Blog posts are getting further and further apart... we must be busy!
April and May were tough months to stay motivated and I wasn't really feeling up to writing about our lack of progress. The broken leg really slowed us down and got us out of our routine. Getting back into the 'Institutes' routine was very challenging, I forgot how nice it can be just to go out and stroll! We are still trying to get back to the intensity we were at before Tatum's accident, but we are taking more breaks for the sake of everyone's sanity! Once the cast came off at the end of April, it became apparent that Tatum had regresses in the mobility department. Tatum didn't want to move down her ramp at all. She didn't really want to use her legs at all. Before the broken leg, she was bearing weight and standing well with just a bit of support. When lying on her back, she was able to keep her knees upright and lift her butt. All of this strength and coordination seemed to be gone... good news is that it is coming back! May was tough for Tatum health wise as well. We missed 10 full days of programming because she was sick with colds and an awful flu virus.
As she does after every period of illness, Tatum has rebounded with gusto! She has gained back the weight she lost in April and May (from being in the cast and being sick) and then some. She has 3 new teeth and the hair on her head is growing like crazy... she just had her 3rd haircut.
As I look back on my notes for May, although Tatum didn't want to get moving on her ramp, she was up to a bunch of other great things.
Since the beginning of May, Tatum has been sitting really well on her own without any support. She still falls backwards on occasion and does not put her arms back to stop herself but it is less and less and she is able to adjust and correct her posture when she is losing her balance.
Tatum's fine motor skills have made a lot of progress over the past two months. She has gone from having no interest in toys or grabbing things to picking up toys, spoons, and shakers and shaking them, banging them, throwing them, moving them from hand to hand, reaching and picking things up that are out of her sight and she is occasionally putting things in her mouth. She is getting very good at reaching her arms out big and wide and pulling us in for big kisses and hugs. Tatum is clapping her hands when she is sitting, lying down and on her tummy.
She is rolling from her back to her front and back again with ease.
Tatum is also now able to sit up in a swing at the playground and she loves to swing!
Since the beginning of June, we have seen huge progress in Tatum's verbal skills. She is so loud! Her volume increases every day. I have to stop myself from wishing for quiet! As she experiments with her voice she is telling crazy stories that go on for minutes with lots of inflection and sounds like tha, za, da, la, ba, ah. She's pretty entertaining - her sisters love the new loud Tatum! I think she is often yelling me... maybe for feeding her so much spinach and kale! She loves calling for Daddy and I'm pretty sure our nanny, Len, is her favorite confident! She is making clicking sounds with her tongue, kissing sounds, zerberts and is also mimicking us when we make her favourite sounds.
The most amazing progress has happened in the past two weeks with Tatum's mobility. She is moving down her ramp using both of her legs and big wide arms almost all of the time now. Today, we watched Tatum move herself down her ramp (several times) in what we know as a perfect cross pattern! If you can imagine a baby crawling, they move their arms and legs in a specific pattern... right arm reaches out, left knee comes in,, etc. This is what we have been patterning for Tatum since last September! She is so close to crawling herself off her ramp... we can't wait to get her moving on the flat floor all the time, and to get rid of these massive ramps!!!
So what is the biggest change in our program? Why are these things happening now? I think this is the cumulative effect of all of our hard work and Tatum's good health (minus May) which is a result of her super healthy diet. I think the biggest catalyst has been our new commitment to her respiratory program. We are doing 40 masks every day now. If we do nothing else, we do masking. This ensures that Tatum gets rich concentrations of oxygen to her brain every day. Masking also ensures that we are helping her oxygen tanks (her lungs) get bigger. We have also starting doing manual respiratory patterning. We are now doing this for an hour each day and are working up to doing two hours each day once our machine arrives. Our machine is sitting at Canada Customs right now so we should receive it in within the next week. Once we get it, Tatum will receive two hours of daytime and 10-12 hours of nighttime respiratory patterning every day. We are all so excited to see the effect of this on her alertness, energy, eating, speaking, mobility and who knows what else!! It is going to be a fantastic summer for Tatum and our gang... I can feel it!!
Below are some videos of Tatum from the past few weeks.
