Kaelyn's appointment went well...it offered us a lot of insight into what we should and shouldn't expect of her at this stage in her development. Our appointment was at 9:30 and we arrived on time, at 9:15. By 10, we still had not been seen and I was getting a little anxious. Finally, a physical therapist approached us in the waiting room, and asked us if we were there for Kaelyn. I said "yes" and she asked us why we hadn't signed in...um...we had. Supposedly, the receptionist was supposed to inform them the minute we got there. For this testing, they don't want the babies hanging out in the waiting room for too long. We soon found out why.
Testing takes about two hours all together. This long period of time encroached on Kaelyn's usual feeding and nap time...as would be the case for most babies. Hence, not making them wait, which would increase the time when they were alert and not frustrated.
We started with the physical therapist. She explained that they never used to see babies that were born past 34 weeks, but were finding that some of the things that developed later in pregnancy could cause an "imbalance" with the babies. I forget what this imbalance is. It has something to do with how their backs are stronger than their stomachs...true for all babies, but it's more pronounced in preemies. As she was explaining all of this to us, she was giving Kaelyn toys to play with. Kaelyn was sitting on my lap pulled up to a table. I was aware that she was watching everything that both of us did. Kaelyn chatted up the PT as well as lookto Roger and me with excitement when she got a new toy. She played with the toys well, followed them when they fell, reached for them, and threw them. I knew she was doing well.
As we neared the end of the "playing" session, Kaelyn started getting fussy. She was hungry and it was time for her nap. She was rubbing her eyes and I asked the PT what we could do for her...the answer...nothing. We moved to the floor to see her sit up, roll over, and stand on her legs Kaelyn does all these things at home. She sat with no problem, but because she was tired, didn't want to play with any more toys. She rolls over all the time at home...I mean all the time, but once she was put on her back, she just wanted to sleep. She rolled to her side, but didn't roll over all the way. She doesn't love being on her stomach, so it didn't surprise me that she didn't want to roll over on her tummy when she was tired and hungry. On her stomach, she did better...as soon as she was flipped over, she rolled back on her back and started scooting, on her back, towards Roger, who had her bottle. The PT told us that back scooting needed to be discouraged, since her stomach muscles are weaker. We want her to scoot on her stomach and strengthen those.
She refused to stand at all. Kaelyn does put weight on her legs, but I have to admit, not often. Sometimes, when I'm holding her, she will bear down on my lap and and attempt to crawl over my shoulder, but if try to stand her up, she mostly lifts her legs up and refuses. I don't know why. Sometimes she does it, but mostly not.
The PT part of the test was over. Next it was to see a nurse for an exam. We waited just five minutes for this, but once we gave Kaelyn her bottle, she was out. We had to wake her up for the second part of the exam. Luckily, she woke up happy, but again, refused to put much weight on her legs. The nurse observed her bearing down on me while I was holding her, but apparently, she doesn't get "credit" for that. Her exam went well. She is healthy and has no apparent neurological problems we need to worry about. The nurse gave us the results of her testing, which put her at advanced in language and fine motor skills...even for an 8 month old (she was tested as if she were 6 months old). But, they said she is slightly delayed in gross motor skills...she would be on par according to what I reported to them, but from what they observed, she needs work on this. The nurse said there was no reason that she could see from her exam for Kaelyn not to be putting weight on her legs. She is strong, bears down on them often when I'm holding her or she's on her back. She has good form and did roll over for the nurse. They gave us some exercises we could do with her to help her develop these muscles more.
Bottom line...Kaelyn does not need to return to the clinic for additional testing or PT. She is fine. We do need to be seen twice more, which is mandatory for this program...the next time we go is in Feb 2011. Roger and I need to be more strict about her tummy time and they are sure that she will be crawling in no time if we do this. Kaelyn has a strong personality and they said that she will get frustrated when she tries to do something her body is not ready to do...we have observed this. She will cry, but we need to let her keep trying to do things despite her frustration. It is what she wants...and this makes sense to me. I see her strain to get her knees under her and then she cries when she can't do it. If I roll her back over on her back, thinking she's tired of being on her tummy, she cries even more...and then rolls back on her stomach to continue crying and screaming. I didn't understand this until the nurse and PT explained it to me. It's not that she doesn't want to be on her tummy, she does...she cries out of frustration because she's trying to crawl and can't.
So, there's my understaning. I get it now. I need more patience. That will be harder for me than crawling is for Kaelyn.
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