Pulling to Stand, Again, Again and Again.

Joey is standing more and more these days, and in different places too. Last week he was scooting around in the hallway upstairs and decided he wanted to get back into his bedroom:










The fantastic part about that isn't so much that he stood up at the door, but that he obviously comprehends that the door handle must be grasped and turned in order for the door to open.

He also started standing at one of the baby gates in the living room:








And of course he stands in his crib:

I wish I could figure out a way to reconfigure his bedroom furniture to get the crib away from the window...the blind was a great motivator to get him to stand up but unfortunately it now needs to be replaced since he ripped a giant corner of it off. I'm also a little worried about what we will do once his centre of gravity gets a bit higher and he can fall right out of the crib. He is simply not ready to sleep on a bed, or even on a mattress on the floor. He doesn't understand "bedtime" and there is just no way he'd stay on his mattress to go to sleep. I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Joey was fitted for his new AFOs (ankle/foot orthotics) last week. Up until now he has had SMOs, which only came up to his ankle, but now that he's standing and walking with assistance he needs more stability up into his calves and knees, so these will come up higher on his leg. I went to this appointment armed with several interventions, like toys, books, videos loaded on the camera to distract him with, snacks etc. thnking this would be a nightmare like his haircuts tend to be. To my great surprise he just sat in the chair on his own and allowed the orthotist to do his thing without a complaint. He was actually quite interested in what was going on and wasn't even bothered by the casts being cut off!

And I saved the worst for last...a short video clip of my poor, poor boy at his group therapy session last Friday:

Joey has been attending a therapy group for non-walkers (kids who are at the age that they *should* be walking but aren't due to various disabilities) since January of this year. He basically cries through the whole thing. Gramma Phyllis has been the one to take him to class every week (2x/week over the summer) and while I knew he cried and wasn't happy I really didn't appreciate how bad it was until I went with him last week. It has baffled all of us as to why he hates it so much...it's a fun group where they play and sing songs, the therapists and other children are very friendly, the environment is kid-friendly, he is rested and fed beforehand and the activities are not too difficult for him. If you've ever met Joey you know that he rarely cries, maybe a total of 15 minutes in a 7-day period, so for him to react this way is very unusual. I don't even think we have ANY other video of him crying since he was born!

After much debate Jason and I have decided to let Joey take a break from this class for the next session which starts in 3 weeks. Joey has a lot of changes coming up...a new preschool in just over a week, a new baby in the house any day now...it's probably best to give him a break and maybe try again later. I just can't imagine he's getting very much out of the class when he is so miserable!

As for Joey's new baby brother, we surpassed a milestone yesterday. On Sunday I was exactly 35 weeks 6 days pregnant, which is how far along I was when Joey was born. So as of today I am officially the most pregnant I've ever been, and getting nervous with the realization that this baby can come at any time now. I don't feel ready but I'm not sure if I'll ever truly feel ready. Last weeks' tests seemed to be fine...no ultrasound picture though, apparently a 35-week baby doesn't look like much of anything in an ultrasound picture. The tech said I'm measuring bang on with my dates, which is great, but of course she can't tell me anything else. I haven't received a call so I'm assuming everything else checked out okay. Tomorrow I have another weekly non-stress test at the hospital and if Dr.S. is the on-call doctor I'm going to try and pin him down to an induction date. If he's not there I'll see him Friday morning and should have a definite date booked at that time.

- P, J & J