The amazing Mr. (and Ms.) Fiegel

Despite my occasional worries, Colin continues to amaze me with his leaps forward and his determination to get what he wants. He is one determined little dude! And right now, every fiber of his being is focused on figuring out this walking thing. 

On Saturday, I was playing with the babies in the living room while John and Ethan were at a birthday party. Veronica was showing off her newly minted walking skills (more on that in a minute), and Colin was working on his cruising. He just started really cruising around the room on the furniture about a week ago, and now he uses that skill a lot. 

While I was watching and thinking how much more confident Colin was getting with his cruising, he suddenly let go of the coffee table and reached across the gap to the couch — successfully — and continued his cruising from there. I was very impressed.

He also is trying very hard to find his balance point while standing. When I walk with him holding my hands, he will regularly stop, lean against my legs and let go of my hands. Tonight he even started trying to push away from my legs and balance on his own. (He’s not quite there yet.)

Of course, after a block of doing the walking and trying to balance thing, he got tired of the challenge and raced Veronica by crawling (he won) back home.

And, as you may have guessed, Veronica has fully embraced the walking life. She is now walking every where, including half way to Trader Joe's yesterday, and all the way down the block today. She also is capable of getting pretty close to a run, especially if she sees a dog. 

Not content with just being an official toddler now, she also keeps upping the ante by doing things like working on turning corners, or walking while carrying ever-bigger objects. She also is very proud of her ability to climb the stairs (a trick Colin actually mastered first), which means we have to keep a gate up at both ends of the staircase. 

There is never a dull moment in our house, and it’s getting more exciting every week. 

The other shoe

After having a month without doctor appointments, we’re back in the throws of juggling schedules to make all of our appointments fit. (We’re not doing so well with it — poor Colin has two appointments in one day on the 27th.) This week, Colin finally had his six-month follow-up appointment with the pediatric ophthalmologist (only 2.5 months late) and an appointment at the high-risk clinic at the hospital.

The ophthalmologist appointment went well. John took Colin, who was very quiet and snuggly throughout the visit. His vision is fine, and he does not need glass nor does he need to see an eye doctor again until he’s five, unless we suspect he’s having trouble seeing. 

The appointment today at the hospital was a mixed bag. I always enjoy going back to the hospital with one of the babies. People there still remember us, and it’s nice to be able to chat again with so many of the people who helped keep us sane while we were practically living there last year. 

The appointments at the high risk clinic (at least at our hospital) are always the same routine: Colin gets weighed (he’s up to 17 pounds, but I think their scale tends to weigh a bit light), measured (he's 27.5 inches now) and has his blood pressure taken. Then we see an occupational therapist, and finally one of the neonatologists from the hospital. They assess the babies as preemies (whereas their pediatrician assesses them as babies), and make recommendations about specialists or extra services we may want to pursue. 

Occupational therapy assessment has gone quite quickly for us the last two visits, because Colin’s therapist is also the therapist at the clinic right now. When she walked into the room, Colin’s eyes lit up and he reached out to her. He had fun “playing” the games she presented him with, and was very proud of himself. Since she already knows him well, this ends up almost being like an extra session.

Colin is very advanced in his fine motor skills — testing between 14 and 15 months (at and above his actual age). However, he is still only at a six- to seven-month equivalent in his gross motor skills. He also remains high tone (especially in his shoulders and ankles) and has slight torticollis (his head favors one side/doesn’t rotate fully to the other side). 

As a result, he presents a mixed bag, from a developmental standpoint. His coordination and fine motor skills are very good, and he’s making progress (very slowly) on his gross motor skills. But at the same time, his tone is not improving much (or at all) in two of the key areas. So Colin is now adding another specialist to his collection: a neurologist.

This is that proverbial “other shoe” dropping that people always talk about waiting for, and in a way I have been waiting for it. While no one said it, what they’re having Colin evaluated for is cerebral palsy. And honestly, part of me is surprised it hadn’t come up sooner. He is at very high risk for cerebral palsy, and has several of the classic “symptoms” or signs. 

Now, in reality, a diagnosis of CP doesn’t really affect anything — it’s not a degenerative or progressive disease. It is what it is. And if Colin really has CP, he isn’t going to be any different after labeling it as such. He’s still going to be our gung ho, into everything, working on learning how to walk and ignoring sitting little guy. It just means it isn’t likely to get any easier for him as he gets older. He’s not going to just grow out of the need to work twice as hard to accomplish these milestones.

Of course, Colin doesn’t present a classic case, because of the strong coordination and fine motor skills. So the neurologist may say it’s nothing to worry about, or that we should wait until he’s older to do an assessment. We won’t know for sure until next month. But in the mean time, that tender shoot of normalcy has again been squashed under foot. We’ve been reminded that our babies aren’t normal — they’re preemies.

12 Steps

No, not a recovery program. That’s Roni’s current record for steps taken in a row. She did that today — walking across the living room to get to John and Colin. (Ethan and I were at Ikea, so we missed it.) Tonight before dinner, she took another 10 steps in the kitchen. And she has been doing shorter “walks” all day long. I have a feeling it won’t be long now … her confidence is growing. 

Colin too is making leaps forward again. He is rapidly mastering the art of standing up (and more slowly mastering the art of getting back down again). He doesn’t do it “right,” which only poses a problem because his style for standing could stretch out the ligaments in his feet, which would make running and jumping (later) harder. 

As a result, we have switched gears in PT, and are helping Colin learn how to stand properly rather than focusing so much on sitting. We’re still trying to help him learn how to get into a sitting position, and spending a little time on getting out of sitting with a bit more grace (and fewer bumps to the head). But with Colin, you’ve really got to go where his interest lies, and right now that’s with standing.

Both babies are making progress in the communication department. Colin now signs “please” and “more” in addition to waving and doing high fives. He isn’t really speaking any words consistently, but he does make the full range of sounds so we’re not concerned about his speech (yet anyway). Veronica now says “uh oh” and “bye-bye” and has many signs (fan, please, banana, more, up, out, down … I really should make a list at some point). 

Colin’s insatiable curiosity and dogged persistence are running us ragged. When he’s awake, Colin is invariably trying to do something he’s not supposed to. I feel like every five minutes we’re having to pull him down from the shelves, or off the ledge under the table, or off the treadmill, or out of the kitchen cabinets. 

And two minutes later, he’s right back at it again. And again. And again. We’ve run out of gates to block things off. Maybe we’ll just buy a big cage … just kidding.