Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Therapy again

Today we had PT again and Rhys did very well. The PT keeps saying how much he's progressed in the few short weeks she's been working with him. He is almost rolling over from his back to stomach (basically he can get about 2/3 the way over), but he still hasn't figured out how to get his arm out from underneath him. He constantly has his hands in his mouth now and he is trying more and more to put things in his mouth, but he still isn't 100% coordinated enough to hit the mark and this makes him frustrated. His head control continues to improve and he is sitting while assisted quite well. As I thought, he is quite the chatter box since he started talking - and this is something else I can say he gets quite honestly.

On the flip-side of PT we had a pretty terrible session with speech today. He didn't want his bottle at all and was pretty fussy from the prior hour of PT. Speech recommended forgetting the spoon for the next week and letting him explore food with his hands and let him make a mess! The concern is that he might develop an aversion to things being on his face or near his mouth since he's had the cannula for a while and has made it his life's mission to get it off his face and out of his nose. Yesterday and today I have left the tape off in an effort to make this somewhat better. It is only a little harder to keep in his nose, but he doesn't seem to fight it quite so much even though he still wants the prongs out! So, we are going to strip him down to his diaper and see how much of a mess he can make. I am thinking it will take him a while, since it took him a while to relax with the bath and get his hands in the water. Oh well, gotta start somewhere.

Lastly, I have noticed in the last day or two that Rhys is startling very easily. This has never been a problem being that he spent the first 5.5 months of his life surrounded by the constant noise of beeps, buzzers and talking. Is this normal? Anyone??

1 comment:

Emily said...

I don't know that I've commented before but I've read for a long time. My micro was in the NICU for 8mos and despite all of the noise she was accustomed to there, shortly after coming home she began to develop sensory issues. One of the things we noticed was an increased sensitivity to noise. She startled unbelievably easily. We'd be at Church and the singing would startle her and make her burst out in tears. I have heard of numerous micro preemies that startle easy even after they spent months in the NICU.

I also wanted to just give you the link to an awesome yahoo group specifically for micro preemie moms, the majority of which blog. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PreemieBlogMoms/