Laelia Sky

Laelia’s petting skills came in handy today.

Laelia fed herself! All by herself! For the very first time ever today! I didn’t have to force her hand into a certain position or help her in any way! She used her petting skill–the jerking her more flexible right hand over her head by her shoulder then relaxing her tricep to bend the elbow. She’s amazing!

It happened at OT (occupational therapy). Today was just a great therapy day in general. We had two not so great PT (physical therapy) appointments in a row so we were due a better visit from the child development people.

Anyway, first we got Lali’s splints adjusted so they fit better. I like them a lot. Also we found out we had overpaid a few copays this past year and got a $45 check back. Woohoo!  Thank you very much. Then we got to meet another baby with arthrogryposis and show his mom and grandma that it would be okay. Lali showed off for him by picking up blocks and using the orthopedic gear like a pro. At one point the OT was talking about elbow ROM (range of motion) and showed how, with daily stretches and continued therapy, he would be able to do this (then she demonstrated Laelia’s elbow ROM). It was fun to be the show and tell. :) Laelia is happy to be the center of attention and get all the praise any day. :) 

Then we continued to work on self feeding with Laelia. (I like this part because I always get to demonstrate eating the snacks. :)) This is a goal we’ve had for a while now. Laelia turned a year and a half old just four days ago and I was starting to think that without biceps (which she’s missing entirely) or more flexible elbows (because of her joint contractures) feeding herself was a long way off. (Oh and did I mention her inverted shoulders and weak grip that makes even getting the snack facing the right direction and staying in her hand a challenge?!!) Well we got some pretzels and she came really close! We were amazed! But her elbow was too stiff to get any closer to her mouth. Then eventually she worked her pretzel even closer. And that got us excited so we shouted “Yay!!” which made her tricep fire up and zoom that arm shot away from her mouth. Wrong way!  But eventually, though, she did manage to bite off the tiniest bit of the end of her pretzel! 

That happened just today! For the first time ever she fed herself by herself! (Of course there have been times when we have sat her up at a table and put something in her hand which she ate, but this was different because she did it all by herself!)

So I called Charley right then and there to tell him. (I was pretty excited.) Then he went straight to the store and picked up some long pretzels (longer than we had at OT) so by the time I got home, there they were! Then we put her on her back and turned on the camera. She didn’t disappoint! Here are the three videos:

Here’s a cute one of her trying to feed herself the first time we put it in her hand. She doesn’t quite make it, but it’s so adorable!

Laelia feeding herself!

Laelia continues to feed herself and then scoots over to share with me.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 7:41 pm and is filed under hooray, medical science, video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.