have a rice krispie treat every day. (Thanks Jen!)


Speaking of the little turkey, she has learned to stick out her tongue and make the PBBBBT! sound - and I hear her doing that now!