Seventh Month Home

As most of you know these logs are not current happenings for Liam. We are trying to post a complete recovery timeline for him in effort to help those who may be entering this same path that we have tread with a child with a TBI and give them hope, and to also help others understand what Liam has been through and the devastation that a traumatic brain injury inflicts. I will continue to do these month long updates until I am finally caught up to his current status. If people would like current status/events on Liam before I have finished this mountain of a task, please let us know and we will try to post small highlights and updates.

Seventh Month Recovery Week 1
As we were getting you ready for bed, you used the crib rails to pull to sitting all by yourself twice. Today you went from laying on the floor to sitting all by yourself once. And when it was time for your bath, you pulled yourself to sitting in your crib. When I came around the corner and asked you how you got yourself sitting, you smiled and clapped. Every time we enter/leave a room where the lights are on, you will turn them off if I ask you to. You also push your door closed when I ask you at nap time. You are drinking milk from a sippy cup much better now, you don’t choke like you used to.

Seventh Month Recovery Week 2
Your physical therapist taught you how to stand against the couch holding on. After a few minutes you were standing next to the couch like a champ. Later as baseball you were standing up holding onto the stroller. You want to stand constantly now. But you aren’t able to pull yourself up without a little help.
You lifted both arms when on your back to be picked up now. This is a great accomplishment for you to not only ask to be picked up, but to be able to raise your left arm up.
You are babbling “ma ma ma ma”, “ba-ba-ba” and “ya ya” (which by the way is still one of your favorite sayings). You clapped your hands at the breakfast table when your brother started clapping his hands. You were all smiles.

Seventh Month Recovery Week 3
You are army crawling everywhere now. You like to go to the gate and play with it or crawl into the kitchen. You almost sound like you are trying to say dog when you are near Skye. You say “DahDah” over and over. Will have to watch and see if that is what you are doing. Now if I ask you to “High Five”, you clap instead. You seem like you are starting to sign “night night” when you are tired. Another thing we have to watch to be sure. We are working hard on teaching you the “more” sign. You will reach for something you really want and go “uh uh.” But not signing “more” yet. We will continue to use ice cream to tempt you. 
You made more “mmm mmm ma” noises today. You are still trying to drag yourself up on your mom. However, today you started going on hands/knees right before you try to pull up. You went on hands/knees all by yourself in your crib tonight and tried to pull up to stand before bath time. You were almost successful.
You are trying to pull yourself to stand on your brother now. You pulled yourself to sitting in your crib during bath time.
During occupational therapy today, you sat up by yourself several times from the floor without anything to hold on to. You crawled over to the coffee table and pulled yourself to stand all by yourself (twice). You are super speed army crawling now. You pulled yourself to sitting at the kitchen gate and sat there. You were much steadier sitting today. I didn’t see you topple over at all from a sit today. You have no fear and will just turn away from the couch while standing and let go (giving your mom and dad a heart attack). You pulled yourself to stand in your crib.

Seventh Month Recovery Week 4
You are now pulling yourself up on the couch, your table toy and the window sill. Your sleep issues are getting worse, and you are not wanting to sleep at all anymore.
You pulled a dog toy on a string after you as you crawled today. You are skipping naps like crazy and you are very restless at night. You are sitting by yourself all the time and pulling up on anything and everything.
You are starting to climb stairs with us shadowing you of course. You think it is great fun…I don’t find this very fun at all.
We have been working at trying to get you to crawl with your belly off the floor (called creeping) using physical therapy. Today you crawled (belly up) about four steps by your dad. You are spending more and more time up in hands/knees position. You have been really fussy the last three days. I am wondering if it is teething or maybe frustration. You want to be able to walk so bad. Yesterday you were hanging onto a table when you turned, let go and tried to walk to me. You made it one step and then fell down. You are letting go a lot when standing and diving towards whoever is next to you. I am hoping this is just you not knowing how to get out of position. You did something like this with independent sitting. Until you learned to side sit and go to hands/knees to get out of sitting you would just throw yourself backwards. You keep whining and dragging yourself up on me to stand. You don’t want to be carried or held still. Go go go…that’s you.