Monday, May 31, 2010

May birthdays

May is a busy month for birthdays. My best friend (since kindergarten), two more really great friends, my cousin, my nephew. And last, but certainly never least, Cody. He joined the dirty thirty club last week.

Zoe telling Dad happy birthday.

This is me and Rhys playing at his cousin's birthday party. Rhys didn't like it or dislike it. It was a little hot outside and there was a lot going on so I'm not sure he was paying much attention to the jungle gym. Yeesh! Seeing this picture has made me seriously motivated to lose the last of my baby weight. My pre-pregnancy bottoms still don't fit really well and I'm tired of wearing maternity clothes. Even though they are maybe the most comfortable thing on the planet aside from PJs.

Our little porker is starting to show her personality. She's s paying more attention to her surroundings and is beginning to watch the mobile and toy bar on her bouncy seat. We're in that period where she is increasingly awake more but isn't able to do much. So she wants to be held. She has made a bit of a schedule for herself recently. After bedtime of about 10 p.m. she usually sleeps between 5 and 7 hours, wakes up to eat and then goes back to sleep. This pattern continues for most of the day. Around 5 p.m., luckily when Cody gets home so I have help, she is a pill. She is completely awake and is a wild woman until bedtime.

Rhys got his first (of many I'm sure) scrape last weekend. He fell on the concrete while sitting on someone's lap (who was sitting on the ground). It wasn't too bad but it still upset me. Because of his not so great motor skills he didn't catch himself and hit the side of his face. If he'd been running and tripped it'd be different. But this is my baby lacking the ability/know-how/whatever-you-want-to-call-it to prevent that from happening and it is incredibly frustrating. Even by preemie "standards" he is horribly behind. But, I can't let myself compare because he is doing good things. In addition to banging toys he recently began putting items into a container. And he has also started reaching across his body with his right hand to grab things. He can sit for brief periods of time, but when his attention is focused on an object he quits concentrating on sitting and he topples to one side or the other.

Because of Rhys's delays we have him in every therapy we possibly can get for him. We have a standing PT appointment weekly, vision every other week, and the new speech pathologist will be once a week when that gets started. On top of that we see the ECI coordinator once a month and the nutritionist every other month. That's a lot of therapy. I'm not complaining but that is our life. Constant therapy, with the therapists themselves and with us all other times. But despite of all the therapy he gets, and it's a lot, I sometimes feel like he needs more. Since last summer I've been wanting to get Rhys into equine therapy. I've heard fantastic things about it. But, the earliest they will start is age 2. Our neighborhood has a horse stable, and they offer equine therapy, but not the type Rhys would require. So I'm going to call around and see if I can find another location that isn't across town that has it. I don't know if Rhys would enjoy it, but I'd like to see what it could do for him. We've always been willing to try anything and are always looking for something else to help Rhys.

Have any of you had any experience with equine therapy? I'd like to get some feedback if anyone has any.

1 comment:

Justine, Romy's Mama said...

We've looked into equine or hippotherapy too. We live on a tiny island and there's only one program available and they say Romy is still too small. How is Rhys around water? I was thinking about getting Romy into aquatic therapy to help get her stronger, maybe it would be something beneficial for Rhys too. The only non standard therapy she's in right now is music therapy and it's been really great so far. She really gets vocal and "sings" and instrument playing really motivates her fine motor skills.