Physical Therapy

When Regional Center initially set us up for therapy for Finn, the whole thing seemed very overwhelming to me. Foremost in my mind was my determination to just try to enjoy Finn being a baby and not fill up our schedule with endless therapies (I'm sure part of this was denial, too). So we agreed to have a physical therapist come twice a month to work with Finn. That seemed like plenty, especially in light of the fact that Finn has always had great muscle tone - so it just seemed like any P/T he received would just be icing on the cake (the cake being the fact that I've tried to convince myself all along that somehow he's going to be the medical marvel, the exception, the baby/child/person with Down syndrome who only has Down syndrome in name but not in any real sense).



But I've started to wonder. Or rather, I guess I've started to face reality. I came across a photo yesterday of Lilah at 4 months old:

(cute, isn't she?)

For some reason, this picture set a little panic in my heart. See how well she's lifting not only her head, but her chest too? Finn doesn't do that. He lifts his head very well . . . but I can't say he's lifting it any better now than he was a month ago. (When you see them every day, it's hard to say . . .) I also notice that when I put him in the Bumbo, his head tends to loll backwards after a couple minutes. Is this normal? I mean, for a "regular" baby. I don't know (and you would think, having been around the block as many times as I have, that I would know, but it's hard to remember at exactly what age who did what). I'm afraid to look on the internet for a chart of developmental milestones. I'm afraid that the first time I am faced with a real, actual delay in Finn, I might fall apart.

This is utterly silly. I mean, when you have a child with Down syndrome, you just have to accept that there are going to be delays. Period. Exactly what delays there will be, and how severe, is all a mystery. But they will manifest themselves. That's just the way it is.

It's still hard to accept. I keep reading this mantra that so many other parents with children with DS seem to repeat: "He'll meet all his milestones, it will just be in his own time." And that should give me comfort, right? It sort of does. But it sort of feels like just one of those syrupy sweet sayings that's just supposed to make you feel better about a not-ideal situation.

Anyway, Finn had physical therapy this afternoon. I asked the therapist if she thinks he is manifesting any delays yet, and she said, very confidently, no. She also pointed out, though, that in a lot of cases, delays don't start presenting themselves until 6 - 8 months. I asked her if she thinks Finn would benefit from weekly P/T instead of just twice a month, and she said yes. So we're going to up his P/T to once a week, but it won't start for a few weeks. In fact, he won't have any P/T until the end of November or early December because our therapist is leaving this week to do missionary work in Cambodia for 3 weeks!

So in the meantime, I'll keep working with him at home and trying to wrap my head and my heart around this whole thing.