Our Little Baby Blog

Abe Update

The last few days have been filled with some pretty hilarious attempts by Abe to get up on his legs/knees, reminding me that I should provide an update on Abe's progress overall. When we last left off, Abe had been referred to Early Intervention and we were awaiting assignment to a physical therapist.


This Tuesday will actually be our fourth visit from the physicial therapist (she comes every two weeks) and we are so incredibly pleased. First, it is inifinitely easier to have home-based therapy. The convenience. The ease. Abe's naps aren't interrupted with travel and Anna has her snacks, etc. right on schedule. Plus, I am so much more relaxed during the sessions, which means everyone around here is in a better mood and much more cooperative. While the therapist is here, Anna runs around being Anna and that allows Abe and me to focus on the movements and exercises. Oh it's so much better!


Our first major initiative was to get Abe to pivot. I've given him soooo much tummy time that he has really super strong back muscles. However, he tends to rely on them a bit too much and his core is quite weak. (yes, I know it's hilarious to be talking about core strength with an eight month old baby :-) Abe wasn't using his hands to push himself up, instead he would just strain his back and use those muscles to lift his chest up, leaving his hands flapping in the air. This meant he also wasn't pushing up and then pivoting on his tummy to reach something or turn to the side. Our therapist said it's an important part of the step by step development so...


Enter pink sparkly fairy wings. After realizing that they were his favorite things in the world, I started positioning them out to the side as a motivator to turn. It totally worked. The little guy would pivot maybe 15 degrees, reach for the wings, then I'd move them a bit more, and he'd pivot a bit more and this would go on and on until he would start screaming and then I'd let him play with them for a few minutes.


Repeat this a zillion times a day.


His pivoting is great now. Abe turns towards whatever he's interested in and I don't even have to practice with him anymore. The guy will turn himself around and even get up on his arms and then try to reach a bit out to the side. Awesome improvements!!


The big thing we're focusing on now is sitting up. An eight month old should really be sitting up by now and Abe is doing that, but he hasn't gotten the hang of putting his hands out to prop himself. Therefore, he'll sit and be perfectly fine by himself. Until something catches his interest and he starts to lean that direction, then PLOP. He falls right over. There appear to still be some sensitivity issues with his hands. He just doesn't like to put weight on them.


Right now, I'm putting toys out to the side of his body and when he reaches for them, I immediately place his hand on the ground and hold it there so that he's forced to reach with the opposite hand. It's actually made quite an improvement, but he still needs a bit of work. I've caught him propping himself up a bit, but then few seconds later he'll tumble right over. It's a little odd and I hope we can conquer this soon.


The really big news, however, is that he's showing signs towards crawling. Abe will lay on his tummy, make a huge GRUNT sound, and then push up with his hands and feet (not knees) and sort of hoist himself into a downward dog-like position for a few seconds, then collapsing again. We're not sure how, but it has the effect of somehow propelling him a few inches backwards. So between the pivoting and downward dog moves, we've actually seen him move himself back a foot or so. Abe managed to push himself underneath the bed yesterday and the couch today.


So you may be asking yourself whether he even needs therapy since he's making improvements and things are coming along nicely. A lot of people have remarked that he seems to be right on target, just a little delayed, but nothing major, nothing to worry about. I know that they're trying to be sweet when they say there aren't really any problems. So I guess I feel compelled to explain it as best as I can. Here's the deal.. here's the "problem" so to speak.


Abe doesn't do a number of things on his own. Where most babies will do all of these things on their own accord and fall into the typical schedule, Abe needs constant prompting, teaching, and practice. I am very confident that he's going to make it to walking and be a rowdy regular kid, bouncing round here like his sister. But. But... he's not going to do it without our help. Abe has demonstrated that he needs to be shown how to do each of these moves, and then practiced with for a couple of weeks. I can't explain why, but it is the reality. And so that my folks is the "problem." He just needs a bit more prompting and instruction.


Thanks to my overbearing worry-wart nature, I think I've been able to really get him some great help very early on and I don't forsee any reason that he won't be walking and talking like everyone else. But, if you're the praying sort, please keep him in your prayers. We like all the help we can get.


Now for the action shots:

This isn't the full extension version, but it's as close as we could get on film.