These Booties Were Made For Walking

Oh, what a journey. At Baby Trey's 3 month "well" visit, his pediatrician thought he was showing signs of low muscle tone. When lifting Trey up, he (Trey, not the doctor) should have been trying to resist by pushing down with his arms. Trey was more like a rag doll being lifted....rag doll may be a little strong, more like a cute Cabbage Patch Doll...Anywho, the doctor did a few more tests with Trey and thought he might be showing signs of having fluid on his brain! Yikes! He recommended that we set an appointment with the Neurology department at Children's Hospital.

Now, normally, we feel like doctors are pretty quick to recommend random referrals (allergists for a few sneezes, ophthalmologists for not being able to read the chart because both eyes were covered, etc.) and thus, we readily ignore such advice. While we weren't overly concerned, it wouldn't be prudent to ignore a neurology referral. Trey could hardly be faking a large head circumference. So we set up the appointment, and as we were expecting...we waited in the aptly named waiting room for hours. Finally, a doctor checked out Trey and the head of the department came in and checked him out and lo and behold...Trey was perfectly fine.

At his 9 month "well" visit, Trey's regular pediatrician (freshly back from her maternity leave) mentioned the low muscle tone, too. That, coupled with the fact that Trey could only roll over and sit up if put in a sitting position prompted her to suggest that we contact The Alliance for Infants. A whole team of therapists came to our home and played with and observed Trey and determined that while he scored very high in most categories, his gross motor skills were below average and he could benefit from weekly physical therapy sessions. Enter Miss Jenny....

I admit I had my doubts...I'd never worked with a physical therapist before and had no clue how one could make a baby do anything, let alone meet a whole list of goals. But, Miss Jenny shows up faithfully every week and does her magic. By magic, I mean exercises and stretching and games. And wouldn't ya know it, Trey immediately showed signs of improvement. Soon he was able to get into a sitting position by himself...then back down...then pulling himself to standing...then pick up a toy without plopping onto his bum...then crawling...then cruising. Now here comes the BIG one, walking. Trey likes for Mommy to carry him everywhere and Mommy kinda likes that Trey likes for Mommy to carry him everywhere...Mommy doesn't really like the actual carrying part, but he's so dang cute. He just learned to say "Hold you!" while extending his arms to me. How can I resist? Ah, but I must.

Check out our big walker now...







"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under Heaven." - Ecc. 3:1