Physio success

Starbaby has been seeing a physiotherapist at the children's hospital every 3-4 weeks since he was just a few weeks old. When he was born he was completely floppy, and although over his week in NICU he regained some strength, he still has very weak muscles in some areas of his body (particularly his arms and fingers), both wrists are 'extended' (bent backwards) and he has muscle imbalances in a lot of areas, where one of the muscle pairs is strong and one weak. His neck has been particularly affected, which resulted in his head being pulled right back when he was upright.

We've had exercises to do with his arms, hands, fingers and neck, and were also asked to buy a selection of sensory toys to touch on his arms and hands to try to encourage movement.

Starbaby was 9 weeks old before he lifted his left arm when lying down, but a week later he was already clutching his hands together sometimes. A few weeks after that he started getting his right hand to his mouth occasionally, and these days (17 weeks) it's often in his mouth, sometimes bringing the left hand with it.

2 weeks ago his neck was still extending backwards a lot, so our lovely physio showed me an exercise to do with him to encourage the muscles to be more balanced. We've been doing it many times every day... and the last couple of days it's become very clear that his neck has improved a huge amount. It's not far off normal now - amazing progress!

Starbaby also started rolling over 3 weeks ago and is now quite a pro at it. I am amazed, really... he has such 'funny muscles' that I didn't expect him to be happily rolling at just 3 months old... I am so, incredibly proud. Milestones mean so much more when they've overcome difficulties to get there. Although his rolling is resulting in fairly disrupted nights, every time he does it, I smile.

His fingers are still fairly weak, the left hand more so than the right, but his right hand is becoming better at gently grasping things... such progress from the little baby whose fingers were completely floppy and didn't move at all.

He has come so far in the nearly-16 weeks since he came home from NICU, and I have no doubt that he is going to continue to amaze us. My wonderful boy.