A praise!

Hannah had an awesome therapy session today. She was drinking from a sippy cup, was introduced to using a straw, and was tolerating a stage 3 baby food with pieces of rice, carrots, and peas. Not only was she eating the food... she was holding the spoon and with some assistance was bringing the food to her mouth, opening her mouth and bringing her mouth and head down to get the food off the spoon. This is huge progress from taking a few bites and screaming. She ate almost the whole jar. Her OT was really impressed at what she was doing. It seems like Hannah is using her arms and hands more purposefully. She still has to overcome the excessive tone, but what she did today is a great reminder that cognitively she is aware of what she wants to do, its just hard to make her body do what she wants it to. Another example is that Hannah is starting to wave at people. When you tell her to wave she will raise her arm, which her therapists all say that any purposeful, appropriate movement to what you want her to do is a step in the right direction. Please pray that she will continue to make these steps.

We have been really busy lately. Hannah's therapist is really encouraging us to never let Hannah lay down on her back except when she is sleeping. So, we have been trying every different position you can imagine. Its really hard work for both us and Hannah, but it is helping her hold her head up longer. We broke down and have started the process of getting a wheelchair. On one hand that breaks my heart because its almost like admitting she may never walk. But on the other hand we are running into more and more places where they don't allow strollers but do allow wheelchairs, so for now it seems like the right thing to do. It takes 6 to 9 months to get a wheelchair and she will have to have one by the time she turns 3 so that's why we've started the process. She will go on April 23rd to be fitted for one. We are hoping that she will have it by the time we go to Disney but that will a miracle if that happens.
I took Hannah last week for her 18 mo check up and things look pretty good. She is finally starting to grow into her size and is now in the 50th percentile for height and weight. Her head is down to the 70th-90th percentile when it used to be up over 95th. Her ped. was very impressed at the progress she's making. She said that she is much more alert and is starting to self correct her position (mostly her head) and correct her eyes when they wonder. The Dr said those are really good signs of mental ability. We are hoping to have her evaluated for speech therapy soon. Hannah is starting to make more sounds and so we are hoping they can use those sounds to help Hannah make choices and eventually words. She will probably start by using switches, pictures and other augmentative communication devices to express herself. I guess that's all for now, please pray for peace for us as we come to terms with the wheelchair, pray that it will come in time for Disney and also she still has the rash on her face, please pray that it will go away before family pictures on Friday.