Making Waves Part II

Our last update on Blaise’s progress was at the end of March. So many things have happened since then! The last update included Blaise eating some soft solids, drinking from a sippy cup with assistance, and getting up on all fours by himself. Here is all of the progress Blaise has made to date!

In our last post, Blaise needed assistance holding the sippy cup and also getting food to his mouth reliably. Now, he can drink from his sippy cup and feed himself! In fact, most of the time when I try to feed him now, he whines and wants to do it independently. This seems to happen when V is also eating- so I guess he might be more competitive than we thought!

This year I received THE BEST Mother’s Day gift a gal could ask for….Blaise started crawling!! He is army crawling, not on all fours yet, but is mobile and is into everything! V was quite surprised when Blaise could ruin the puzzle he was putting together and moving it out of arms’ reach was no longer effective! It is pretty remarkable to be cleaning up the kitchen and I turn around and Blaise is on his way to come and see me. That is something I wasn’t sure would ever happen, or if so, when.

Blaise has been working SO HARD on physical and occupational therapy. One of the goals that we have working toward is getting Blaise to sit for an extended period of time on his own. It has been so difficult to help him build strength in his trunk/core, and unfortunately a strong core is what will help him advance with other skills. His therapists suggested this shirt- called a SPIO- to help provide some extra support and input in his core. You can think of this shirt as having scuba suit material but fitting like a tight compression t-shirt. I like to call it his “super suit”. He wears this shirt underneath his clothes everyday. And I cannot believe the difference it has made in his strength and abilities! About three weeks ago, I turned around and Blaise was sitting up tall- all by himself!! I couldn’t believe it, and I had left him on his belly. So even though Blaise still gets tired and falls down face first on occasion, he is really coming a long way. Now he is sitting up faster on his own, for longer periods of time, and can even sit when he isn’t wearing his shirt.

Blaise also has been enjoying doing therapy while standing, although his standing posture isn’t great. He hyperextends over his ankles, won’t bend his knees, and curls his toes. He does these things to give himself an added sense of stability, however- that is not how he can realistically stand. So Blaise has been fitted for braces that will arrive soon, and hopefully help correct his standing. Once we fix his standing- fingers crossed we can move on to standing mobility!

Blaise recently had his eye follow up. I’ll admit I was ready to be scolded by his doctor because I have not been forcing the issue of his glasses. It’s just that since he has been able to use his hands better, every single time I put on his glasses, he pulls them off in seconds. For awhile, if you were holding him he would keep them on, but that didn’t last too long. I reluctantly told the doctor that he was not wearing his glasses at all, that he just wouldn’t keep them on. The doctor told me she wasn’t at all surprised that he was ripping them off. When she said that I laughed but also was curious why she said that. Was it just because he was a toddler and wasn’t going to keep anything on his face? She went on to tell me it is because his eyes have improved and he no longer needs them. I couldn’t believe it! Anecdotally he has been crossing his eyes less than he used to, but I had no idea that it would translate to actual clinical improvements in his sight! We couldn’t be more thrilled! The only downside is that there won’t be any more cute baby pictures with glasses- so sorry in advance 🙂

So moral of the story is- we might as well start calling our little man DJ Khaled- because all he does is win!