PT and OT and we're OK

Melody is now in the midst of 4 weeks of "active" physical therapy. This means we go 2 mornings a week for PT and one for occupational therapy. Thankfully, OT is right after PT so it saves us a trip. Both the therapists are great, so that is a blessing. We have been through bunches of evaluation and just had Melody's yearly evaluation with the Early Intervention program. They also send a teacher out to our home once a week. So, three mornings a week Melody is hard at work.

All this hard work is definitely paying off. We are working on core strength and today Melody was laying on her belly and pushed herself up to sitting with her arms! We improve her trunk strength by having her sit on a therapy ball and reach for things as she balances. She has pretty good strength already but mostly just loves to bounce on the ball.

The assessments all want to know if Melody waves bye-bye. She has just started doing that some. However, she has been giving high fives much longer. She finally has a word, "hi" and boy is it clear. She babbles a lot, but this is the first one you can identify in context. She has begun clapping her hands, too. At Disneyland last week she was clapping for the Aladdin show and all through It's A Small World she "danced" in my arms. She rocks back and forth in time to the music.

In therapy they give her lots of toys to play with, but true to her personality, Melody is more interested in all the people there. If someone walks by or talks in the hall, she is distracted from her activity.

I have stretching activities to do with Melody's legs daily as well as sitting up and rolling over exercies. She is getting pretty strong and able to roll over, however, the biggest hindrance is when her legs go straight out to the side making it impossible to roll over. She still doesn't like being on her tummy unless it is for sleeping, but she is getting better and stronger. She pushes herself backward with her arms.

She is pretty determined, so when she wants something, she'll work for it. Trying to get her to want the same things the therapist wants is sometimes a challenge, though.

Therapy is a lot of time and a lot of work trying to keep up with our home exercise routine. Sometimes it can be overwhelming, especially realizing this is a long term activity, not a short-term one. However, we take it one day at a time and are thankful for the progress she is making.