Reflex Integration

Pictures and video of Lucas being the demo child for the Musgatova Training a few weeks ago. What an honor it was to be part of it!

He was smiling most of the time!

She's doing a few reflex exercises here with him; FYI --the singing is just to distract him and keep him still, which he responds to well. When they do exercises on right side, they speak and tell stories. When on the left side, they sing. This is recommended for development--you are supposed to read to your baby in the right ear because the left brain processes speech. You are supposed to sing to your child in the left ear, as the right side processes pitch. Just a little interesting tidbit.

She's walking him here, knowing his back organization is nowhere near ready to start supporting his body upright in this position... but she's actually looking at the reflexes he's holding on to by how he responds on his feet...too difficult to try to explain! I just think its a cute video.

This at the end of her 30 minutes of working with him and demonstration, giving him a little pep talk about walking. He tells her "Happy Birthday", and watch the whole group spontaneously sing to him. Hear him tell him, "again" at the end. It brought tears to my eyes. So sweet!

Happy Happy Birthday!!

We celebrated Lucas' 3rd birthday on Saturday!! Wow, where has the time gone? So hard to believe he's three!! We celebrated it in Orlando this past weekend and just returned home. I have lots of pictures from this weekend that I'll post later this week.

Prior to leaving for our weekend in Florida, we had a special morning on Friday with Lucas in a training class. I mentioned a few weeks ago that we started a new method (Musgatova Method) for reflex integration, which is a complement to the Anat Baniel Method. This past weekend, Svetlana Musgatova herself was in Bethesda teaching a 4-day training course to therapists. Our Musgatova practitioner, Mary, asked Lucas to be the "demo" child, for her to work on and demonstrate at the training. We jumped at the opportunity to meet her, and also to have her hands on Lucas, we delayed our trip to FL to take advantage of this opportunity. She is typically $400 for a 30 minute session! Getting this expertise at no charge was also a nice bonus! Our ABM therapist was there and Marcy traveled in from New York, and I was surprised when we walked in to find our holistic pediatrician/nutritionist there, Dr. Razi. The minute we walked in, Dr. Razi jumped from her seat and ran over to greet us, gave me a hug and Lucas a kiss. She's so sweet!

We were so honored to have Lucas be part of this, and he did awesome being center stage in front of about 35 therapists. He was very tolerant of her hands on him and was charming and smiley, as usual. He had the therapists in the room smiling, and many times we heard "awwww" and people whispering "he's so cute!" to each other. Mary turned to me several times and said, "He is the PERFECT child for this!" We beamed with pride the whole time!

The most fascinating part was listening to what she had to say as she assessed his body and the reflexes he is holding onto that are holding him back, and the lack of symmetry between the left and right sides of the body (no surprise there). Her goal is to help him integrate the two sides. It was amazing to see changes in him in the short time she worked with him. She said she would relay her thoughts to our practitioner to continue working on things. Bran and I are also considering enrolling him/us in the Musgatova 8-day boot camp workshop for child and parents, which we've heard gives tremendous results (as she works with your child for 6 hours a day on integrating these reflexes). These workshops are extremely expensive though, so we will see if we'll be able to do it later this summer, not sure at this point.

Our session ended with her talking to Lucas about how he "will walk one day" and told us to give him a year and a half (but that she expects with all the potential she sees in him, that he will start really progressing in about 6 months, as we work on all of these things). Then he told her, "Happy Birthday," which prompted the entire room to sing to him. So moving... I couldn't think of a better birthday present for him.

I've included a few updates from this past month, sorry for the dump of information again! I actually wrote them last week but didn't get the chance to insert the pictures and post until now. I'll post pics of our weekend soon!

Birthday dinner at the Disney Hotel
Make a wish... you can probably guess what I wished for!

Movin' On Up

Look at our boy standing today!!

This week marks a new chapter for us, Lucas turns three on Saturday, which means the end of our Early Intervention program with the county. This means we lose all of the therapists we have gotten to know so well and become an important part of our lives. Yesterday we said goodbye to Bev and Amy (his Vision Teacher and OT), and today we had our last appointments with Michele and Debbie (Speech and PT). The toughest for me was Bev leaving, she's been with us since the very beginning, when Lucas wasn't seeing anything and I thought we were faced with a life of blindness. I will never forget the day she walked in and gave us so much hope. I also remember the first time she got him to look at something, she took his little green puppy from his bouncy seat and found a visual field he would respond to on the far left (kids with CVI will often be partial to a certain color and only respond to that one color for awhile). She worked through several objects, colors, and fields, to finally learn that he preferred green. The memory is so clear as she excitedly said, "Did you see that Mommy? He LOOKED at it that time!" I remember crying... God bless her for coming into our lives when she did.

Bev has also been our main coordinator of all of his services... so she's been with us through all the changes of the last 2 1/2 years, helped us remove the therapist that we weren't fond of, rode through the ups and downs of his illnesses, ER visits and surgeries (and even called after each one of them to see how he made it through). She's helped me cope with the challenges and emotions of having a child with special needs, and there's been no bigger cheerleader in his corner. She's truly watched him blossom. I cried when she left, for many reasons... because she will be missed by Lucas and me, and I feel so lucky to have had people like this in Lucas' life, that truly and genuinely care about him. And truth be told, I'm kind of sad that we are entering a new era!

For the first time yesterday without any prompting, Lucas said "Bev!" when she walked in and many times throughout the session. The timing was ironic, it made me sad too that he finally learned her name, and now she's gone! Bev and Amy sang "Happy Birthday" to Lucas with a toy cake that he got to take apart, then gave him a gift to unwrap of a series of books that they all signed. Amy and Bev took turns holding him toward the end to get hugs and cuddles. I could tell is was tough for them too, they have gotten very attached to his little smiling face and personality every week. I called Bran bawling after they left... although I also was sick at home and feeling crappy overall that day, so that may have contributed to me being a complete crying mess! :-)

But I can't believe this time is already upon us, I've been looking forward to school, but now I'm scared to death! He's sooooo little, I'm having a hard time imagining him in a classroom. He's so far from a typical three year old, and about half the size. But-- this is why we chose to send him, so he can become more like a typical three year old. I know he will gain so much from this particular class, and we feel deep down that is the right thing. Note: we had the choice of keeping him home til 5 yrs old in this early intervention program because MD passed a new law this year, but we chose to send him to this vision class now because we feel he will benefit from the social interaction and all the educational gains.

We had our official transition meeting with the school last week, to go over his IEP (Individualized Education Plan) and met all of his new therapists. He'll have a vision teacher leading the class, plus an OT, PT, and Speech Therapist, that will spend one-on-one time with him every week and work on his goals. Its going to be a good thing, I know it. But will be hard for Mommy the first day, I have no doubt. He starts on April 7 from 9-12 every day.

We are heading to Orlando on Friday will celebrate Lucas' birthday with Mickey on Saturday (or at least I hope to get just one picture with Mickey to say we did)! We'll drive down to visit my Grandma Treva on Friday, then meet up with my friends Marcia and Anna on Saturday. I can't wait! I have a conference that starts there on Sunday, so Bran and Lucas will head back home after the weekend while I stay on. We then head to Ohio with all the kids at the end of next week for Easter and will officially have his birthday party with my family. Lots of plans!

Playing on the exercise ball with Debbie during our last session.

Look how tall he is! LOVE seeing him like this!

Standing up!

Bev and Amy singing Happy Birthday to Lucas in their last visit

Here's an adorable video, he's so proud of himself for getting the cups in.