Rebekah Update 5/3/10

My little baby is 19 months old!  I just can’t believe it and must keep reminding myself of it!  Bekah is changing and practicing new skills every day it seems.  Her sweet, mouth wide open smile warms my heart and often brings me to tears.

I just thought I would try to update on what has been happening in the last few months.  What a whirlwind swirls around us all the time.  We have three appointments each week with therapists.  On Mondays, Lydia comes.  She is our Physical Therapists and is just a life saver.  Rebekah lights up when she comes!  She brings an exercise ball so that Rebekah can work on weight shifting and balance.  Recently, she has had Rebekah trying out crawling.  You can tell that Bekah knows what is happening, even knows what body parts are involved.  Crawling is quite a complex skill once you break it all down and see exactly what it takes to move a body forward on all fours.  Rebekah’s arms are her weakest part, so they often get caught under her or down beside her.  When you help her keep them out in front, she will use them a little to help pull herself along.  The reciprocal movement is the hardest part for her right now.  She can pull her knee up and out to the side, but can’t lift her body weight up and over the knee so that she can get leverage to push.  She looks back at her knee and then at you, as if to say “That’s the part that needs to move, could you please help me?!?”  Her little eyes are full of knowledge and motivation.  If only her sweet little body would respond!  Lydia has also been trying to get her to “cruise” around the furniture.  Lately though, Bekah has been refusing to work with me on this task.

We have a new Occupational Therapist and we do not have a set appointment time with her.  Although her visits have been all over the calendar, she is making marked progress already with Rebekah.  Shirley has set a goal for 6 months, that Rebekah will be grasping, holding, and releasing things with each hand with intent.  I have seen Rebekah work on this on her own even.  She has opened up to a whole new world of toys!  Just today, in her car seat, she was holding a toy with both hands so she could finger it and get it to her mouth.  Shirley is big on posture and position and has taught us lots of little things to do while we are holding Bekah and working with her on our own.

Stephanie is our Speech Therapist who is working with Rebekah on feeding.  Our new goal with her is to introduce meltable solids (those crazy puffs) by the end of the summer.  Things were going fine with Bekah – – we had even introduced stage 3 baby foods to her.  Everything seemed fine, but she started waking up crying in the middle of the night with hard gas and burps.  After gassy episodes or throwing up, she would finally settle back down and go back to sleep.  Sometimes just before Chris would have to get up for work.  It finally dawned on us that this new stage of food wasn’t settling with her.  We took her back down to stage 2 foods and will talk with the GI doctor about what might have caused the problems.  I am thinking that it could be 1)added spices in the stage 3 foods, or 2)her stomachs inability to break down the small chunks in the stage 3 foods.

It is so amazing to watch Rebekah with Kayla.  She knows the minute Kayla comes into the room and watches every movement Kayla makes.  She giggles with delight anytime Kayla touches or kisses her.  I am so thankful for the relationship between the girls and am excited to see this develop!

Thank you so much, friends and family for your prayers and your love!  We rely so heavily on your support and the strength of our Heavenly Father.  Psalm 73 says that God is my strength and everything my heart needs.  I am so glad to identify with this, for without Him, I could do nothing!