Things were going so slowly before. I was secretly starting to feel discouraged again. Not horribly discouraged, it was easy for me to just look at my amazingly healthy baby boy and not care, it is what it is! But his spine was curved. It wasn't straightening out like it should. When you held him up in a seated position his head slumped forward and he couldn't breathe. It was frustrating even though I knew this was normal. My group of moms on Facebook with babies the same age as Baby Hulk are always posting videos of the things their babies are doing. Baby Hulk doesn't laugh or squeal like their babies do. He isn't crawling or sitting up or rolling all over the floor. It was discouraging at first but around Lump's 4th birthday I was looking at baby pictures of him and found a video of when he first started laughing. He was 5 months old! Or sitting unassisted, he was 6 months old! So I started paying closer attention in my group. It's always the same moms. The same moms with their super advanced babies are the ones to share their videos. I can't compare my baby to everyone else's babies, and people don't post things to say "my baby still can't sit in the Bumbo".
He has taken off lately with his physical therapy. So much so that his PT has bumped up his sessions from every other week to once a week. Every Tuesday while Lumpy is at school and Mr. Grey is at library story hour with Momma Pru, Baby Hulk's PT comes over. We put out his blanket, toys and his play mat and get to work. At first I was horrified by the idea of someone coming to my house, seeing the mess. Secretly judging me and my failures as a housewife but I quickly realised, that's not why she is here! She hadn't even noticed one of my sofa cushions was missing a cover and had a towel over it because the cat had puked on it and the zipper broke so it couldn't be replaced! She is there for Baby Hulk and he is all she sees. I really love her. She is great with Baby Hulk, he never fusses with her. He puts up with all the work she makes him do and each week I sit by the window excited for her to pull up so I can show her this new thing he is doing. Currently we are working on him pushing up with his arms. He has been doing this super cute swimming thing this week. He is trying to crawl but he arches his back so his arms are not making contact. He balances on his belly and kicks his feet into the ground and does a butterfly stroke with his arms. Super cute but we have a new set of exercises to do with him to strengthen his arms and help him to push up so he can actually get somewhere! This will also help with sitting since when babies first learn to sit they are able to stay up by putting their hands on their legs or floor and pushing up.
(baby hulk and his PT working on those arms)
I love physical therapy! It is so exciting to hear how much he is
improving every week! Who cares about all the crawling and rolling and
sitting and squealing of other babies. Baby Hulk is the one who truly
amazes me!
