PT: Week 1, Finally

Today was our first adventure with Physical Therapy. I think Averi is really going to enjoy it (insert sarcasm). However, when I think about it, I wouldn’t like someone making me work out for a whole hour using muscles I don’t want to acknowledge.

We mostly focused on her trunk and arm muscles since we are currently striving for sitting unassisted and pushing up on her arms while on her belly in the hopes of one day crawling. Abbi, the PT, mentioned a couple of times that Averi really doesn’t like to use her arms. Really, and do you think that has anything to do with me wanting her to get PT?

First, Abbi had Averi do sit-ups on an exercise ball. Then we worked on rolling a little bit. She also had her lay on her stomach on a small wedge so that she could extend her arms down to the ground and not to work quite so hard to push up.

Mostly Abbi worked on sitting by slowly moving her hands down Averi’s trunk until she was sitting with only one support on her hip or all by herself (something she never does for me). We really have to work on getting Averi to sit with her arms in front of her so that she will start propping herself up on them.

Abbi even put arm braces on Averi’s arms so that she couldn’t bend her elbows and had to put weight on her hands. Do I have to explain why this is going to be the highlight of Averi’s week?

Luckily, she finished the session by sitting on the swing (more of a swinging platform) with Averi. This was nice because Averi actually didn’t cry and it required her to constantly engage her trunk muscles as she tried to sit.

I'm sure her snotty nose didn't help the situation and I know she didn’t love it, but do I sound like a mom when I say, “it’s good for her”?