Physical Therapy

Since Megan was tiny, she was never much of a belly-lover. She'd tolerate being on her stomach for short periods of time, but never very long. She also never really seemed to master rolling over. As she got older, those two traits seemed to lead into her struggles with transitions. She learned to sit on time, but unless she could reach what she wanted by stretching as far as she possibly could, she'd just ignore it. She never did any sort of locomotion on the floor at all. She didn't scoot, slither, crawl or roll. In fact, when we tried to help her do any of those things, she'd cry like she was in pain.

So when we went to the doctor for her one-year check-up, the doctor recommended we have her evaluated for physical therapy. She was already taking her first steps, but if she fell down, there she'd stay. If she was laying down, she'd stay there, too. (In a way it was kind of nice...she couldn't really get into any trouble either!)

She was evaluated by the county Birth-to-Three program. She was 3-6 months ahead in her development in all areas except for her large motor skills. Those more closely resembled a 7-9 month old. That meant she qualified for services.

A physical therapist came to our house once a week all summer long. She'd work with her on different strengthening exercises and give us activities to work on with her between visits.

Megan's progress was amazing. In a matter of two months, she has accomplished all of her goals. She gets from laying to sitting, crawls, rolls, pulls to standing and climbs up stairs all on her own. I don't know whether she just hit a physical developmental milestone or if the therapist was some sort of a miracle worker, but I never would have guessed she'd come so far so fast. Now the therapist is only going to meet with her once a month. Our goals are to work on getting to standing in the middle of the room (without using furniture or a person to pull to standing) and creeping backwards down stairs.

Our Summer Vacation

In early July we went on vacation to Washington D.C. with Grandma Kathy. We decided to go to D.C. since most of the sights are free. We thought that even if Megan had a tantrum or needed a nap, we wouldn't have to worry about having paid a huge fee for entry.

But Megan was such a trooper. She really enjoyed sight-seeing and people watching. She had so much fun that she didn't want to nap in her stroller very often. So she didn't get as much sleep as she normally would have, but who does on vacation? :)

We saw the Whitehouse, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and the World War II, Vietnam, and Korean War Memorials on the first day.

The next day was the 4th of July. We went to the parade and saw the fireworks. Luckily, we went back to the hotel so Megan could nap in between those activities and missed the big storm that cleared the National Mall.

We went on a tour of the Capitol, through the Air and Space Museum, and to the Library of Congress and the National Archives. One of Megan's favorite stops was the National Zoo. She was a big fan of the pandas.

Then we went to Baltimore for another Megan favorite, the National Aquarium. They had a dolphin show and a whole display on frogs. She had so much fun that she wore herself out and slept through the last quarter of it.

We had a great time and would love to go back some day when Megan's older.

Summer at last!

It felt like school was never going to get out this year...we went until June 15! But we've finally begun our summer of fun. People always ask teachers what their plans are for the summer. My answer was easy: I'm going to really enjoy being a mom!

Megan's taking swimming lessons at the YMCA. She was not a big fan of her first one. There's only room for one parent in the pool at a time, so Todd stayed on the deck and took pictures. Megan fussed through most of the class. I'm not sure if it was the temperature of the water or the commotion and noise all around her that set her off. She loves the water otherwise, so hopefully she'll like class better this week.

She's also started her motor therapy. She has qualified for services through the county birth-to-three program. A fantastic therapist came to our house to start working with her. She thinks Megan's motor difficulties are all due to a lack of upper body strength. (She's now walking really well on her own, but she still can't get from laying to sitting, or sitting to standing without help.) We have exercises we're supposed to work on with her in the week between visits from the motor therapist. The exercises are all aimed to build strength in her arms and stability in her upper back and abdominal muscles.

We are planning to have a busy and fun summer in addition to all the large motor work. Stay tuned!

A Perfect Mother's Day Gift!

We spent Mother's Day together, just hanging out as a family. We went out to breakfast, then shopping. After Megan took a long nap, I suggested to her that maybe she'd take her first steps for my Mother's Day present.

(A side note--Todd did cover a gift from her. He bought "Are You My Mommy?" which we read as a bed time story. He also got me the first season of my favorite TV show on DVD. Yes!)

She has been cruising for months, but we've been a little frustrated with her motor skills. She is going to be evaluated by an occupational therapist because she doesn't transition on her own. If she's laying down, she doesn't get herself up to sitting. If she's sitting, she can't pull herself up to standing. Rolling is still iffy and unless she's standing, holding onto furniture, she doesn't get herself to destinations she wants to get to. After her evaluation, she might need occupational therapy.

We haven't been terribly worried about it since she's doing just fine in all other areas of development. It is more frustrating than anything else. She wants to explore and get to the things she wants, but can't without our help.

So back to today, Mother's Day. She was cruising all over the place, as usual. Then, for the first time, she made it a few paces on her own between Daddy and I. She went back and forth several times with the motivation of her little blue monkey toy. Despite completely face-planting a few times, she was a trooper and kept working at it.

I couldn't have asked for a better Mother's Day present!

Happy Birthday, Megan!

We made it to one year! My how time flies. It's so amazing to think how far we've all come in just 12 months. Megan is such a unique little person...not just a cute little lump.

We spent her birthday weekend at Trivia. Everyone was amazed at how easy and well behaved she is, even in an environment as unusual as it was. The house was full of adults she didn't know. Her schedule was different and mom and dad were busy with both her and the Trivia thing. Yet she was in a good mood all weekend long. She ate well. She slept well even though she was in her Pack and Play in a strange room with Matt on the floor next to her and Audrey in the next Pack and Play over. (The three of them had lots of fun when they weren't napping.)

When we came back home today, we took her to the Nitty Gritty for her first official birthday celebration at the official place to celebrate. She got to eat her favorite foods-- pickles, yogurt and ice cream-- and got a big purple balloon. She even seemed to try to blow out her own birthday candle in her mini sundae!

We're having a birthday party with family and friends next weekend. More on that in my next entry.

Until then, the important thing is, "Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!"

Health

We were pretty lucky in the first months of Megan's life. She's been a VERY healthy baby. She's never even had diaper rash. In the first 6 months of life the only illness she had was a mysterious case of the spots when she was about 5 months old--and it really was just the spots; she didn't run a fever or have any other symptoms. The spots disappeared just as quickly and mysteriously as they had appeared.

More recently, we haven't gotten off as easy. She came back from Arizona at Christmastime with a pretty bad cold, which led to a cough that seemed to last for weeks after the other symptoms were gone.

Then during one of the many weekends Todd was on a road trip during the second half of hockey season, she had her first real experience with projectile vomiting. That led to me getting it 24 hours later, then Todd getting it shortly thereafter.

When Grandma Kathy was here visiting during Spring Break, she seemed to get the same thing again. Unfortunately this time we weren't at home, but rather visiting friends and family out of town. Needless to say, we cut our visiting short and headed home. We actually ended up in the emergency room that night because she couldn't keep anything down.

While we were there, we found out she had an ear infection to boot. It turned out that the antibiotic they prescribed for the ear infection caused her to have diarrhea. She was in rough shape. All she really wanted to do was sleep and just sat listlessly on someone's lap when she was awake. After a few nights of battling that lovely mess, we finally got some advice to give her plenty of yogurt and soy formula and she felt better in a jiffy. It was like a magic cure!

The only good thing was that none of the rest of us got sick. Probably not what Grandma had in mind for her visit, though.

The other health-related adventure that we had that week was visiting the pediatric opthamologist. I had noticed that her eyes appeared to be crossed on a lot of pictures. Our primary doctor thought it was worth the referral. Luckily the opthamologist could find nothing wrong with her eyes whatsoever. Apparently, her cute little button nose is what makes her eyes appear to be crossed and as the bridge of her nose develops, it will no longer happen. She had her eyes dilated for a full exam while we were there, which explains the photo I've chosen to put with this post. :)

All in all, that's not to bad for a baby's first year. I'm thankful every day for our happy, healthy, smart, funny little girl!

Updates

I've been getting a lot of complaints that I haven't written in a long time. I know, I know. It's no excuse to say I've been really busy with the baby, but it's the truth, take it or leave it! :)

(Megan loves the computer ... maybe if I let her blog, there'd be new posts more often ... )

Anyway, Megan's first birthday is fast approaching. She still refuses to crawl, but she could walk any day now. She cruises all over the place, holding on to whatever she can get her hands on.

Her first official word is "HI!" and she uses it all the time. She likes to greet people when they come into the room. She also likes to use it to impress and woo strangers when we're out in public. When someone responds to her greeting, she flashes them her big, toothy grin. She's got 7 teeth, three on the bottom and four on the top. Everyone finds her quite charming.

She's also saying something that might mean dog, but it comes out "gdodg," so we're not sure.

Well, that's an update for now ... I don't want to write too much or I won't be motivated to write for 3 months again!

Arizona Update

We travelled home from Arizona on New Year's Eve. The trip home really did go better than the trip to Phoenix. Megan was pretty well behaved. She only fussed a little, and slept for most of both flights. I suppose I'd travel with her again some day. :)

She's finally met all of her aunts and uncles. She'd met Beth Memorial Day weekend when she came to Wisconsin for Matt's wedding, and of course she sees Brian fairly regularly. But she had yet to meet Uncle Karl and Uncle BJ until our trip to Arizona.

I was happy to hear that Karl and his girlfriend Liz were planning to be at my mom's house for most of the time we were going to be there. They were both very quickly smitten with her. Liz, who plans to be a teacher, was the first to volunteer anytime Megan needed to be held or fed. Karl liked to play build-the-tower-so-Megan-can-knock-it-down. He thought it was like engineering.

We got to spend a pretty good amount of time with Beth and BJ despite Beth being sick for most of the time we were there. Apparently they enjoyed Megan, too. Beth claims Megan's claimed most-favored niece status in BJ's book--over his sister's two daughters. She said he's usually pretty shy around babies, but he didn't hesitate to hold and play with Megan.

It's nice to have a baby that makes everyone so happy (her mommy and daddy included!).

While everyone loved to hold her and play with her, I still changed the vast majority of the diapers. I guess that's a parental domain no matter how charming and adorable the baby is.

Despite all the fun we had in Arizona, we were really glad to be home. We really missed Todd and he really missed us. He said it was just too quiet at home without us. We'll have to make sure to make lots of noise now that we're back.