Jordan started therapy on April 25th. Betsy from Ken-O-Sha came to our house and we played on the floor with Jordan for just over an hour. It was very interesting to see what she could identify as things to work on just by watching her play. Tummy time is important for Jordan because she still likes to lay there and suck her fingers. I am also working on bringing her up to a crawling position. The big exercise ball is lots of fun for her to be on her tummy because it's not as boring as the floor. Jordan pushes up for short (5-10 second) periods but then goes back to those yummy fingers. We even tried putting socks on her hands to stop her!!
This past week, Betsy and I worked on Jordan banging 2 toys together. It was interesting to see that Jordan does things simultaneously but has a hard time doing separate things. She kicks her lets together but not in bicycle style. She will grab 2 toys together but can't hold 1 toy and grab another. We also tried to get Jordan to put a small ball in a container. She only got it a couple of times but it was fun to work with her on it. It's also a fun activity to play with her now! Jordan also has a very difficult time crossing her midline - she doesn't reach across herself to grab something. We worked with her on that and found that it is easier for her to cross her right over left than left over right - that's something I continue to work with her on.
Yesterday Jordan had her first feeding therapy at Mary Free Bed. I was kinda overwhelmed when the therapist brought us into the room and 3 additional therapists came in. They started by weighing her - she was about 14 lb 6 oz. and 25.6 in. (coming from memory). They plotted her on the growth chart based on previous weights from the Dr.'s office and her current weight and noticed a normal growth pattern up until about 4 months where things dropped off. I can't remember anything significant at that time that would have caused her to stop growing, but I believe that her development in all areas was fairly normal until about 4-5 months.
After that, they started feeding her and then asking me lots of questions. Jordan was hungry and did very well eating the bananas they fed her. One interesting thing they found was that if given normal spoonfuls, she would start to have congested breathing. If she was given an empty spoon and encouraged to swallow again, it would get better. When the amount of food on the spoon was reduced, she also didn't have so much congestion. This created some questions to whether we should have a swallow study done on her to see what is happening when she swallows.
The nutritionist and dietitian had lots of questions about how she nurses, eats, drinks from a bottle and sippy cup. They encouraged me to work toward getting her to eat the quantity a "normal" 10 month old eats - 3 meals a day, 2 snacks, and some milk from breast, bottle or sippy cup. This week we will be introducing a 3rd meal to her day to see how she does.
I am also considering stopping breastfeeding. I love the ability to feed her on the go and you can't beat the free cost!! However, I think that by switching to a bottle, I will be able to accurately determine how much she is getting. We even discussed just going straight to sippy cup for most milk with maybe only 1-2 bottles per day at this point.
Mostly we determined that we need to get more calories into Jordan. She's too tiny for her age and we need to see her grow. Please pray for her to eat, grow, and develop.
I am also unsure how much more I can fit into my days. I am supposed to do therapy with her several times a day for short periods but I find that I am so busy running around doing all the stuff that we are involved in or need to be done, that we aren't even home enough to have floor time several times a day. I will also now be trying to add another meal to our day. If she was an efficient eater, it might not be a problem, but she doesn't have much interest in eating and giving her small spoonfuls, it will take even longer. I figure that every meal will take 1/2 hr to 45 min. Hopefully, I will figure out how to make it work and as some of our school-year activities end, we should have more time.
I also want to ask for prayers for Conner. At his 3-year checkup, his doctor encouraged us to have him checked out for his speech. We will be having him evaluated next week. If he will need to start therapy, we will have to fit that into our schedule as well.
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