We have had a busy June and July. August is looking pretty full as well. Traveling for ABM is really taking a chunk of our free time. Since the last update in June (First Steps), we have done 10 ABM sessions with another 5 more on the schedule for July!

Mattie is starting to have better balance, she is using her hands to balance herself, she has added Na-Na-Na to her vocabulary, she is eating table food (yea no more pureed-pain-in-the-ass-food), she can grab food and feed herself (although she misses ½ the time), she officially knows where her nose and belly are and best of all, she is reaching up to be held (heart melting) and gives us “noses” (eskimo kisses). Although she still can’t sit on her own, I was able to take her grocery shopping for the first time this week using an actual shopping cart!! This should not be a big deal for most people, but it was to me. A few SNM suggested that I use sugar bags or water to keep her from falling over, but I decided to wing it and just have her hold on (for dear life) and for the most part she did really well  (she only fell over twice!!).

As we continue with ABM, PT, and OT, we are finding that even though she is behind, she is making slow and steady progress. All of our time and effort is really paying off and that is what gives me motivation to continue this crazy hectic schedule.

We were officially released from Mattie’s GI doctor. Yea!!!! Another ‘ologist crossed off our list! Mattie is back on the growth charts and at her 15 month checkup last week she weighs a whopping 19 pounds 14 ounces! She is in the 40% for height and 25% for weight. We are back to every 3 months with her pedi!

We saw Mattie’s neurologist this month. He thinks she is making progress and has pushed our appts to every 6 months rather than every 3 months. He had nothing new to tell us and we had nothing new for him. He is old school and some of the alternative therapies we are doing with Mattie he has never heard of. I have been thinking about switching neurologists, but he is one of the best in our area. I am not sure that a new doctor would really shed any light on Mattie and her PVL since all kids are different, so that is why we have not made the switch or even gotten a 2^nd opinion.

One area that I have gotten 3 options on is her eyes and vision. We saw Mattie’s eye doctor this month and let’s just say that we are no longer just “waiting”. As you know her eyes will occasionally turn in. This does not happen all the time and most people may not even notice, which is why we have been holding off on surgery. We started patching again. This time it is her left eye. Dr. W thinks that her right eye is now the weaker eye (we were patching her right to fix her left) and Dr. W wants Mattie in GLASSES!!! I knew this was coming. We went home and took out the lenses of her sunglasses to see how she would do with wearing glasses since we were advised that if she would not leave them on then we should wait on the glasses. She immediately takes them off. I can’t even get a picture of her wearing them! So… I just bought an eye glass strap in hopes that she cant rip them off. I am waiting for that to come in the mail before we give up on this eye-dea 😉