Therapy Updates (from September)

This post was written a couple months ago, but I hadn't posted it yet: 
On August 6^th Emma got a new Physical Therapist named Tricia (her third one since last August because Grace moved back up North at the end of March, and Lara recently went on maternity leave). It’s been seven weeks and I finally met Tricia yesterday since she always happens to be available on a day that I’m working. Michael says she is “aggressive” with how she does therapy, but in a good way, like she’s making Emma work even harder. With Grace, Emma’s main part of learning was being able to balance while sitting and being able to pull herself up into a sitting position with us holding her hands, and she always makes a strained workout face as she clenches her baby abs. Haha! With Lara, Emma learned how to support herself with her forearms and then push up with her hands. With Tricia, Emma has finally become comfortable with tummy time (which Grace and Lara also practiced with her each week, but it often made her cry and she would let her head drop) and can now support her upper body in a yoga “cobra pose” for about 5-10 seconds!! I call it a seal pose. While I was getting ready to leave work on August 13^th, Michael sent me pictures of Emma supporting herself with her head up. He said he just looked over from the couch and she was doing it on her yoga mat. I almost started crying when I saw the pictures! We are so proud of her and her tiny biceps!! 

Tricia also was working with her on sitting up on her own when she is laying on her stomach with her legs forward and her feet by her shoulders (benefits of Genu-Recurvatum/ backwards bending knees and hip dysplasia, haha). She’ll take her hands in front of her and walk them back, raising her upper body until she is mostly in a sitting position, then leans her head back or put one arm up to pull the rest of her body up until her back is straight. She does it that way since her short arms can’t reach the ground when she’s sitting up all the way. We're still working on this.

Emma gets Speech Therapy twice a week and Physical Therapy once a week, but we (along with her therapists) felt like it would be beneficial if she could also get OT/ Occupational Therapy to work on her various needs and help improve her cognitive, sensory, and motor skills. I called the therapy coordinator and she came and talked to Michael on July 23^rd. He told her why it is important for Emma to have extra therapy (because she is over 2 years old and still can’t do many things that a 6 month old probably can!), even though that company says they usually don’t give kids more than two types of therapy at a time. But most kids also don’t have primordial dwarfism, nor were they in the NICU for 11 months.. She had her OT evaluation on August 14^th and started actual therapy with Lisa on August 22^nd. (I'll talk more about that in the next post.)

Other exciting notes of things Emma has learned ~ On the night of July 28^th she began picking up items off the ground in front of her, while sitting. Before that she only held items (or would put them to her mouth, then throw them) if we handed something to her, but she picked up those colorful ducks all on her own!! She is also able to move herself in her “standing thing”. I really don’t know what else to call it. The other day (in September) Michael and I were making homemade pretzels in the kitchen so I had her facing us, and when I looked over a few minutes later she had turned herself 180 degrees to face the window! I guess we were kissing too much and grossed her out. Haha! I was amazed, but Michael nonchalantly told me, “She’s been doing that for a while.” But Wednesday was the first time I had seen it, and I haven’t actually seen her move herself, I just saw the Before and After.