muscle training

Allie had her official assessment with the occupational therapist and the developmental specialist yesterday. I found out she is acting like a 10 month old in all areas except gross motor development. In that area she is acting as an 8 month old. She had to show a 3 month delay to qualify for official physical therapy. Since she did not, they showed me a bunch of things to work on with her myself. You see, my little acrobat has always put her legs straight out to the sides to push herself up from her stomach to sitting. She naturally sits with her legs going into the splits too.

Well, I am supposed to train her muscles to move with her knees together so that she will be able to pull herself up into a standing position and eventually walk. Her legs have gotten used to going out to the sides and they won't go forward unless they are retrained to do so. She now has a little phone book bench to practice sitting on with her knees together and her legs in front of her. She has to practice standing and sitting from her little bench. She wants to lean back and stiffen and instead she is supposed to lean forward and bend. All of the things that they showed me to work on seem like a really big task for me to take on. Plus there's the fact that Allie hates having her legs moved into a position that feels awkward to her. She cries the entire time. I worry that she won't want me to sit on the floor and play with her anymore because she will associate me with her muscle exercises.

Allie and her new physical trainer

The good news is that she has started standing on her own two feet and holding her own weight. She doesn't pull up all by herself, but at least we know she can stand and balance herself.

Todd moved her crib mattress down because she has started sitting up in bed. We didn't want our adventurous girl leaning too far over the rail and falling out! Tyler likes that he can now see her in the crib without getting his stool to stand on.