Physio - The Third Meeting

I am relieved to say that this meeting went much better than the first two!

See the second physio meeting wrap up here.

The physio immediately noted that Miss V's arms were held lower and more in front of her, her hands continue to become more and more open and she is one very chatty, smiley baby! As the assessment continued, she found that she reaches forward towards a ball, tries to grab at objects and is finally pushing up with her arms during tummy time!

Our mission for the next few weeks consists of:

1) Continuing the tummytime, trying to get her to reach far forward for objects (we can alternate with tummytime on the ball).

2) Playing with her on her back, trying to get her to reach for/grab a small ball.

3) Play sidelying trying to get her to reach for her toys and grab them (they should be large enough that her hand remains mostly open).

4) Generally hold her in an almost fetal position, while stimulating her pects do that she keep her arms forward. As she improves with this, we are to try to get her to use both hands to hold larger objects.

5) Try to get her to grab at her feet, by generally tapping them together, bringing her hands to her ankles, etc. This exercise is my favorite; she giggles so much when she sees her toes!!

Now that I have these exercises noted, I'll see back in two weeks how they have progressed.

All those exercises were hard work! Here is my sweety taking a much needed recovery nap!

Hihi, she looks like she is up to no good!

Xo

C

Physio - the second meeting

After a really great visit at Miss V's pediatrician's last week where we were told she was hitting her expected milestones for 2 1/2 months, we braced for her second physio appointment this week.

Her last physio and neurodevelopmental meeting had been tough. At 10 weeks corrected, we had though she was doing great: smiling, laughing, her eyes tracking toys left and right and even lifting her head up in prone (during tummytime). Boy did it feel like we were wrong... 

"Look at her hyperextension... she is favoring her left side... she doesn't have a stepping reflex... asymmetrical Gallant reflex... incomplete Moro..."

Ugh. Not words a mommy wants to hear on the first neurodevelopment evaluation! I was actually relieved to be told generally preemies require 5 times to amount of homework help time than term babies. All I could think was, "you mean she will be able to attend school?"

Lots of tummy time, positioning, holding in fetal position and hand integration later we braced ourselves for the second physio meeting. We were CAUTIOUSLY optimistic after the pediatrician's comments. We should have know better!

Yesterday's physio meeting sucked. We had for the last month insisted on doing 25-45 minutes of tummytime per day. There had been so many tears in the name of tough love. Turns out we were just encouraging Miss. V. to strenghthen her back extensors. It felt terrible to think those tears were not only in vain, but actually contributed to the problem. She is unexpectedly tight in her arms. We shouldn't expect to see any improvement anytime soon... Yet no one can comment at 2 1/2 months if there is an underlying pathology or if its just a little snag in preemie development that will resolve itself. Good points : she is opening her fists more and no longer seems to be favoring the left side.

Is it just me, or is a big gym full of noise and bright lights not the best environment to evaluate a sweet little preemie?

I was instructed not to read online. So of course I could not help myself... Of course the best study review I find says :

"Early signs of spastic quadriplegia include marked flexor hypertonia of the upper extremities with pronounced scapular elevation and retraction and increased extensor tonus of the lower extremities."

Double ugh. Did I mention I found this study at 4am. Needless to say, mommy slept very little last night.

All we can do now is to worry and wait while we're being told to enjoy the moment... Oh and exercise, exercise, exercise... Tummy time on a large ball, sitting arm integration and lots of hand stimulation. We managed to get another physio session in 2 weeks time instead of 4, you  know, just in case we somehow start stimulating the extensor tone again.

Here's hoping our third physio meeting will be better than the last two.

xo
C