Therapy!

Shortly after Oren was released from the NICU, I got a call at home from from an Early Childhood Intervention worker, who we shall call Mrs. K. (She might even be reading, I gave her the address to this blog. If so, hey lady!)

Mrs. K said that the NICU had contacted the ECI center about Oren's case, and she asked to set up a meeting to meet us and assess his individual needs. It went really well, I immediately got along well with her, and Oren has also taken a shine to her. Although he does take a little while to warm up to her during each visit, because he is a shy baby, he is always grinning and babbling towards the end of the visit.

We talked about where he was, where he needed to be, and what we should do to get him there. I can't speak for anyone else's experiences with physical therapy workers, but I know that the two gals that have come to work with Oren have both been fantastic, sensitive, caring ladies. They have really taught me a lot about how to work with Oren each day, to stretch and exercise his little muscles, how to encourage him to use his weak side and support his weight, and how to not be too stressed and worried about it all. They reassure me that, from a professional standpoint, they think I am doing a very good job, which is good to hear now and then. Plus, they usually laugh at my lame jokes, so that's a plus.

With a lot of hard work, Oren has definitely made a great change. At two months old, he pretty much stared off to the right all day - his neck muscles seemed almost frozen! - with his little arms brought up to his chest. That was pretty scary, and it took time and creativity to loosen up those muscles, but now he has full range of motion in his neck! He's using his right arm a little more each day, and we are still working on the flexibility there, and on his grasping and holding. Once he figures out he can pinch me with his right hand - twice the pinching, oh no! - I am so in trouble.

Now, at eleven months, he babbles, scoots, rolls, sits, throws spitty toys at me when I type on the laptop, interacts with his toys, and also laughs at my lame jokes. He also laughs when I do the cabbage patch, but I think anybody would laugh at that.

He is trying very hard to crawl, and Mrs. K and I are thinking and hoping that, within the next couple of months, he'll be doing it!

Which means I seriously need to clean up this room. But not right now, because he is getting rather mad at me for still typing.