Saturday, October 2, 2010

Update on ABM Therapy

Sadie has been to ABM (movement) therapy 5 times now, and she is a completely different baby! I want to share how she's changed in just the last week and a half:

1. Her vision has improved. She can see. I mean, she could see before, but now she LOOKS at things. ANd her eyes focus together. And the fluttering eyelids is lessening. She fixes her attention on objects and really looks at them. Last night we visited Grandpa and he hasn't seen her since we started this therapy. He just kept saying, "look at her eyes! They look great! They look normal! You can tell she can see things better!"

2. No car screaming. Let me say that again in case it didn't sink in: NO. CAR. SCREAMING!!! Somehow, magically, Sadie is now perfectly okay with the car. All my dreams are coming true!!


3. Sadie sleeps at night...in her own bed. And when she doesn't sleep, I just don't care anymore, I'm not going to stay up with her. She's learning to put herself to sleep, so I just turn over and ignore her and she goes back to sleep. If she wants to nurse, she'll let me know. This has allowed me to get MORE than 5 hours of sleep a night and boy, do I feel good!! Oh, and this week she also took a 2 hour nap in her crib by herself.

4. She's becoming aware of her body. Sadie has started kicking her legs, pulling her knees to her chest when she's laying on her back. She's started using her hands more by batting at things. She's still pretty uncoordinated, but I see her trying to bring her hands to her mouth. Her hips are loose and range of motion is returning. She can also roll over. But she doesn't. But I've seen her do it more than once, so I know she can. I feel like once she really gets the hang of using those hands she'll have more motivation to roll over. Also, she can sit more independently for longer periods of time.


5. We're seeing more personality. Last night my brother was in Phoenix to do a show and I took Sadie to meet up with him before he had to go on stage. We were just sitting in the car, but she was smiling and happy and showing off for her uncle. Then we also met up with Grandpa and it was the same thing for him. She has turned into a happy, smiley baby instead of a screamy baby who needs to bounce and nurse all day.

All this after only 5 sessions!! We will have 3 or 4 more next week before we take a break and see what Sadie can do. All of the sudden crawling by Christmas doesn't seem too unreasonable of a goal!!

If you are interested in Movement Therapy for your sick or disabled child, yourself, or anybody you know (even those who are perfectly well!) you can visit Michelle's website here, or here. You can also find amazing videos of her work on youtube (you can even see Sadie!). And even if you don't live in Phoenix it's okay, she will FIND a way to help you!! I strongly encourage you to check her out!

3 comments:

  1. Hi,

    I found your blog through starkravingmad....'s site which I read. My eyes widened as I read her intro about you. I have a blog called "lifewithbecks" and I have a little girl with big beautiful eyes (it is what most people notice first :) named Sophie who happens to have total acute HIE and CP. I look forward to reading your blog but from what I see your little girl had a rough start with a dire prognosis, as ours did, and she is showing the world that she has other plans, like ours is!
    I look forward to reading about your adventures.
    Rebecca (and Miss Sophie)

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  2. Wow!! Rebecca! What a coincidence, huh? I would love to read your blog and learn about your beauty.

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  3. I am so happy that she is doing so great! All these prayers and your love is paying off!

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