OT

We had a superfantastic OT appointment Thursday (the PT was away). Joshua showed her all his tricks plus some new ones. He was so charming too.

She was so impressed with the progress he has made. He is much more mobile now. Not making much forward motion, but kneeling, reaching, rolling, twisting, starting to pull up, standing well…

Also, I haven’t really told you guys much because we all know what happens when you talk about good sleep too soon after a change happens… Well it’s been long enough now to report that Joshua has made made major progress in the sleep department!!! Now he goes to bed at 7:30 and sometimes sleeps until after midnight. I do a short bedtime routine and then lay him in the pack’n'play in our room. Often he will complain for a while, but it’s not that same angry, desperate crying anymore. It’s grumbling. He eventually falls asleep without further intervention. We have our evenings back!!!

Also, I can now count on two naps a day. At about 9am and 1pm, I do a short naptime routine and then into the pack’n'play he goes. Sometimes he drops right off, sometimes he complains for quite a while. Sometimes he naps for 90 minutes, sometimes for 20 minutes. But I can count on him being in bed for a while at that time. And so can he. Another major change. The other good thing is that he sleeps well in the stroller, so if we can’t or don’t want to be home, I organize us to be somewhere I can use the stroller. This way we can still have our routine, but still be flexible.

The only sleep part that still needs to be worked out is the middle of the night. He isn’t keen on going back in the playpen after that mid-night waking. But we’ll figure that out.

Thursday he slept in really late and, as a friend put it, he had a “sparkle in his eye”. When he gets the sleep he needs, he is really shows us his true, joyful, personality.

The OT’s suggestions were to offer thicker, but not lumpy and more flavourful food. She suggested getting simple cause-and-effect type toys and also one that he can walk behind. She said usually those toys are quite light so it’s a good idea to put some weight into them. She gave me a few sheets with explanations and diagrams of different ways we can play with him to encourage further development. He has made major progress already. I have seen a bit of a commando crawl, and this morning when I put him down intending for him to be in the crawling position, he moved himself to sitting!

Also he is consistently signing “milk”. Very exciting for all of us.

Life is starting to feel a lot more normal and manageable. *sweet sigh* It is still busy but now it is an organized kind of busy, one where I can keep up with the housework plus make progress on clearing out unneeded and unwanted items. The kids are on board with culling their toys down and their rooms are starting to look tidier and more welcoming.

Poco a poco (little by little).