Therapy

I don't know if I mentioned or not that Maggie is enrolled in a state funded program called First Steps. First Steps is a developmental aid for kids up to the age of three. Your little one gets evaluated and if need be they are given physical therapy sessions and/or occupational therapy sessions... Other therapy is also available. The great thing about this program is the therapists come to you! So no having to drive off to some office and because I am unemployed and not legally bound to my love Seana and her wallet... the state covers the cost!

When Maggie was evaluated soon after we got her home from the hospital the evaluation concluded that she needed some therapy. She was set up with physical therapy once a week and occupational therapy once a month. The physical therapy was recommended because Maggie doesn't use her stomach muscles and arches her back way too much. The occupational therapy was to continue monitoring her suck, swallow, breathe function when eating.

So Maggie has met with her physical therapist 3 times, today being the 3rd. Today's session went very well, the therapist felt she has corrected a lot of the arching and is using her stomach muscles correctly and we are now going to reduce her therapy sessions to once a month! Which means she is just going to monitor her progression. Of course Karen (the therapist) said all the right things to this Mommy... That Maggie is really progressing well, and is actually quite advanced in her motor skills especially in how aware and observant she is of her surroundings!

We have met once with her occupational therapist, Susan, who observed her breastfeeding. She thought Maggie did a good job and didn't seem to have any concerns. We discussed the food transition (babies can start transitioning at age 4-6 months to cereal and mushed foods) and given that Maggie didn't really start feeding herself until she was a month or so old Susan suggested holding off on introducing cereal a little while which will give her a chance to really get used to the breast and bottle before adding in a spoon. To me that seemed reasonable... or it did at the time we met which was a couple weeks ago now. The catch is Maggie is no longer sleeping through the night because she is hungry every 2 or 3 hours. We meet with Susan again next week.. I am going to discuss making the switch at least before bed.