Friday, 01.22.2010 was Kendall's 3rd Therapists appointment with Our Children's Home with Baylor ... this evaluation was for her 6 month development age ... so, she's 8 1/2 months old with a 6 month corrected age, as of January 13. The therapy evaluations are part of the "Neonatal ICU graduate" program at Baylor ... to help determine how she is doing developmentally and to try to prevent/assist with any additional delays that she could have from being extremely premature.
The first time we went there she was a corrected age of "40 weeks gestation or newborn" (we had been home from the NICU for 2 weeks) and she got an normal average rating ... doing what a normal newborn would be doing. The second evaluation was when she was a corrected age of 3 months ... and she got another good report ... being exactly average for 3 months. So, we were interested in finding out what today's evaluation would be ...
And, she got another good report ... although, we had a bit of difficulty getting her to participate and do the things they were trying to evaluate her on ... in between a sobbing meltdown ... it was quite a performance! Kendall had to miss her nap for us to arrive to the appt on time, so she was over-due for a nap, and then I think she gets overwhelmed when all 3 therapists are in the room and it's a new place, checking her out ... so she just proceeded to meltdown. She did get calmed down, but really didn't do much of what they were looking for ... of course, until they all 3 left the room ... and she was so happy again ... babbling and playing (for only Mommy to see, but she did remain happy when they all came back in, too). Most everything was right on average ... but her sitting and balance was at a 8 month level (which is really great), however her "locomotion" (her movement during tummy time; reaching out for toys during tummy time) was around a 4 month old. (She was still in her mood when this was being tested ... I know that she does a lot better at her tummy time at home than what she was showing them, but there is certainly room for improvement ... she really doesn't like tummy time, so we are going to work on that so we can eventually get her ready for crawling.) But, all in all, we got another good report! Her feedings (bottle and spoon) are looking good as well ... she got the okay to be moved up to the next bottle nipple (Dr. Brown's Level 3), so we are hoping this will decrease the feeding time. Currently she takes about 45 minutes to drink 4 or 5oz, and this is every 3 hours ... so we are hoping the Level 3 will speed the feed up a bit ... we'll see. We're also going to increase the number of times she tries baby food ... we had been doing it once a day, but we're increasing to twice a day for the week and then moving to three times a day next week, to see how that goes and to hopefully increase her food intake.
Here is Kendall with her 3 Therapists ... they are all so sweet and patient ... and so helpful! Even though Kendall is doing well, we always get a little homework to work on and a list of things that they'll be looking for the next time ... so I know what we should be focusing on or things to be looking out for (that preemies are known for) ... it has definitely helped us in trying to help her!
We'll be back again in 3 months for her 9 month evaluation! (And I've got a better appt time during the day, so we can prevent another meltdown, hopefully!)
i am so thankful she is doing well.
ReplyDeleteshe has been a fighter since she was born.