Thursday, May 31, 2012

Insurance Hell

My husband's company has been sold, and we're in insurance limbo. Tomorrow, we are no longer insured with Cigna, but we're not in the system of United Healthcare, yet.
And now, we wait. We haven't ordered Lola's ankle braces yet, because even if we have to pay out of pocket, which we are prepared to do, we want all that cash to count toward our deductible.

But my sweet little girl is making so much progress!



 

Who knew she could come so far in such a short amount of time?

Monday, May 21, 2012

Bad news.

Our Insurance will not cover the SMOs as we have not met our deductible yet this year, so we will have to pay out of pocket. And my husband's company has been bought out, which means his insurance may be changing in the next few weeks, so we will probably have to pay out of pocket for the next pair when she outgrows this one.

*Sigh.*

Saturday, May 19, 2012

The Hip Helpers Are Here! The Hip Helpers Are Here!

Wearing her new hot pink Hip Helpers at the park.

Yesterday, the Hip Helpers I ordered came in the mail. (Super fast shipping!)
The Hip Helpers prevent Lola from scooting on her butt, because she can't sit with her legs out "Indian style" (or whatever the PC term is for that now. We called it "Indian style" when I was a kid.), so she is forced to crawl. She was crawling a few paces on her own before we got the Hip Helpers, but now she must crawl all over, and she has been getting a little bit frustrated at times. The Hip Helpers do not prevent her from pulling up to stand, but now she has to do it in a different way than she normally did it, which is also frustrating to her.

Lola crawling at the park.


In other news, she got fitted for her Sure Step SMOs on Thursday. Now we're playing the waiting game, waiting to hear if our insurance will cover them, and then waiting for them to be made. I am anxious to get them on her little feet. 

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

New developments...

Doing laps, cruising around her playpen.



On Saturday evening, Lola scooted over to the play pen that I'd recently dug out of the attic, indicated that she wanted to climb in by pulling up to stand and lifting her leg as if she would climb in if she could. So I lifted her up and put her in. A few minutes later, I realized she was doing laps, "cruising" around the edges of the playpen.  How exciting!

The only problem is her feet and so hyper-mobile that her feet are often sticking straight out to the sides instead of facing forward like normal feet. So now I have a prima ballerina/yogi for a daughter.

Like a ballerina in second position. 

So, next on our horizon is a visit with an orthopedist to get her fitted for ankle orthoses, and possibly one that goes above the ankle and converts to an ankle orthodic, like this one.

In the meantime, I ordered some hip helpers, which keep hypotonic kids from splaying their legs wide open, and they prevent Lola from scooting on her butt. She got to try on a pair at her physical therapy session yesterday, and she was crawling all over the place! 

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

At Physical Therapy. Standing up and sitting down practice (and play!)



Lola is making so much progress! Two weeks ago, she pulled herself up to standing for the first time. Last week, she pulled herself up to standing a second time. On Monday, she pulled herself up over and over and over again, all day. We had our second visit with the physical therapist, and she did great, there, too.
This afternoon while playing in our inflatable kiddie pool, she stood without holding onto anything at all for a second or two (I didn't even get to witness it. I was inside folding laundry while my husband was playing with the kids outside.)
We are still working on getting her to stand with a "soft" knee. That is, without locking her knees to hold herself up.
She loves the praise and clapping she receives when she tries something new, and really hams it up! If she does something she's proud of, and everyone present doesn't burst out in applause, she will stare at the offender until they clap.
Now she spends as much time as possible practicing her new skill of standing.
Her legs are so much stronger now. For the entire first year of her life, I never had trouble putting her down on the floor. Now, if she doesn't want me to put her down, she fights back!

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Physical Therapy, Session 1



We had our first physical therapy session on Monday. Lola is still very wary of the physical therapist, as any 13 month old would be. Any time Susan tried to hold Lola, Lola would cry. But, as soon as she was in my arms again, Lola was fine.

We learned two new exercises. One is a rowing motion where we hold Lola's arms, and move her in like she's rowing a boat, all while singing, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." It's kind of like a baby sit-up, but I'm doing most of the work for now.
The second exercise is rolling her over, again and again. For now, I am still doing almost all of the work, but eventually, she will (hopefully!) start doing it all on her own.

Since our appointment, I have been having difficulty getting her to do the exercises. When we row, her head falls backward and I feel like I'm going to kink her airway! And she gets pretty upset when I try to roll her. But, on a positive note, she's been rolling over more on her own, completely voluntarily!