Blessed by Two: February 2009

Well actually lots of therapy. The last 4 months Lorelei has been in physical and feeding therapy. It is a weekly event for us and so I thought I should write about it since we do it so often! Every Thursday morning we head over bright and early to Children's Healthcare for some therapy. Lorelei starts with Ms. Erin, a speech therapist, who works with her on feeding issues. Since Lorelei has been labeled "failure to thrive" our pediatrician wanted her to get some help. At first we thought it might be a motor issues, not being able to chew, etc., but we have found that Lorelei's issues are behavior related. Of course it all goes back to her problems as an infant with reflux and the feeding tube. She has learned that food is not a fun thing so we are reteaching her that it is actually is fun to eat! So each week I bring food that Lorelei will not eat or foods that she fights with us about (usually dinner from the night before) and Ms. Erin works on getting Lorelei to eat it. She has all kinds of strategies. Many involve letting Lorelei earn something for every 3 bites she takes. Things such as toys to play with while she eats, fruit snacks, or another food she enjoys. She is not allowed to spit food out anymore or throw it from the table. We have come a long way! Ms. Erin has done a great job and of course I am always shocked each week to see what Lorelei will eat for her! We began with Lorelei spitting food out or barely tasting something to now eating full meals for her. This morning Lorelei ate chicken, mashed potatoes, okra and yogurt! And a actual serving of these foods not just a few bites.

We are pleased with Lorelei's progress and she has gained 4 pounds since the end of October. Yeah!!! Our goal is to get her to want to eat a variety of foods without the use of appetite stimulants (meds) and bribery! So, she is doing well and the GI doctor we saw Tuesday was fairly pleased with her weight gain. Still no gain in height but they said she would have to gain weight consistently for 6 months before we saw a difference there.

Ok, after feeding therapy we head over to see Ms. Christy in physical therapy. This is our second "episode of care" as they call it with Ms. Christy. Lorelei also had therapy last year with her. Anyway, this year we are working on jumping, running, walking up down the stairs, and other strengthening exercises. Lorelei is doing really well with Ms. Christy too! She can jump now, yeah! She is doing great on the steps, she can ride a tricycle, and is speed walking now too, almost a run, but not quite! During physical therapy Lorelei works on jumping on the trampoline and jumping off a big wedge, walking up and down stairs alternating legs, using her abs on the exercise ball, using squatting and standing up skills in a variety of games/exercise, riding the bide and ride on toy, jumping forward and some others as well.

Lorelei is totally fascinated with Ms. Christy because she is like 35 weeks pregnant and Lorelei cannot get over her belly. She is constantly wanting to see the baby in her belly! Soon Ms. Christy will go on maternity leave and Lorelei will begin occupational therapy for some sensory issues that Ms. Christy has noticed.

Lorelei adores her therapists and looks forward to going each week. I can't say that she fully cooperates each week but I think she does pretty well for 2 hours of therapy. We are so thankful to have these therapists and these opportunities to help Lorelei reach her full potential. We are so blessed to see how far God has brought our little Princess!

Here are a few pictures from today. I was limited in taking pictures because they are not legally allowed to take action shots- something about lawsuits? So here are the ones I was allowed to take!