IFSP, EI, OT, PT, DSCC, CP...

I haven't blogged much lately...Dustin and I came down with a virus this week, and we have been tired!

Lara seems to be doing just fine, and we hope she passed the virus on to us and not the other way around. It's hard not to get sick when you are around little ones a lot.

Friday, Lara had a great day. First, we had our 6 month IFSP meeting with Lara's OT, PT, and EI coordinator. Parents of children with CP are all about the abbreviations. IFSP is Individualized Family Service Plan. It's through these meetings that we set goals for Lara and work out how to get her any special equipment should she need it later (like her braces, for instance). We only set one goal for Lara-which is to walk with an assisted device. This is only because we don't think walking independently is realistically a goal that Lara will meet very soon. But that's okay. Honestly, I am privately setting a goal that Lara will walk independently in a year. More than anything, this just gives me something big to shoot for; I will not be disappointed if she doesn't get there. These things just take time. Lara's OT has no concerns and has said that Lara doesn't need any OT. We just need to spend some time at home and at PT working on her upper body, but nothing specific needs to happen there. She has been assessed to be at her appropriate age level for everything. Lara also had a global assessment done for other areas: cognitive, social, etc., and she is doing fine. Especially with her verbal skills-she is quite advanced! We don't really put an age level on her physical development anymore because it doesn't mean anything (so says her PT). With CP, we just follow the GMFCS, and Lara still shows to be at a Level 1. (She's really in between a level 1 and Level 2.)

Anyway, what was really great about the 6mo eval. is that we could really see a huge improvement in what Lara is able to do. Sure, she still can't walk, but she moves better and better everyday, and she is doing great cognitively and socially. She is such a cutie, and her therapists just love her.

We finished off Friday morning with a little physical therapy. Gretchen stood Lara up and let go. And Lara just stood. She completely balanced herself. For several, several seconds. We couldn't believe it, it was like it just happened overnight. While standing up, she would turn on a toy and do a little dance...still unsupported. We didn't say much, if anything we just stared at each other in confusion: how is she doing this all of a sudden??

We returned home, and Lara continued this, at times letting go of furniture in order to use both of her hands together, without holding on to anything. Yay! She is getting there! It's all about taking those small baby steps, slowly, slowly, slowly.