Therapist!

I came back from lunch and there was a developmental therapist in there. I guess Dr. Doomsday had grabbed her and asked her to work with Ollie. My heart sank as they told me this. I kept thinking of the nurse yesterday and the day before who had pointed out some of the movements that Ollie was doing that were common in brain injury patients. I have seen the same movements in adults that I have cared for that have Cerebral Palsy. And here was a therapist teaching me how to work with Ollies body...

Her name is Julie. She has blond, super curly hair, and the spirit of an angel. She literally just glows. I told her my fears about Ollies movements and his balled up muscles that bother me, I told her of the people I had seen and cared for, and what the nurses said. She just looked at me. She thought for a moment, and then she said that we have to remember that Ollie is on Phenol Barbatol...a very sedative drug, to prevent his seizures. She explained that as Ollie lays there very sleepy and very still...his muscles are getting no work. What positions he does hold makes him stiff. It's not related to any other condition or injury so far. It's simply due to the medication. He has to have his muscles relaxed and stretched so that when he does get more alert later and does baby things he won't be fighting a stiff body or a preferred position. Wait. She said "does baby things." That means my little boy will do baby things. She said he will pull his hands to his mouth, and suckle them, and he will play with his hands and his mouth and that all of his learning and happiness in the world begins with his hands and his mouth. She reminds me of what K (midwife assistant) has been telling me about my baby. She is saying the same things. It gives me a little hope. And Ollie is acting like he just had a professional massage. He's stretching out and doing little happy grunts. He's such a love.

Ollie got off of his antibiotics today-as they cannot find infection in him at all. His sugar testing is now every other feed because he is maintaining his blood sugar so well. That means a heel prick every six hours instead of every three. Progress. Every day, little steps of progress. They upped his feeding to 20 ml of milk instead of 15. Ollie gained weight too. He is now 8lbs 15oz. My little tank.

I am amazed at how much he's like a baby now. He still has alot to improve on. But it makes me love him so much more every day as I see him begin to bloom into a real baby.