PT - OT and more PT

Well, Mason had his first set of casts put on earlier this week. And, much to our surprise, he did really well during the casting process. It took about an hour and with the help of many plastic animals, a Barney book and a Thomas the Tank Engine book, we got it done.

The big hurdle for us was going to be the 'setting up' time. The casts take about 2-3 hours to completely set and require that Mason doesn't walk on them or bang them in any way. Well, as you can imagine, after sitting for an hour he was ready to run when the process was over. The therapist let him down to take a few simple "practice steps" then had us scoop him up. He wasn't happy about that, but we whisked him into his car seat and took a trip to the Mall so we could push him in the stroller for a couple of hours (dinner, window shopping etc). He quickly learned that heavy casts make for some good loud noises when banging against a stroller - Yikes -.



All in all he did really well the first night - but after walking with them all day Wednesday he was in a pretty foul mood about the whole thing - He asked over and over to have them taken off and gave us a really LONG night of crying. In fact, he was loud enough that Emmi was also awake...Ugh. We suspect that he was feeling a lot of aching and maybe some pain from not only the weight, but also having his feet flexed into a position that they've never been in before. Thursday night he was only up twice....So we think he's slowly adjusting to having them around.

We'll remove them on Monday night, then we'll go back for the next set on Tuesday when she'll insert a lift under his toes to further the stretch. After one day of freedom we suspect that that round of casting might not go as smoothly.





On Wednesday, not only did he have his first full day with the casts, but also his first session of Occupational Therapy. He loved it - lots of new toys and exercises he can do to help with his sensory integration issues. We learned that he'll need what's known as a 'Sensory Diet' that includes activities for stimulation and also for calming. As you might imagine things like jumping, catching heavy objects, swinging, using a Sit & Spin, Rolling down hills are all things to help with the active portion, while things like pulling and pushing interlocking beads, squishing balls, being squished between pillows, rolling on a yoga ball, drinking thick liquids through a straw and Play-Doh are all things that will help to calm him.
we've already picked up a few of the calming toys that we can bring with us on our upcoming trip to Bethlehem to see Ben. Oh 7 hours in a car could be a VERY long trip!

Emmi had her 4 month check-up on Friday. And, guess what? She's going to need some PT as well!! That's right - she'll be seeing a therapist to help with some tight neck cords that have her favoring her right side. She ALWAYS looks to the right...she can move her head toward the left but doesn't like to and therefore, that preferential choice has her cords on the left side of her neck tightening up. In turn, it's altering her spine a bit which is throwing off her hip placement to some degree. The Dr. suggested an evaluation with a therapist that specializes in infants to have a further evaluation done. He feels pretty confident that by working her neck the other joints will fall into place as her muscles get more toned and strong. We hope he's right.

Her Reflux is still going strong and though she is growing, she's dropped off the weight curve a bit from all the spitting up. She now weighs 13.3 pounds which brings her from the 60th percentile down to the 40th. However, she is now 24" long which actually brings her up in length from the 34th to the 40th percentile in that category. Perhaps she's more even now???
The other measurement is head circumference - at her 2 month check-up she measured 14.75" placing her in the 15th percentile, which dropped her from the 40th at her prior visit. The Dr said not to worry at that point and that we would see how she was progressing at 4 months. Well her head did grow...but not as much as we'd hoped. She's now 15.5" placing her in the 10th percentile, a 5% drop. The Dr did a very thorough skull exam and still feels like things are OK. Again, they will continue to monitor it and hope to see some good growth at her 6 month visit.



Gee, other than that - we have 2 great kids!!! So looks like our late winter schedule will include lots of trips to Doctors and therapists, but we are very optimistic that they'll both be doing well when all is said and done.