Week 3 at Kennedy Krieger - Nov 25th

I just got done putting Lauren to bed and so far so good. She has definitely had some trouble sleeping the last two weeks. She was calling out to me the other night around 1:30am, desperate with the "mommy, mommy, MOMMY!" When I dragged myself out of bed to check on her, she animatedly said "Look!" and pointed at Hop-hop, who was tragically stuffed between her mattress and the side of her crib. After this urgent situation was corrected, I covered her up again, tucked her in, and she happily went back to bed. At 3am, I got the "mommy, mommy, MOMMY!" call again. I returned to her bedroom right away for her to sweetly request, "Mommy, put me to bed again." Not exactly what I want to hear when woken up at 3am. So she has been waking up a lot but not once has it been "mommy, this cast is bothering me" so that's good.

Lauren's 3 hrs per day of therapy is continuing, and I've still seen some continued improvement in the strength of her right hand. She's able to hold a fork or spoon long enough to get it to her mouth, and she was eating M&M's today with only a little assistance twisting her hand to face her mouth. She had homework over the weekend of picking up Play-doh balls, which got thrown gleefully. She also had the task of opening and closing cabinets and drawers, which grandma helped her with.

I've already seen more improvement in the strength and coordination than I had hoped for, but now I'm wondering how much of it she'll keep after she regains the use of her left arm (it's usually John's job to be the pessimist, except in medicine). It seems like she'll do what's easiest for her, which would mean using her left hand. Even with the cast on, she frequently has been using the left arm to carry around dolls or bang on buttons. Sometimes she'd rather eat by sticking her face onto the plate rather than picking things up with her right hand.

Last week, Lauren worried me when she said "I can't use this arm" while I was changing her big girl Pull-Up. I thought that she was referring to the cast again but then I saw that she was pointing at her right arm with the casted left arm while saying "I can't use this arm". It's the first time I've heard her acknowledge any trouble with her right arm at all. I was taken by surprise because I really didn't think she was aware of any problem since it's been there all her life. I'm still not sure if I interpreted her right. I kind of smoothed over the question saying, "Sure you can. That's what we've been working on. You're practicing using that arm so that it will get stronger." I've talked to her about practicing using her arm and getting stronger so much that now she tells other people that's what she's doing when they ask about her cast.

On a lighter note, I had the best parenting night in a long time the other night. I came home from work Monday exhausted and was immediately put to bed next to John on the floor of Lauren's room. They were all playing the "Night-night" game (my favorite!) and I got to play. Lauren took Hop-hop from John and gave it to me, then sang me a lovely song that went something like:

"Twinkle, tinkle little star,
like a diamond in the sky,
like a diamond in the sky,
like a diamond in the sky,
like a diamond in the sky
(Refrain) Twinkle, tinkle little star,
like a diamond in the sky,
like a diamond in the sky,
(John and I start laughing, then rolling around laughing)
like a diamond in the sky,
Twinkle tinkle little star,
like a diamond in the sky . . 'top laughing "

Delanie brought us a continual stream of new babies that "just came out of my belly", named Annabel, Annabel 2, etc. John is grossed out by babies coming out of Delanie's belly, but even more so when they need to breast feed. We played the game for about an hour, then actually went to sleep. Now that's a great night! Boy, am I old.

I think Delanie aged by about 25 years at Grandma and Grandpa-pa's house for the week earlier this month. She keeps talking about the Nor'easter they had there. For example, "The rain here is just like a Nor'easter, only it's not as windy. When we had the Nor'easter at Grandma's house, it was raining, . . . and it was wind-ing (with elaborate hand gestures). There were houses under water (elaboration?) and the boardwalk was under water, but grandma's house was not under water. Do you know why? It's on high ground. That's why." Then she goes on to talk about the bulkheads, and the number of inches of rain they got (11). We'll have to keep sending her there if there's any chance of her going straight to first grade next year.

Looking forward to Thanksgiving tomorrow! Looking forward to Lauren getting her cast off next week too!