Shriner's - Day 27 - Sitting!

3 more sleeps!  Can you tell I'm excited to go home?  It seems to be all Ben and I think about right now...how long til we get to go home.  Plus, today is my birthday.  Pretty pathetic that I didn't even remember it was today until I saw all the "Happy Birthday" wall posts on my Facebook page.  Ah well...we can celebrate it on the weekend once we're home.

The coolest thing about today was that Ben FINALLY got to sit on the floor.  FINALLY.  Tomorrow is the 6-week mark since surgery, which means that he is now allowed to sit on the floor.  Up until this point, he has only been able to sit on a chair with his legs in front of him and his knees bent at 90 degrees.  Because of the type of SDR he had, it is necessary to wait this long so as to minimize the strain on his spine.

I thought the 6-week wait was going to be a big deal.  And if we had been home, it would have been HORRIBLE.  But we weren't.  We were here, where he spent a lot of time in his wheelchair or sitting in his tripp trapp chair.  Or he was busy in OT, PT or the playroom.  He didn't spend any time playing on the floor where his natural reaction would be to go into a w-sit. 

On the weekends when we were out of the hospital at the hotel, there were a few times that we had to remind him "no sitting", but it was fine.  Not a big deal at all.  Thank goodness.

Anyways...back on to the sitting.  So, if you know Ben (or another child with spastic CP), you know that "normal" floor sitting is hard for them.  Before surgery, Ben's preferred method of sitting on the floor was the dreaded "w-sit".  Here's a picture of both my kids w-sitting.  This is not a good way to sit on the floor.  Not good at all. 

Before surgery, it was very difficult for Ben to sit in "criss-cross-applesauce" (as we call it) due to tight calves and hamstrings.  In the few weeks after getting botox injections, he would be able to do it, but otherwise it was very difficult for him to maintain that position for very long.

Well.  Not so much anymore.  He just looked so comfortable sitting this way now.  He does have some trouble to get into the position himself, but that should come soon.  For now, I'm beyond thrilled to see my boy sitting like this:

He even played the beanbag toss game in this position and did great.  I was nervous that he'd fall over backwards, but nope, he was totally cool.

Here's a video:



Other than that, today was a fairly typical day at Shriners.  Tomorrow is a big day.  They will film Ben's AFTER video (well...his 6-week AFTER video...many more will be filmed when he returns for follow-ups).  I can't wait to see him do all the walking, movements and transfers that he did when we were here in October and see what they look like now.  At the end, we'll be given a CD with the BEFORE and AFTER.  Very cool.

To finish off this post, here is a video of Ben walking this morning in his walker.  I still love watching him take steps...it just amazes me how different they are now.