Progress

Last week was a discouraging one here at the Raine Drop. Declan started his home therapy and it was kind of a bust. He had a new therapist who did a whole new assessment on him, and it was not good. There was a long list of things he couldn't do and a very short list of things he could do. But what was even more discouraging was that everyone was stumped as to how to help him.

I get the feeling that Declan has been the focus of more than one staff meeting at the therapists' offices. They have a whole bunch of exercises and routines that they usually do for babies with this kind of physical delay, but usually babies with a delay this severe also have cognitive impairments. Declan, however, is sharp as a tack, so he sees right through all the little tricks they try and figures out an alternate way to do what they want him to do without having to actually move the way they want him to. It's excellent news that he does not have any delay or impairment besides the GIANT PHYSICAL ONE, of course, but it's also frustrating that he's too smart for his therapy!!

In the end, we were left with a list of things to do with him to help strengthen his core, so if the day ever comes when he might try to crawl or walk, he'll have the strength to do it. Think crunches and other lame ab exercises for babies. He hates them, and we don't see any progress, which makes it hard for us to continue to do them with him, while he screams his head off the entire time.

I think the hardest part of Mr. Sedentary's journey to date has been the comparison with Talia. Talia was a late walker, so we weren't terribly concerned with Declan's lack of movement. But Talia could at least do all the little things babies need to be able to do before moving. She had all the building blocks, so to speak, and when we had her assessed "just in case" everyone agreed: she was fine. In Declan's case, he has very few of the building blocks and NOBODY is saying that he's fine, which is really all any parent wants to hear about their kid.

Anyway, to our surprise, this week has been really great. Declan is belly sliding around backwards and rolling to get where he wants to go. He seems to be curious and wants to get into things, which is good for 2 reasons: first, that means that eventually he will (hopefully) want to move or get to something badly enough that he'll really crawl/walk, and secondly, that means his lack of movement for so many months hasn't hurt his cognitive development, which was the initial concern of the first therapist. So that's good news.

A few nights ago he wedged himself in between the toy box and the bookshelf where we keep the electronic/musical toys, and was able to push a lot of buttons and make a big ruckus. Look how pleased he was with himself: