Therapy

So this weekend has been a lot of therapy.  Tuesday is Speech therapy day.  Our therapist came and I was wondering what she was going to with him.  She actually had him go in front of a mirror and she was trying to have him recognize himself.  I'm guessing from there she will get him to look at himself as he talks.  That, I'm sure, is farther down the line.  

We rented Baby Signing Time from the library to see if Baby GL would like it.  He sits in his Bumbo chair, in front of the computer and we play the video for him.  There is plenty of music and singing that it keeps his attention.  My mother and I have learned a lot from watching babies sign. It's really a great way to stimulate Baby GL's learning and communication skills.  I hope to continues liking it. The computer is not a new thing for Baby GL.  He talks to his grandparents daily in Albania through Skype.  Now that Daddy is there he talks to him and loves the interaction.

So today we had more therapy.  We met the Occupational therapist today.  She worked on his tummy time and his ability to cross the midline of his body.  That crossing and coming to the midline stimulates the left brain/right brain action which he needs to keep developing all his movements.  

Physical therapy was today, also.  We made sure to have a good nap in between.  She worked on many of the same thing as OT.  Still working on tummy time and reaching, side to side, front to back.  He gets so frustrated mid way through, but he's such a trooper.  As we've already known, his hamstrings are really tight which makes it difficult to sit up.  Those muscles force him to scoot his butt under himself so he would rather lay back than lean forward. We'll be working on our yoga together to work on that.  The nice thing about therapy is that he'll nap really well after. 

Baby GL has continually shown us how well he holds things. When he's hungry he'll grab for his bottle and bring it to his mouth. Since we use a heavy glass bottle I transferred some into one of the small bottles the therapists used in the hospital.  He did so great.  He took it to his mouth and held it there.  Then he let go and kept sucking as it flailed in the air like a pacifier.  It's progress.  

Something we've been working on over the last week was transitioning him on his feedings.  He was on 3.5 ounces of milk/formula 6 times a day.  So to avoid the late night feeding we tried 4.25 ounces 5 times a day to see how he'd do.  I was pleasantly surprised that he's done great with it. His first bottle is around 8am, sometimes earlier.  His last bottle is not 8pm, rather than 11pm.  We had a few stumbles getting there.  Increasing his feedings by that much took Baby GL a little while to get used to.  We've gotten really good at feeding him by his g-tube the moment he falls asleep to keep up.  Not a lot of vomiting so I think we've been quite successful.  I'm hoping to stay on this momentum of progress and work more into his spoon feedings.