Day 4 of 31: Recent PT session

Yesterday we had Madison's weekly PT session.  We LOVE her physical therapist, Terra!

We get asked quite often.......How do you do PT with a 9 month old baby?  What kind of activities would you even do?

Well, I thought I would share what our "homework" is for the next week.  And really, the homework doesn't change drastically from week to week until she has started to emerge with a new skill.

Madi has started army crawling a little bit so we are really focusing on that skill for her to keep it going.  She started doing it about 10 days ago but was only able to do it on the hardwood floors.  Now, she is able to do it on the carpet.  She doesn't go very far......no more than about 1-2 feet.  So, we are trying to get that distance farther and farther.

LOTS of core exercises!!!!  Such as.......

Sit ups on the exercise ball.

Sitting on a box and leaning down to pick up small toys....

Once she gets the toy, we are also working on her putting them into a box to develop her fine motor skills.

She needs to be able to learn how to get from laying down on the floor to a sitting position on her own.  For a few months we have been practicing this by having her roll to her side and then push up on the floor with her hand to a sitting position.  This has been a very sllooooow process in teaching this. I swear we have done this activity at least a couple of hundred times.  A different version of it we are starting to have her do is roll to her stomach, tuck a leg under and push up to sitting position through a side sit.

She used to be the queen at sitting in the quadruped position.......but for the last 6 weeks or so, not so much.  She refuses to do it and gets out of it by arching her back, straightening out and then laying on her belly in the "superman" position.  This last week, we discovered a way to trick her into doing it.  We have her go over our leg for a little bit of support.  Since our leg is there, she is unable to get out of it by going to her belly.  If she arches her back, we then make her go backwards into a sitting position, not allowing her to arch.

I go over flashcards with the correlating sign language with her on a daily basis but while we do it, I have her sit on a box to help strengthen her back and make sure she is sitting in the proper position.

So, there you have our "homework" for the next week!  Many people ask, how often do you do it?
Well, that is a really tough question to answer.  It depends on the day.  If I am home alone with just Madi, I am continually working on something with her.  PT until she gets tired, then switch to some cognitive and speech stuff.  We have a "routine" before every feeding.  (I will talk about that more later)  She naps and then we repeat it all over again.  I try to hit everything(PT, OT, ST, feeding therapy, cognitive skills, sign language)  at least 2-3 times a day when I am alone with her.  But, on the weekends when we are busy doing stuff or when Taylor is home, I try to hit everything at least once and then little 5 minute chunks here and there.

Sometimes I struggle with whether I am doing enough or not.  I have to admit, that Madi was frustrating me there for a while because of lack of progress.  She fought every activity we did and was just perfectly content laying there or being held.  I lost my motivation with her during that period.  I just was feeling like no matter what I did it didn't make a difference, so I chose to not do anything.  Luckily this only lasted a week or so, and then......BAM!!!!.......she started to army crawl!  I think that she probably was burnt out herself and just needed a break.  Or maybe she sensed that momma was at her breaking point and she figured she better do something quick!  Who knows.......I guess she will do things when she is ready......not when momma wants her to do them.