Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Visit with Pat Winders

Yup.

I’m a slacker again.

This time, though, I’m going to blame it on my lack of a working camera.  Which also means that I won the Mother-of-the-Year award for not having a camera on Sunday when we celebrated Thanksgiving with my family…

I also won’t admit that I was blaming Piper for playing with my battery charger and hiding it somewhere.  Only to find it in the back of our van in a sack of stuff.  Whoops.

Anyway, I guess there hasn’t really been anything BIG going on, and it’s been wonderfully, amazingly, quiet and, well, BORING.  And it’s been wonderful!

Today we went back to see Pat Winders, the Ds PT guru.  We saw her back in June, and because I had a lot of questions about what some of the “games” she has in her book are supposed to look like, I tried getting an appointment about a month ago.  I didn’t figure we’d get in any time soon (last time it took three months), but figured maybe by Christmas time we’d be able to see her.  They said she was booked until January, and they didn’t have a schedule for her up yet.  I was a little bummed, but that’s what happens when you want to see ONE person.  About two weeks ago, I got a call from the clinic saying that Pat had opened up a window for us to come in so that we didn’t have to wait.  Can you believe it?  So we got in today!  I was super excited.

I learned a lot today, which really makes me happy.  We learned to run with her as fast as her legs will pretend to take her to get her stride more regulated (she takes a little bit longer steps with one foot than the other).  She LOVED the idea of the walker, which also was a little relieving (you know that feeling when you hate to have someone rain on your parade when you find something you think is working???).  She was really happy that Piper looked so good standing and transitioning between skills.  Everything she’s doing, she’s doing correctly.  Woohoo!

Did you know that you sometimes have to teach our kids to waddle?  Seriously.  I had no idea.  One of our new exercises is to support her in front of our calves, support one arm, and walk, getting her to go back-and-forth, left and right.  This, in and of itself, may help give her the stability and ability to walk independently.  Go figure.

We’re also supposed to practice the lunging steps up higher, like shoulder-height, instead of waist height, where we’ve been practicing.  It keeps her balance UP instead of her reaching forward.  Another of those “duh” moments on my part. 

We’re all fairly convinced that she’s going to learn to walk before she learns to stand independently, but I also learned how to support her in learning to get into standing.  It worked!  Yeah!

I wanted her to look at her ankles (to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t sure what pronation really looks like, and there’s been some question with our PT about her ability to pronate) and get an idea if AFOs are in our future, or if it would help her where she is.  She has NO qualms about her posture, and does NOT think that she needs them.  Woohoo!  Of course, once she starts walking exclusively, we’ll take another look to be sure, but things look really good now.  We also talked about shoes- she’s definitely in the world of no shoes if your at home, and ultra soft shoes when your not.  I hate the debate of supportive shoes vs. natural movement, but knowing that she’s not pronating, I think we’re going with the natural approach.  This is my favorite pair that we have right now because of the nonslip grip, but completely soft sole- too bad I don’t like any of the current styles.

The best news of the whole day?  We should have a walker in the first part of the year.  WOOOHOOO!!!

After therapy, Piper took her walker for a cruise in the lobby on the pretty floor.  How cute is she???

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Took Piper to Chipotle afterward.  They, by the way, have the world’s best kid’s meal- for less than $3, you get a quesadilla, a serving of rice and beans, a bag of chips which is perfect for ME, AND an organic milk.  Piper finished ALL of her food.  The kid was bushed!

4 comments:

  1. So glad you guys got in and heard some good news. Piper is doing fantastic and I'm sure you feel better now knowing you are doing all the right things for her. We are doing fast stepping with Lucas too and he LOVES it. Funny how all these exercises together help them walk. Cute pics, she is adorable pushing that walker.

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  2. I need to see a video of the waddle exercise!

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  3. That sounds like great information from the PT. Does she have her own book? Piper is just darling in her walker!! Where did you find it? I guess I need to go back in your blog to find out...I may be needing one of those!! As always, I love reading your posts, I just don't comment that much!! :)

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  4. Glad you were able to get in and get all this great info! Way to go Piper.

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