Six Month Review

Emily had her six month review today with ECI. We reviewed her goals and set new ones for the next six months. Here's the rundown...
1) Sufficiently takes a bottle sucking, swallowing, and breathing all at once without having an apnec spell or turning dusky at the lips. OBVIOUSLY CHECK!! (It amazes me that this was even a goal six months ago! We've come a long way!)
2) Focuses and follows objects and people as they enter her line of vision. CHECK!
3) Shows concept of object permanence. CHECK! (This was a hard one for Em!)
4) Can hold, transfer, and play with small toys/objects in her hands. CHECK!
5) Can tolerate tummy time and pivot to reach objects/toys not within her reach. CHECK??? (We gave it to her even though she still needs work with this one!)
6) Can sit unaided for a short period of time. CHECK!
7) Can transfer movements from back to sitting position. UMMM... NOT EVEN CLOSE. ONGOING GOAL!
8) Has the ability to crawl or shows positive signs of pre-crawling strengths/movements (getting on hands and knees and rocking)... NOT THERE YET...ONGOING GOAL!

So... six out of eight makes for a pretty good report card! And really I think I might have been a little unrealistic with those last two goals. I have to keep reminding myself that she is technically still a seven and a half month old and got a rough start!!

In the next six months we will be working towards...
1) Building muscle strength and coordination
2) Walking across flat surfaces
3) Climbing steps on hands and knees
4) Socially engaging and interacting with peers
5) And Speech - to repeat and say simple words with cognition (a lofty goal I've been told, but we'll see!)

Once Emily hits her first birthday her adjusted age is no longer a factor in her development. This being said I have been assured that it takes some preemies up to kindergarten to be developmentally on target with their peers. Speech tends to be the area they lag behind in the most since they typically can't "learn" two things at once and motor skills take precedence. I have high hopes though that in six months we will be fully "caught up" and can be dismissed from ECI and all these therapy sessions! It will be nice not to stress over constantly keeping the house clean for all our friends that come to work with us weekly!

We are setting goals with our speech therapist later this week but those are obvious and I'm sure will be attainable once we get the "tongue tied" issue resolved. We need to seek a second opinion to know if a simple clipping will be sufficient or if we need the whole tongue reconstructive surgery as we've already been told... Our motto this past year... "If it's not one thing, it's another!" At least we know there is a reason for Emily's lack in progress in the eating department!

That's all for now! Thanks for keeping up with us and for constantly keeping our little Emily in your prayers. Things haven't been the easiest for her but today I was reminded of just how far we have come! Hopefully in another six months time we can close this stressful, frustrating, and worrisome chapter in Em's life and get on to busier times chasing two toddlers around the house!