Week One of Physical Therapy

So today was Ivy’s second session of Physical therapy. Last week, the therapist came and showed us several exercises to do with her that would help her build her muscle tone and help her get used to bearing weight on her little legs and feet. Ivy screamed, and cried, and yelled, and cried some more, but ultimately he was able to show me a few different exercises to do with her.

All week my mother and I have been faithfully doing these exercises with her. She’s hilarious because at first she gets so excited to see the exercise ball and to sit on it, until she realizes we are actually doing one of her exercises (which by the way basically involves sitting her on the ball and jiggling her around so she can get used to moving her torso in that way and also so she starts to get more comfortable ‘being up high’). There are also several other weight bearing exercises, one which involves standing her up against a wall and holding her shins so that she doesn’t lock her knees (and lead to more hyper extension), and the other which involves sitting her on your leg and a second person holding out their hands for her, so that she can try to pull herself up to standing. Once she pulls up (and she’s getting really good at it!) then you have to hold her shins to prevent the locking of the knees. Actually the other day while we were doing this exercise after she successfully pulled herself up she started laughing. I told the PT about this and he says that is a good sign.

He came today for the second week of actually doing exercises with her and said he can already see a difference in her. He says we are doing everything right and well we are still in for a lot of work, things are progressing nicely. He actually also told me that Ivy is not the screamiest toddlers he’s ever dealt with, and says that as she gets over the frustration of not being able to stand on her own, she will scream less. He said, she’s only screaming because she’s frustrated and this is her way of trying to make us stop.

But overall it has been challenging trying to tackle this while there is so much else going on in my life. So it was really nice to have the therapist tell me today that I am doing everything right (with the help of my mother mind you). So hopefully in a few months time I will be yearning for the days before Ivy started walking. And something tells me this one is going to go right from standing to running. Send help now.