Squishy Sheena

Sheena was the healthy one of the house this week, as hubby and I struggled through a nasty virus. We didn't even have the energy to take her for a walk around the block, but Sheena was quite happy to cruise around the living room while we flaked in front of the TV.

She has discovered the Wiggles. We have the one that has Auslan sign language in the corner, so I watch it sometimes to learn more signs.

When I am washing Sheena's hair, I always get her to put her own shampoo in, and I say "squishy,squishy, squishy" when I squeeze the shampoo into her hand. She holds her hand out and then squishes it into her hand before putting it in her hair. Now its getting hotter, I found myself saying the same thing when I put sunscreen on her, and she squished her hand in the same way. It was a nice little incidental learning, showing me once again that she is very tuned-in.

A year until we walk.

We had to go to the GP today to get a referral (for the Pead that we saw last week - go figure). While there, Sheena was bum shuffling the room, and putting on the charm. Another mum of a 9 month old asked how old she was and when I said 21 months, she said, "Oh - a late walker, you're lucky, my first started at 11 months".

When Sheena saw her Peadiatrition last week, he guessed/assessed that it'll probably be another year before she walks. I'd guessed the same, given that she's quite tentative with her gross motor, and she carefully calculates every situation before taking a risk - like lurching off her rocking horse, which she's started to do.

Occassionally people ask when do kids with DS start walking. In a way, it is like with most kids, in that there is a range, but with the DS, it tends to start at the later age, and then the range from that is a lot bigger. Factors come in too of course, general disposition i.e. whether the child is motor driven or an observer, medical history (operations, illnesses, medication, hospital stays), male vs female, if the child has low tone which is quite common with DS, whether the parents themselves were early walkers, and the amount of encouragement/stimulation the child has to get going.

Sometimes Doc's come out with things that take you off guard. I didn't mind the walking comment as it was consisent with what I'd thought anyway. However, when she was 16 months or so, her Neurologist said that she was X months delayed from a typically developing child. I don't personally think of her like that, I just take her as she comes.

Standing Up by Myself

Here is Sheena showing off how flexible she is. She's effortless in that way

I had to post this video of Sheena getting up into Standing. It is an almighty effort. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSFnqjHchWE She did it for the first time yesterday :) She is now trying to do it everywhere. I'd only said to her physiotherapist on Tuesday that I was pretty relaxed about her achieving it, because I knew she would.

Sheena had an appointment with her Peadiatrition today. She is going along marvelously. He said she is one of the few people that have a decent life after hypsarrythmia - only 10% do from the rare form of epilepsy.

Sheena had a blood test straight after the appt for a routine Thyroid Function test (which has to be closely monitored in people with DS), along with an FBE while we were at it. She didn't cry!!! (but did give them a lot of cross expressions). What a little champion. As soon as I went into the Pathology Collection room, I went into bat for Sheena and said that she needed a very, very, very experienced person to take bloods. It has been a disaster every other time, so I am glad it isn't always going to be the case. We find out on Tuesday if the Thyroid is OK.

Releasing Now

Aunty Christy and cousin Mark have been down to visit, and Sheena has enjoyed the extra company.

She picked up a really bad cold. She is better today after a dreadful night. I even called 'Nurse on Call', which is a govt initiative to reduce the number of people visiting doctors. She'd had 4 doses of panadol within 14 hours, and that is well and truely the limit, so I wanted to know what to do when we came to the next fever, and crying episode. The advise was to use Nurofen if she got a fever again overnight, as it is apparently less harmful on the kidneys, so we gave her 2 more doses of that at 10pm and then at 2am when she woke up sick and miserable. She woke up happy and much better.

Our big developmental thing of the week, is that Sheena is now releasing objects. She was placing bath toys on the edge of the bath, and she's been placing balls into her gumball machine.

On a mission

Sheena is very funny in the sandpit at the moment. She gets in with it full of plastic balls and sand. She gets on a mission, and is not satisfied until every ball has been thrown into the garden ready for mum to pick up so that she can start the whole process again.

Today we went to quasi-Wiggles gig at the local shopping centre with the Mother's group. Wag the dog was there. Sheena loved it, and had a bit of a wiggle, and lots of clapping.

Her standing has progressed to assisted walking where I can hold her hands above her head while she takes steps. She's not cruising the furniture quite yet, and can't get into standing by herself, but you can see the pattern getting more fine-tuned each day.