Yesterday I took Maria swimming for the first time this year. She loved it! She was smiling the whole time and seemed to be fairly at ease most of the time. The one time she wasn’t so relaxed was when I was holding her “swimming” on her tummy; it’s a good position because she holds her head up, which is good for her upper back muscles. Anyway, she moved in such a way that I “dropped” her in the water and she went under for half a second. It scared her, but she got over it pretty quickly.
The water wasn’t very warm, and since we went at 5pm, the air temp wasn’t so warm either. When we got out of the water, I was so cold my teeth were chattering, and as I was trying to get the towels out and around us, Maria yelled — I’m sure it was because she was cold. It was great! That’s the first time I remember her reacting to a temperature issue-hot or cold.
Funny thing is this afternoon Andy took her swimming to the same pool and she didn’t seem to be having such a good time–and it was warmer. Maybe she just missed her mama.
One day last week, Barb (physical therapist) said Maria did the best she’s done since last summer in walking. She took several steps independently. And Kristin (speech therapist) said Maria waved bye at her and signed “more” without being prompted. She’s really been doing great lately!
We’re going to try out a back-up habilitation person tomorrow. She’s the daughter of a co-worker, she’s going to school next year to be an occupational therapist. She’ll get lots of practice with lots of different things with Maria! She’s going to work some mornings so Sue doesn’t have to work 10 hours. Sue has pneumonia, and her hip has been hurting a lot, and something’s going on with her ankle, so I feel better having a potential back-up. The other good thing about Valerie is she’s young, which is a novelty with Maria’s caregivers–we’re all so old!! I’m hoping they can do a lot of walking practice at least, since that’s the most physically demanding activity.
So glad to hear she enjoyed her swimming!