So proud

Today Autumn had PT and OT come over together to work with her and coordinate their plan. We were brainstorming on new ways to get Autumn on her belly and to start bearing weight with her arms and to work more on head control. We decided to put her on her knees in between my legs and for her to rest her forearms on my leg and then I would be able to hold her forehead to stable her head. She worked so hard and was lifting her head up and bearing weight on her hands. She was even smiling about the new accomplishment and her stats stayed at 99-100. I was so proud of her!!! I took for granted all the things my other kids just knew how to do without me even having to work with them and seeing Autumn use all her strength for an exercise like this and do it with a smile just makes my heart smile. She was so flushed and sweaty by the time we were done and we worked on it for maybe 5 minutes. She has to give her all to do anything and she smiles the whole time--what an inspiration she is to me. Gosh, I love her. My other kids grew up so fast and learned something new each day so I am cherishing every little small thing Autumn learns how to do. The other day she was grasping her pacifier with her fingers instead of her whole hand and I know that is the next developmental step in grasping--I can not even remember when my other kids did things like that.

I also noticied yesterday that if you lay Autumn on her belly her foot can bend completely underneath her. Ummm.....that's not suppose to happen. I told the therapists and they said it is because the lack of muscle tone and need to get her splinted soon to work on her feet positioning. As soon as she gets the head control down then they will start getting her to bear weight and get her into a standing position. They also gave me more ideas to work with her on her core strength and sitting up.

I also learned something new today. I learned most trach kids can not taste. I've never even thought about that. I guess that would explain why Autumn does not mind taking her nasty, brown, smelly vitamin. We also have not found a food she does not like. That was interesting since no one had told me that before so now I don't feel so bad that she can't drink her bottles because she probably never really tasted them anyways. I'm also not sure if trach kids can smell or not either--some moms say yes and some say no. I guess if you can't smell then you can't taste.