Cooper the Trooper

Cooper is growing bigger and bigger all the time. He is getting more of a personality and turning into more of a little boy than a baby. We are learning a lot as first time parents. One thing we've learned is that sometimes there are a lot of checklists to keep track of infant development. And what happens when you can't mark all (or any) of the boxes in one of these areas? Well, we are finding out. 

Going into Cooper's 9 month check-up, we knew that he was having some difficulties with his gross motor skills. We have some of the most popular parenting books Your Baby's First Year and What to Expect the First Year, and we knew he wasn't doing some of the things that it says babies should do around 9 months old, but we didn't really know how to compare Cooper with him being born 5 weeks early and under such difficult circumstances. Well, at Cooper's doctor appointment this is how the checklist went: does he support his own weight while standing-no, does he sit up straight without support for several minutes-no, does he stand holding furniture for support-no, does he bend down to pick up a toy-no, does he lower himself without flopping or falling down-no, does he walk holding on to furniture-no. Everything was a no, not yet.

After filling out the forms I handed them to the nurse, she took them out to score them, and then the doctor returned to talk with us. "So he can't do any of this?" "That's not good." Not exactly what a parent wants to hear. The rest of the appointment was kind of a blur. I know I cried and left the office with a list of phone numbers to various specialists (many numbers weren't accurate and I ended up getting the run around).

 Even with the wrong phone numbers, with the help of two medical students,  we got scheduled for appointments. Because our 9 month appointment was right before the holidays, we had to wait until the new year to schedule any upcoming appointments. And boy did we have appointments...one everyday last week. We've met with a pediatric neurologist, pediatric neuro-psychiatrist, a team of people from early childhood intervention, physical therapists, and a pediatric dermatologist (he has dry skin too).

What have we learned from all of these appointments? Well, Cooper had a rough start to his life. Just look at these pictures to see how much he's changed. 

The doctors have said there are really two main questions: What's happening? And what are we going to do about it?

They're are some mixed opinions about what's happening. It seems like everyone wants more information. They want to check out some lab test that were supposed to be done when he was born. They might want to do an MRI to check on his brain, but they would need to wait until he is older, 12-18 months. When kids are older they can see more details in the pictures. They also just want us to wait and see how he does. There is concern about Coopers lag in gross motor development. And although there are mixed opinions, one concern is that Cooper may have mild cerebral palsy that has affected his legs. However, his cannot be determined until Cooper is older. For now we have to worry about our next question:

What are we going to do about this apparent delay in Cooper's gross motor skills? Well, we have started physical therapy through the hospital. We've had 3 appointments so far, and Cooper appears to be improving. At 9 months he couldn't sit or crawl, barely tolerated any time on his stomach, did not catch himself when he wasn't balanced, would not put his feet flat on the floor and would not put any weight on his legs. After just 3 appointments, he is getting much better at sitting and can stand briefly if leaning on the couch. Our physical therapist gives us exercises to work on with Cooper. We have been going once a week and we are encouraged by his improvement.We are also looking into if Cooper will qualify for some early childhood services from our school district's birth-three years program.

We will continue to work with Cooper at home, at daycare, with family, friends, doctors and therapists. We hope that with all this support Cooper can keep growing and learning how to do new things. He is a darling little kid and such a joy in our lives. We are so proud of him and love him so much. Sorry for such a long update today....P.S. I will try to do better at updating more often so my posts don't end up so long.