More CIT Videos

Posting a few more videos to show Ryder’s progress along this Constraint Induced Therapy journey! 

In this first one you can see him painting. The strength he has gained in his left arm has given him the ability to do more controlled movements with his left hand.  He never would have been able to aim the paintbrush at a specific color before and then make it onto the paper to draw!

In the next video he is trying so hard to take his slippers off.  It seriously is a miracle to see him reach across his body, land his hand on what he was aiming for, then use his strength to pull the velcro.  The best part is how hard he is concentrating and trying to succeed, without getting frustrated!

And last, he’s getting so much better at picking up food with Lefty and actually getting it in his mouth.  Of course he still insists on eating off of our kitchen floor, but now it’s just because he thinks it’s funny, not because he has to! 

Ryder really has come so far, I can’t believe we’re coming to the end of our 3 weeks with the cast on!  On Thursday before therapy they will be cutting off the blue sword!  I can’t wait to get him home and scrub his arm that night.  We will be watching him closely at therapy on thursday & friday and over the weekend to make a decision about whether the 3 weeks was long enough.  If he goes immediately back to only using his right hand and fisting and ignoring his left hand then we will be putting the cast on for another 3 weeks.  We’ve all seen the progress he has made, we know for sure his brain is forcing signals through and we don’t want all of these efforts to be wasted.  As bad as we don’t want to have to do the second round, we know that if he needs it for reinforcement to get these new skills that he has gained to stick, it is what we will have to do.  We definitely expect him to use righty as his dominant hand when we take the cast off, but hopefully he will still engage lefty and use two hands more appropriately, showing off his new skills and we can be done with the casting for now!

Something New To Ride!

Pop-Pop bought a new lawn mower.  Need I say more? 

We went over on Friday night to check it out and Ryder was just beside himself.  He learned all about how it works and climbed off and on, pretending to drive it, talking about all the things it did.  It was like his own personal playground that kept him entertained for hours.  Someone asked Pop-pop what his plan was for the next day and he said “cut some grass and drink some beer”.  So what do you think Ryder’s plans were for Saturday??!!  Yup, he woke up saying “gotta go to pop-pops!!  Needa cut da gwass and drank some beeyaa!”  So that’s what we did, well, minus the beer part! 

And they’ve already made plans to do it again next Saturday!  Anyone need their grass cut?!  I have a pretty cute pair I could send your way!

28 Weeks!

Another week has come and gone, here is what Alpha Mom says about this week:

Your Baby:

• Continues to get a longer and fatter by the day. Shocking, I know. His or her weight has actually doubled in the past month alone, which is why you’ve probably gotten comments about “popping” recently.
• Weight is around 2.5 pounds right now, which (if you’re like me, gazing in horror and your inside-out belly button and spidery stretch marks) might sound a little frightening, since the baby clearly needs to gain a LOT MORE WEIGHT before he or she is fully cooked, and oh my God, how in the world is anything bigger going to fit in there?

You:

• Are either feeling like this pregnancy will NEVER end, or that 12 more weeks is simply not nearly enough time to prepare. Or you might feel both ways, changing your mind one minute to the next.
• Must move furniture and fold clothes and organize the linen closet and replace the bathroom vanity and finally get rid of that sooty stain on the marble fireplace and yes, DARLING, these are all essential tasks that MUST be completed before the baby gets here, DO NOT ARGUE WITH ME, NOW GO HANG UP SOME SHELVES.

We definitely need to get moving on getting Maisy’s room together, we just need a few free weekends that I don’t see in our near future!  The good news is that I’ve ordered every single thing for her room, so as soon as we can replace the carpet and paint, the rest will all come together easily.  I can’t believe that we are so close to her arrival, as fast as these weeks come and go, I know that the next 11 weeks are going to fly by!

My sciatic nerve pain seems to be getting better.  The pain isn’t in my back anymore, the worst is in my leg and my foot is still a little numb.  I got a massage last weekend that was SO wonderful and definitely provided some relief.  If only I could afford to get one of those weekly!

Maisy is SO active, I feel her move all throughout the day and she likes to wake up around 4am and start dancing in there.  She moves every part of her body at once, so that’s the only thing I can figure she’s doing in there.  She loves story time with Ryder too, every time we lay down to read a book she starts going crazy.  Can’t wait until I can lay with both my babies and read to them :)

Here we are at 28 weeks (gotta love the mirrors at therapy!):

CIT: Week 2 Recap

Things have been smooth sailing during week 2 of the casting.  Ryder is constantly amazing us with how much he is using Lefty and how well he has adjusted to having the cast on.  He’s gaining back some of his independence and is learning to be confident and try to do things with Lefty, then when it’s too hard he just asks for help without getting frustrated.

I’m really shocked with how well he’s doing on his feet since he has had the cast on his arm.  At first having the cast on threw his balance off really bad, but now he is being so brave on his feet and has started climbing on all kinds of things and walking on uneven surfaces.

We met with his Physiatrist (rehab doctor) today and he was very pleased with how the casting was going and also with Ryder’s Orthotics.  I haven’t updated about his Orthotics, but they are really doing their job!  We had to have a break-in period but Ryder is to the point now where he wears them full time and you can see a huge improvement in the way he walks.  He is no longer dragging his left foot along, but instead taking a conscious step with his left foot.  At first walking with the orthotics (plus his shoes that are 1.5 sizes too big to fit them!) were weighing his feet down so you could tell that it was kind of exhausting to walk around.  But it didn’t take long for him to build those leg muscles up and now he’s walking so well in them!

Here are some pictures from Week 2 of Constraint Therapy:

   

Challenges:

• Accidentally hitting himself and others in the face with the cast!
• Getting food out of his left hand once he has it up to his mouth.
• No pincer grasp & using fingers independently of each other
• Picking up large objects or very small objects
• Getting a good grip on a crayon or pen to be able to draw

Accomplishments:

• Painting with a paintbrush and fingerpaints!
• Opening doors and flipping light switches
• feeding himself snacks
• Picking up coins
• Drinking from a cup with handles
• Carrying around objects that have some weight to them
• Rubbing his eyes and getting his hair out of his face
• KEEPING HIS CAST ON FOR A WEEK STRAIGHT!  Thank goodness it didn’t fall off again.

Two weeks down, only 1 more to go!  I’m so proud of Ryder for being such a good sport with this whole thing.  We’re making lots of progress with Lefty and I’m so happy to see him benefiting from it all.

Some Serious Stuff

One very serious thing happening in this house right now is that we are being tormented by Daddy and this Dinosaur…remember the present Ryder got for his Birthday that we are all afraid of?!  Daddy is enjoying it way too much, I caught this on tape a few weeks ago, notice how the dinosaur catches Ryder’s eye and he’s not sure what to think:

 

If there is one thing that Ryder takes very seriously, it is his motorcycles!  He knows all the different kinds of Harley’s, here he is to tell you all about them:

 

The truth really is that it’s hard to be serious around here with such a silly guy making us laugh all the time, you just never know what will come out of his mouth, here is the perfect example!:

Partyin’ It Up!

That’s what we’ve been up to over here, you know us, we get a little crazy sometimes.  Okay, not really, but we have had a fun past few days!  Sunday was Bryce’s 5th Birthday party so we headed over there to enjoy a Super Mario time!  Ryder’s favorite parts were all the candy:

Pinning the mustache on Bryce (with lefty I might add, thanks for your help Diana!):

And these fabulous cupcakes!  (How cute are this Mommy & her baby boy?!  Love them!)

Then lastnight, we had “Just a Little Sprinkle” (not to be confused with a full blown baby shower!) for Nicki which turned out just perfect!  And we were actually able to pull of a surprise, good job girls!

 

She got lots of cute stuff and a money tree!  I’m so happy we were able to do something special for her before Baby Jax gets here…who we are all super anxious to meet!  Here are Jaxon & Maisy, the future Mr & Mrs (he’s sitting on her…how sweet!)

And our whole group, with the 4 preggo’s sitting up front! 

27 Weeks!

Here is what Alpha Mom says about this week:

Your Baby:

• Hey! Remember when I told you your baby was as big as a gummy bear? Oh, about 19 or 20 weeks ago?
• Now imagine a two-pound, 15-inch-long gummy bear. Yep.
• Eyelids (which have been fused since 11 or 12 weeks) can now open and close.

You:

• Are officially in the third trimester! Feel free to celebrate/panic at will.
• May notice more of that pesky round ligament pain as your belly gets harder and bigger and rounder, or as it starts to dip down a little bit, looking a little less perky and cute than it did a few weeks ago.
• Depending on your baby’s position, the kicks and movements might be a little painful. Feet up under your ribcage, jabs to the cervix, random body parts of mystery poking you way off to the side, where you didn’t even think those little appendages were long enough to reach.

Finally in the 3rd trimester!  This has been the toughest week for me through this whole pregnancy.  I hurt my back last weekend, which in turn has pinched my sciatic nerve, so I have been living with a constant sharp pain shooting down my right leg and my foot is completely numb.  I haven’t found anything that gives me any relief, so I’m just praying that somehow this goes away and doesn’t last the remainder of the pregnancy.

On a happier note, Maisy got the hiccups this week for the first time which is always a special milestone.  Don’t ask me why, but I looked forward to that with Ryder too!  I guess because we’re always wondering what these babies are doing in there, and that is one thing that I know for sure, is when she has the hiccups. 

I’ve been getting Braxton Hicks contractions more frequently, probably about 10 every day.  I really need to start drinking more water but I’ve never been a big water drinker and it is one of the things that triggers horrible heartburn for me, so it’s hard to make myself drink it. 

Here we are at 27 weeks, only 12 more to go!!