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Liam’s Third Month Home

3rd Month Week 1
This week when we are doing your “sit-ups” (exercises to help you pull to sit that we have been doing for the past 2 months) you are starting to help by engaging your muscles. We have to practice these sit-ups with every diaper change. We finally got to transition you to your Britax backwards facing convertible car seat this week. We were just about to transition you to it the week that you got hurt since you were outgrowing your infant seat. We couldn’t use it when you came home from the hospital though since you were unable to hold your own head up. We had to use your infant carrier with lots and lots of towels supporting your head. It is finally after 2 months of recovery and exercises that you are strong enough to use your new seat. You also aren’t requiring folded towels around you in your highchair either anymore to keep you propped up.

3rd Month Week2
You had a stuffy nose this week. You aren’t focusing or tracking well with your eyes. Later we would find out that when children have brain injuries that any time their systems are compromised (sick, tired, etc) that their vision can be off (eyes wander or not focus) and their balance can be affected. You started to sign “light” this week! This is our first sign that we have seen from you. We are hoping that you will use baby sign language like your big brother did when he was a little guy. You aren’t babbling constants much anymore, no ma-ma or da-da. However you are making a “heh heh heh” noise. You will mimic this noise if we do this to you. You are starting to try to use your left hand. You picked up a binkie with your left hand and passed it to you right hand.

3rd Month Week3
You had your checkup with your eye specialist. Your right eye hemorrhage is almost resolved. You still aren’t tracking very well to the left. You started to babble again…da-da, ba-ba. We are working on side sitting exercises. This week you were able to side sit for 5 seconds without support. You like to play with your “fish bowl” toy. You are picking up balls out of it and dropping them in. You even picked up a ball out of the bowl with your right hand and transferred it to you left hand to hold. The weather this week has been very nice. You like to cruise around outside in your stroller. Your ever faithful companion, Skye, is never far from you.

3rd Month Week4
You still can’t sit in a shopping cart basket yet without lots of blankets on one side of you and the diaper bag on the other. It is tough shopping. You get tired trying to hold yourself up even with the blankets for support. Many times I just try to carry you and push the cart. No easy task since you are almost 21 lbs. and don’t have much muscle control. The first couple of weeks after we transitioned you to your new car seat, I would take the infant carrier with us to use in the stores, but now you are too big for your infant carrier.

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Liam’s Fourth Month Home

This month Liam worked super hard in therapy to strengthen himself by doing belly, sitting, and standing exercises. He is working hard to strengthen and regain control of every muscle and to sharpen his cognitive skills. Night time sleep is still really broken. He got four teeth this month which could attribute to some of the sleep problems. At least we were hoping that was the problem. But seeing how we still have sleep issues, I don’t think it was. As you will notice most of what is written in these log summaries are victories and accomplishments for Liam. When I wrote this log, I wrote the positive stuff…stuff that would help us keep faith and keep moving forward. There is a lot of hardship and bad every day, week and month, but these journals do not dwell on that facet of the injury and recovery. They try to stay positive and see the good and the strength of this amazing child, our son.

4th Month Week 1
We went to playgroup at the RESD for the first time. Your OT and PT were there. You were actually so busy looking around that you were quiet with your legs and body. That enabled you to side sit for a minute without my support. And during circle time you sat unassisted for a minute! So you can do it for small amounts of time, if we could just keep you quiet. We were worried that we couldn’t be able to quiet your legs since you seem to be constantly kicking them. This gave us hope. You love to play patty cake (with help from mom and dad) with your brother, Tommy. Everything he does with you makes you smile. You started pulling a cloth off of your head when we played peek-a-boo with you. Two days after you did this for the first time, I gently held your right hand down and you used your left hand to pull the cloth off. You are having a bit of trouble opening and grabbing properly with your left hand, but you are getting it.
 

4th Month Week 2
We are working on strengthening exercises such as standing, but since you have lacked strength and coordination, every time we hold you in a stand, you bounce. This week you stood next to the coffee table with support without bouncing for the first time. You are getting better weight bearing on straight arms while on hands and knees. We do lots and lots of exercises with you on your hands and knees supported. It is hard work for you. We have to keep you super distracted so you don’t get mad and quit. You have to have a bit of support near your hips, but you are taking a lot of the weight yourself. During PT this week, you reached across with your left hand to pull at your sock on your right foot. Cross midline and with your left hand! You lasted the whole time in the shopping cart basket without getting tired. I had Tommy’s sweatshirt next to you on your right side, but no other support. You couldn’t hold yourself up that way a week ago.
 

4th Month Week 3
Mom left you alone for the 1st time with Dad since you have been home from the hospital to take a CPR class . You did great with dad, but mom was a basket case. This week you started sitting unsupported for a minute or two. Mom and Dad still have to keep their arms circled around you at a distance just in case you lose your balance. Later in the week you are able to kick and grab at toys while sitting without falling all the time.
 

4th Month Week 4
You are experimenting with sounds. You are starting to say “ma ma ma” again. You make “fish lip” noises, which you will copy if we do it to you. Now you imitate the following noises: tongue click, fish lip, and blowing. When I had my cold every time I blew my nose you would make blowing sounds. You are starting to anticipate things such as a car rolled down a cardboard tube. We did this in OT and you figured it out pretty quick and tried to put a toy in the tube yourself. You anticipated the toy coming out the other end. You also anticipate when someone is playing a tickling game. You are rolling everywhere with purpose now to investigate everything from the window pulls to the zipper on your big brother’s couch. Still not crawling yet, but you will scoot your butt up in the air. And sometimes you have your arms straight. You just haven’t done both on your own yet.

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Liam’s Fifth Month Home

More and more therapy this month with your PT, OT and teacher. You are starting to drink from your sippy cup better. You actually are sucking on it instead of just chewing on it. You picked up some cheese sandwich with your left hand and got it in your mouth. Still not using pincer grasp yet. You turned 1 year old this month -- Happy Birthday Liam!!!! You had PT this morning. Your therapist is really happy with your pivoting. You still need a pillow behind you when you sit by yourself, but you are getting better with your protective reflexes. She is rating you at the 7/7.5 month level. So you are making good progress. Towards the end of the month, you are almost crawling. You get your butt way up in the air and reach, reach, reach with your arms. You are scooting on your stomach in a straight line towards a desired toy. You rode your pony Weatherby today. You seemed to like it. We have heard great things about Hippotherapy (horse therapy) for improving balance and cognitive ability. We hope it helps. You started holding your hand up for High Five. You don’t slap back, but you get a huge grin when we High Five you. You are still mimicking me when I blow my nose by making blowing noises (yup 3rd time sick for me in three weeks). You will hold your hand to your mouth to do Indian noises if we do it. You are getting a little better at your army crawl. You are still not holding your belly up. You love to find the remote and steal it from Tommy. In fact we are using the remote to entice you to try to crawl. You still have quite a bit of weakness on your left side. You are getting around the living really well using a combination of a struggling army crawl, pivoting and rolling. Still can’t keep shoes or socks on you…you pull them off. Last Wednesday at baseball you were on your belly and you got up on hands and knees by yourself for a couple seconds. When I lift you from lying down I have you “help” by propping and using your opposite arm and belly muscles. You still aren’t pulling up yet.

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Liam’s Sixth Month Home

6th Month Week 1
You are getting around pretty good with a combination of a couple of army crawl steps, rolls and pivots, although you find pivoting and rolling easier and quicker. We are trying to keep you from rolling by having you crawl through a tube to get at a prized toy or the remote. This is hard work for you so we have to us something very enticing in the tube. Crawling is difficult for you since your left side is still very weak. Your left arm gets caught up underneath you sometimes. When you play, especially with your brother Tommy, you squeal loudly.
You can sit for long periods of time unassisted. However, you don’t worry about falling so you will throw yourself backwards sometimes. We can’t leave you sitting by yourself for this reason. We are hoping this throw yourself backwards thing is a phase that you are doing on purpose, not because of balance or cognitive/sensory issue. You will play ball with your dad or Tommy by pushing a ball back and forth to them.
Today you got up on hands/knees by yourself for a second. You look like you are also trying to get from laying to sitting. When we enter/leave a room I have you turn on/off the lights. You aren’t signing back. But you will try to swat at the switch and them you look at the light. So I know you understand what I am saying. You just haven’t quite figured out how the switch exactly works or you are lacking the coordination to hit it efficiently

6th Month Week 2
You had a follow up appointment in Ann Arbor with your eye specialist. Your pediatrician had noticed that you didn’t like your left eye covered up so we scheduled an extra eye appointment with your eye doctor. The eye specialist said your eyes are better than when he saw you in three months ago. The hemorrhages in both eyes have resolved. Your left eye is definitely stronger than your right due to the right hemorrhage taking longer to resolve. Your brain got used to only using the left eye and is neglecting your right eye. The eye specialist was very pleased and surprised that our pediatrician noticed this difference. So we are going to try patching (covering your left eye) for 2 hours a day to give your right eye a chance to get stronger and catch up. The first time you wore your eye patch on your left eye for 2 hours you were a bit fussy for a bit, but overall you weren’t that bothered by it. You actually seemed to see pretty well out of your right eye. You rode your Jeep walker around the kitchen and picked letter magnets off of the refrigerator. You didn’t try to pull at it or rub it. This makes us happy for your eye doctor thought that maybe you would really be bothered by it since you may not be seeing all that well out of your right eye.
The last couple days you are really getting up on high, straight arms. You got up on straight arms, then arched your back and got up on hands and knees all by yourself for a second. You started waving “Bye Bye” today. Even if we say “Bye Bye” without waving, you will start to wave. You are army crawling better and more often now with rolling thrown in. You made a vroom noise after your brother, Tommy made one.

6th Month Week 3
Eye patching is still going good. You aren’t even fussing anymore. Tried new patches today that had flames on them they are better than your old ones that I was making designs on with a Sharpe marker. The hardest part now about the patching is all the stares, comments and questions we get when we are out and about. At least these patches are cute and not creepy looking like the plain tan ones. Last night you army crawled over the gate entrance to the kitchen, around the kitchen to the sink where I was preparing dinner.
When we did PT this morning you were able to hold hands/knees on your own for a second or two. You army crawled after the tablet without any rolling. We have been using the tablet to entice you to crawl. Then when you got there you tried to get on hands and knees by yourself. Your physical therapist usually has you in hands and knees while you play the Itsy Bitsy Spider game on the tablet. You remembered this!
When you took your bath you tried to sit up from laying down 3 times. I had to hold your leg down to support you and you were able to do it. Up until this point you mostly would lay on your back for your baths. You weren’t really into sitting and playing. Today you played with the foam letters and cups in the tub.

6th Month Week 4
You are definitely getting a mind of you own lately. If I take something away from you that you were playing with you get really angry. Or if I set you down or leave you when you think I shouldn’t have, you scream. We did therapy on Weatherby your pony again today. You did one more “lap” around the pen compared to yesterday (5 laps). However, you have decided you do not like your helmet. You kept tugging at it. You were clingy today. You kept army crawling over to me and trying to drag you body up to standing. For the past week that is all you seem to want to do is stand. You are pretty unsteady and you only try to pull yourself up using mom or dad. You’re nap schedule is all over the map and you are skipping naps. Today you didn’t go to sleep until 10pm.
More Weatherby therapy. Tommy helped lead this time. He did great. You still hate your helmet. You are becoming a pro at using your slide. Only took one nap today from 2 – 4pm. You then stayed up until 10 pm. You definitely do not want to miss a thing lately. Figured out that you think waving “Bye Bye” actually means night-night. So that is why you don’t always wave bye-bye.