OT Update

For those of you that don't know, at Julia's one-year doctor's appointment in February, her pediatrician recommended we have an evaluation done because Julia wasn't pulling up on anything, standing, or pulling herself uo to a sitting position. To get around she was army crawling. She didn't even like swinging, was leary of things like big balls, was clingy in new situations, and couldn't tolerate chunky baby food let alone table food. Julia was evaluated at the end of March by an Occupational Therapist and was diagnosed with sensory defensiveness with her tactile and oral systems. All of these difficulties she was having were explained by her sensory defensiveness difficulties.

Since she started OT, Julia has made a tremendous amount of progress. Andrew and I weren't sure how Julia would respond to the therapy or the at-home exercises, but in the first week she was already starting to pull up on things, standing, pulling herself to a sitting position to play, got up on her hands and knees a couple of times, and was even tolerating more food texture in her mouth. It was amazing!

Now that she has been in OT for over a month, Julia is pulling up on EVERYTHING, standing to play a lot of times, crawling the stairs, cruising around, LOVES swinging, isn't leary of things like big toy balls, will take a couple of steps if you hold her hands, is consistently eating the chunky stage three baby food, and even will put things like puffs and graham crackers in her mouth.

A couple of weeks ago we had a little setback because Julia fell and busted her lip pretty bad and tore the flap of skin that goes from the top of your lip to your gums. Her confidence was shattered, she stopped putting foods like puffs and graham crackers in her mouth, and she wouldn't get herself down from a standing position. In the past week, she has regained her confidence and continues to make progress.

Julia's OT, Andrew, and I are so impressed with her progress and so proud of our little girl! Here are some cute pics of Julia practicing her skills...

Books, books, books

I just had to share some cute pics of Julia and her books...

Reading with my daddy

Showing off my reading skills for my Bebe (great-grandmother)

Reading with my Pop Pop

New Do

Since Julia is not big on barrettes in her hair to hold her bangs back and she needed another haircut, we decided she would sport the bangs look now. My baby girl no longer looks like a baby (she's still cute as can be though)...

Eating with a spoon

Here's Julia's newest trick... she's pretty accurate too! It's fun to get messy!

Happy Easter!

Climbing stairs

Julia has learned to climb the stairs. I started working with her last week to try to get her to get up on her knees more. Boy did she catch on!

Here I go, Mom are you watching me?

Whoa, don't look down!

Almost there...

Almost...

Yea! I made it. Aren't you proud of me?

Weeks in Review

What a busy couple of weeks it has been! Julia had a couple of firsts over the past two weeks, which was very exciting. This past Monday I took her for an Occupational Therapy evaluation to see why she isn't pulling up or walking, per Julia's pediatrician's recommendation. I was very nervous because Julia is a little leary of new people, but she was great! The OT is wonderful and I think Julia will really like working with her. She responded very well to her. It turns out Julia may be having trouble because of her vestibular system and some tactile sensitiveness. Sounded like greek to me, but it may also explain why she isn't eating solids yet. Andrew and I meet with the OT Monday to get the report and go over the results.

In the past week, Julia has really been working hard. She is pulling up a lot and even occasionally getting on her hands and knees. She is a big army crawler and until this week has never gotten up on her hands in a crawling position. Way to go, Jules!

Julia also went on a swing for the first time last weekend at her Nan and Pop's house (Andrew's parents). She was nervous at first, but once she got the hang of the motion of the swing, she loved it!

We also took Julia to get her pictures in the bluebonnets before they went away. She loved sitting with the flowers and we got some cute pictures.