Wednesday, October 09, 2013

Hugh

9 Months Old

Sometimes I have to stop and wonder where the last nine months have gone. Hugh is such a delightful baby. He's so smart and clever, and is developing his personality before our eyes. He's very laid-back and chill, but when he wants something, he's got a fierce personality and has determination within him that I've never seen in someone so young.

Hugh loves each of his family members in unique ways. He loves spending time with his mama and is all smiles for his daddy, but he absolutely LOVES his big brother. 



Gus loves Hugh too and as Hugh has gotten older and bigger, he's becoming more fun for Gus to play with. Gus loves to give "Chew" something and then try to take it away from him to get a reaction. Hugh, of course, flips out when someone takes something that he's got. It's amazing that in just nine months, our family has morphed into one where the two children interact and play and I'm often heard saying, "Gus... leave your brother alone!!"

Hugh has been seeing a physical therapist (PT) for the past month and has been making great gains with her support. Every time she comes to work with him (once a week for an hour), she leaves and he picks up what they were working on. In the short time that they've been working together, he's hit multiple milestones, including: rolling from belly to back and back to belly (part of why he qualified for PT was because he wasn't rolling), going from laying to sitting on his own, crawling, standing unassisted (not holding anything and just standing up in the middle of the room), and cruising.




The position that Hugh is in quite often
 
 Standing on his own!

 Learning to crawl up stairs (Gus was doing this at 5 months)





While Hugh is making great progress, we've been concerned about his ankle/legs and so we took him on Monday to be casted for ankle braces. He should have them in three weeks. His orthotist was very amazed at how calm and good Hugh was during the casting. He said most babies his age need to be sedated in order to be casted, because they cannot handle it. Hugh was totally fine.














This morning we have an appointment with the pediatric neurologist. I'm not going to lie, I'm really nervous about this one. When we took him to Babies Can't Wait, they all agreed that he needed to be seen by a pediatric neurologist for the tremors and extreme rigidity of his muscles. Gus's former OT, Mary, also suggested he see a pediatric neurologist, and Hugh's PT suggested it as well. Our doctor wasn't as concerned and while she wrote the referral, she wasn't overly concerned about the tremors.

I'm not sure what'll happen today (if anything). They may just look him over and then want him to come back for more testing. I'll post more after today.