Sunday, August 9, 2015

The Quiet, Analytical Type


For the last month, Chris and I have been saying to each other “we need to update the blog”, but July went by in a blur and now we are almost 10 days into August. I guess I now truly understand why my mom says she doesn't remember anything from the 80's (due to raising 3 kids). Here is an overdue update on little Miss Bexley:

Physical Therapy: Bex continues to slowly, but surely, make strides with her gross motor skills.  She has gotten more efficient and quicker with her commando crawling (pulling her body with her arms) and we are working to get her to progress to a belly crawl (pulling with her arms and using her legs while scooting on her belly).  She is able to hold herself in the sitting position for longer periods of time, so our next step is helping her learn how to get into and out of the sitting position independently. Yesterday, she actually just started getting herself out of sitting by herself. Yay Bexley!! Gross motor activities take a lot of hard work and effort on her part due to her low muscle tone.  She requires a lot of extra work, practice, and repetition to accomplish things that come so naturally to most of us, so it is just amazing to watch her accomplish something new. 



 Neurology: Bex had a follow-up with neurology at the end of July. It went as well as those appointments can go. As always, he mentioned how observant and curious Bex is about her environment. He even described her as the “quiet, analytical” type, which is about spot on. Bex is one observant little girl and is always taking everything in about her environment. For an IS kid, he said she is in the top 50% of IS patients he sees, so he was pleased with her overall progress and awareness. There was some discussion of other potential diagnoses in the future, but at this point, we just continue to watch her and see how her development progresses. We go back in 6 months and for that appointment, we will just see the nurse practitioner. 

SMO’s: Bex’s physical therapist has recommended that we have her fitted for SMO’s, which are orthotics for her feet. Due to her low muscle tone, she tends to roll her ankles when we do any work with her in the standing position. These will help to stabilize her feet and ankle, which should allow her muscles in her legs to work more efficiently. If I am completely honest, this one has been a little hard for me because I hate the idea that my little girl will have to wear something that makes her “different” from other kids. At this point, she is too young to realize that, but one day she won’t be and that is something that I worry about.  However, as we mentioned in our New Year’s Resolution blog, we work hard to live in the moment.  We plan to help Bex embrace this “difference” by buying her a few pairs of super cute shoes to wear with her SMO’s. :) 

Speech Therapy: Bex started speech therapy last month.  She receives speech on a bi-weekly basis.  Since she started weaning off the Topamax, Chris and I both noticed that Bex was understanding more and more of what we were saying to her.  We are looking forward to getting more tips and ideas about how to further develop her speech and language skills. 

Big Sister: People ask all the time about how Bex has adjusted to being a big sister.  For the most part, she enjoys and is curious about her little brother.   At times, she gets jealous when she wants my attention, but his needs are taking priority at the moment.  However, if she is in a good mood, she loves saying “hi” to him, watching what he is doing, or laughing when he spits up all over me, ha. When he is crying in his car seat or stroller, we often catch her peeking over to check on him, which is sweet.

 That pretty much sums up the past several months for Team Bex.  We will try to get better at posting more frequent updates...that is, if the kiddos let us!