Early Intervention - First Visit

Tuesday, Lisa from EI came to work with Rachel for the first time. She put down a blanket on our floor and proceeded to see how she was doing. She was really impressed with her head control and how high she can raise it. Rachel also rolled over again from tummy to back. So exciting! Lisa put Rachel on her sides to see how she reacted and she did fine. Even though Rachel is still battling a stomach virus, she did very well and only got tired at the very end of the 45 minutes she was working. We were given a number of exercises to do with Rachel too. We were taught how to roll her over from front to back and back to front to teach Rachel how to do it herself. Lisa gave us ideas on mouth noises to make to get Rachel to start imitating by using her mouth although I am really horrible at making the sounds myself! She told me not to use the play mat we have and instead use a plain blanket with one interesting toy. I guess the play mat has too much stuff going on and it can overload Rachel and keep her from focusing. She showed us how to put Rachel on her side with a toy directly in front of her to encourage her to roll over and to reach for the toy. Lisa had this handy jingle bell rattle that Rachel loved. I need to get one of those. She also told us to try and find toys with light since babies as young as Rachel react more to light than color. I really wish I had recorded the session. It would have been nice to have to remember all her pointers and to be able to post on here so everyone could see her progress. Oh well, maybe next time. Right now we are just trying to get her feeling better. She caught some kind of stomach bug and has had diarrhea since Sunday and has also thrown up twice. I'm worried about her losing weight and getting dehydrated. What a crappy way to spend the week.

*** On a side note, my neighbor, Catrina, just gave birth on Tuesday to her first born, a new baby boy, Kendrix Kingston. He was 6 pounds, 10 ounces. I can't wait to see him when they bring him home and I know he will be great pals with Rachel. Congrats to Ken and Catrina!