EMMIE GETS A WORKOUT

I am writing this entry on our brand new computer & I love it!! The keyboard is like buttah! :)
Emily's Early Intervention therapies are well underway! Here's the latest....

Speech/Feeding Therapy: Roberta sees Emily 2x/month. Our primary focus originally was
cutting down on Emily's feeding time. It was orginally taking her about an hour, sometimes more to eat 4 ounces!! She is now down to 20-30 minutes. What a difference! Now I feel like it doesn't take up our entire day. For quite a while, Emily was only able to use the nipples that we got from the hospital. All of the other nipples that we tried were too difficult for her to use. Emily has graduated from those nipples & is now able to use a regular Dr. Brown's nipple. I only chose the Dr. Brown's bottles because I used them with Aidan & liked them. Emily is doing a great job. We have really cut down on her spit up too. We make sure to give her plenty of breaks during feedings & this seems to help.

During Speech therapy, we also focus on Emily's facial muscles & tongue movement. When she is sucking on her bottle, we give her cheek & chin support. We also look to make sure there is not a gap on the side of her mouth when she sucks. Soemtimes we massage Emily's cheeks & poke one of our fingers in her mouth to get her tongue moving in different directions. All of these techniques will hopefully increase Emily's muscle tone & that will help her when she starts speaking. Roberta is a wonderful therapist & we are so grateful for her help & resources. As Emily gets older, we will increase her Speech therapy sessions if needed.

Physical Therapy: Jill comes for Emily's sessions 1x/month. We recently decided to increase Emily's sessions to 1x/week & that will take place in the Fall. The focus of these sessions is working on increasing Emily's overall muscle tone. She is a floppy baby, so we want to work on making her stronger. I am the perfect Mommy for Emily...I am a dance & Pilates instructor & am so interested in this aspect of Emily's therapy. I feel it is so important for her overall development.

Jill taught us massage techniques that we can do to stimulate Emily's muscles. We also do things like "tiptoeing" along her spine with our fingertips to activate her muscles, joint compressions, & stabilizing her hips when she is on her tummy to give her support for lifting up her upper body.
We recently incorporated a fitness ball into Emily's Physical Therapy sessions. Activities on the ball include: bouncing, rocking front to back & side to side, tummy time, etc. Jill also gave me a great resource on baby yoga. I am so excited to try this with Emily. At some point, we are going to do a few physical therapy sessions in the pool too.

Social Work: For Mommy!! Cathy comes 1x/week. It is so good for me to talk to someone about what we are going through. I feel like I have come so far on this journey in a very short time, but every once in a while, I go through a "down" phase. I think that's typical. Every day is a new step. Sometimes I feel that's all I can do. One day at a time, one step at a time.

I have to sign off. Emmie is getting fussy upstairs & Aidan is due to get off the bus any minute. Just wanted to let you know how therapy is going.