Physical Therapy

Lily has been receiving physical therapy since she was an infant. Before we moved to Charleston, therapy involved strengthening Lily's muscles so she could do the more physical activities we were hoping she would do. Her physical therapist had read a study that stated that children who could sit on their own by the age of two were more likely to walk than those who were able to after the age of two, although not necessarily by conventional means. (I don't know where that information came from, but we didn't want to risk NOT believing it.) Needless to say, we've made a push to get Lily sittin' pretty.

But we didn't stop there. After Lily's g-tube surgery, we took about a two-month rest from therapy while we waited for paperwork to be transferred and new agencies to kick into gear. Lily had her pt evaluation on July 14. During that evaluation, Lily would sit up for maybe one or two seconds and would not weight-bear on her legs. After four months of weekly one-hour therapy visits, Lily began to bear weight on her legs. Around the same time, she also had a few instances where she sat on her own for over a minute.

If you saw Lily stand, you would know why she has been so successful at it. She loves it! She is so proud of herself and her accomplishment. I love that type of motivation! Lily is now at the point where she will sit at the edge of a bouncy seat and push herself up to standing (with us holding her under her arms). Sometimes, you can just see (and hear) the drive she has to get herself into that standing position. She struggles, but she wants to stand so badly.

At this point, she can sit by herself, but she has this bad habit of nodding her head backwards and falling back. I think it's a game for her, and we're always there to catch her, but she gets a kick out of it. I don't know how we'll change that habit of hers. There have been times when she has sat for more than five minutes. We're really successful if she's distracted with something like football. (My little tomboy!)

Despite all of this sitting and standing, Lily may never walk. That doesn't mean that we won't give her the opportunity to take that first step if that's what she's interested in doing. We give her plenty of chances for that. But I think her own motivation pushes her as much as we do. Who knows, maybe one day I'll be sharing a video of her walking.

This video was taken at Thanksgiving. Normally, we would hold Lily under her arms, but this time, she used the coffee table to support herself. I love this video because it shows how happy Lily is when she stands.