Making Progress

Tomorrow our girl will be 6 months old! Pictures from the photo shoot will follow, of course. Meanwhile, I have some updating to do.

Today was Allie’s fourth appointment with the occupational therapist. I’m understanding more about her issues since the first visit (read about it here), and the best news is that she is starting to show signs of improvement!

Looking back over our feeding struggles, it seems like we’re finally starting to identify the various pieces of the puzzle that have made this such a challenge: low milk supply, delayed let down, acid reflux (currently being treated quite successfully with prescription medication), state management problems, sensory processing issues, and delayed vestibular reactivity. Huh? I’ve been doing a lot of reading about a lot of different subjects over these past 6 months!

As I mentioned, the medication has helped a lot with Allison’s reflux symptoms. She doesn’t spit up as frequently, she doesn’t cry and scream in pain like she used to at every feeding, and she can now eat in 10 – 20 minutes rather than 60+ minutes. Progress! Praise God. The gastroenterologist, after confirming that she did have reflux and needed the medication, forwarded us on to the occupational therapist to deal with the troublesome behaviors that were manifesting at feedings. The great news is that the OT is familiar with Allie’s behaviors; it’s really wonderful to not have it be such a mystery anymore!

I’m not going to try to write a summary of all the behaviors, symptoms, strategies, and science … partially because it would be really long and confusing, and partially because I still don’t understand it all. But here’s the good news: I have been following the OT’s instructions for daily infant massage, baby yoga exercises, and other forms of deep tissue touch and body movement (for example, bending her legs up to hold her in flexion rather than letting her keep her legs fully extended as she often does), and Allie is showing improvement! This means she is less likely to screech, flail her arms, arch backwards, and generally be difficult at feedings.

The delayed vestibular reactivity has to do with Allison’s balance and “organization” of her body. For whatever reason, she seems to be a bit uncertain of her body movement, or perhaps her sensory perception of her body movement. One example: when we’d carry her down the stairs, she could cling to us (as though in fear) and hunch her body in for support. Since we’ve started massage and exercises, she doesn’t do that anymore.

Most babies start to roll from their tummies to backs (and vice versa) between 2 – 6 months of age. As previously mentioned, Allie will be 6 months old tomorrow and she hasn’t rolled over yet. The OT assures me that this is fine and not a missed milestone, but it might be delayed because of these sensory/movement issues. Allison enjoys when we help her roll back and forth, but she doesn’t seem to take any interest in doing it herself.

Anyway, it’s very encouraging to be making progress. It is a huge, huge relief to have things starting to get more “normal” now! I’m so grateful that feeding isn’t as stressful as it used to be! I still can’t successfully feed her “on the go” unless I find a very quiet place (she is easily distracted and will quickly become screechy and impossible to feed if there is noise/activity around). But maybe that will improve over time.

She’s sleeping wonderfully (although she still needs to be swaddled to stay asleep; unswaddled = waving arms = awake & fussy; perhaps if she starts to be more sure of her movements, she’ll get used to her arms and learn how to sleep with them free). When she’s awake, she’s such a cheerful, joyful, enjoyable little girl. Truly our little sweetheart and darling.

And she just keeps growing up! She has had two reasonably successful Sundays in the church nursery, and this weekend was her first non-grandma babysitting experience! We were blessed to have my cousin Jen and her husband Jesse watch Allie while we went to Seth’s office’s holiday party. It was a huge success and we know that Jen and Jesse will be great parents when their own baby arrives in July!

I’ll leave you with a few pictures of Allie and her beloved “Sophie” giraffe. Just like every other toy, it goes right to her mouth.