Early Intervention Assessment

Hard to believe Liv's been in the EI program for just about a year now and she had her assessment with her PT on Monday.  Bottom line - she's completely caught up with her peers despite all the medical restrictions we had initially and even ranking a little bit ahead in some areas.  Sue (the PT) and I sat there and talked about what we've been noticing her do lately - because of course Miss Liv doesn't always want to show off her new moves when we've got someone over evaluating her.  So I went through the laundry list and noted that it seemed as of late taking her out into restaurants, particularly in the morning is becoming a bit of a challenge.  Then Sue asked if I thought she was doing things that a typical 17 month old should be doing?  Insert bad mommy here - I had noooo idea.  Growing up all my cousins had kids; we've actually been averaging 2-3 per year in the familia since I was about 10 and I love them all and was very hands on; but paying attention to what they all did at specific ages?  I sort of just left that to their parents.

So needless to say I just said "Mmm I have no idea what a typical 17 month old should be doing".  Since Liv's always been a bit behind with all the normal milestones that I knew most babies did before turning one like rolling over, sitting up unassisted, pulling to sit and/or standing, etc I really just sort of pushed any timeline expectation out of my head.  Sue to her credit just sort of chuckled and said that Olivia's doing absolutely fine and we have nothing to worry about right now.  In fact of all the HLHS kiddos she works with, Liv is currently the only one who's never needed a g-tube placement.  Please tell me that I haven't jinxed myself there for the Fontan.

The most important factor for Liv catching up with everyone else Sue believes is the fact that we have Grandparents watching her all week long.  They're totally devoted to her and interact with her a lot socially and she's been exposed to lots of trips out and about to make sure she's getting all the visual and tactile stimulation that every kid needs at this age.  So THANK YOU to the grandparents for being such a huge part in getting Liv to where we need her to be for the day to day.

The entire group of professionals is going to meet with Liv and I on the 12th and Sue feels that we can discontinue PT entirely for now and if we need to pick it up again after the Fontan.  Olivia automatically qualifies for EI because of the HLHS dx so we'll just leave her case file open in the event that we need more help later on.  For now, we'll just take it day by day.