Good News on Development

The girls had another developmental screening from their physical therapist yesterday afternoon. We were anxious to see if they were catching up on development after their home screenings were performed and we had mixed results. One of the screenings was indicating that Addison was falling significantly behind and the development specialist recommended that we get Addison evaluated for Arizona Early Intervention. Well....I am happy to report that the assessment yesterday showed the girls are doing awesome now. This therapist at Phoenix Children's Hospital is well versed in dealing with preemies and she knows what to look for. She said that both girls are scoring slightly above their adjusted age (based on when they should have been born) and some skills they were close to their chronological age.

Riley is very advanced on her fine motor skills like playing with toys, passing objects back and forth between her hands, examining the toys in her hands, and picking objects off of a flat surface. She also scored high on her social and language skills which we already knew. That girl loves to talk and yell and screech all day long. The therapist also thought Riley was right on track with her eating skills and said we were doing well with teaching her to eat with the solids. She said it was time to try some Cheerios and puffs that dissolve in the babies mouth. She went ahead and gave Riley a Cheerio to see how she would handle the cereal in her mouth. Riley did just what she was supposed to do and passed the Cheerio from side to side with her tongue and didn't try to swallow it. Babies have a pretty strong gag reflex so if the object gets close the back of the throat, they will cough to get it out. Riley didn't even need do that and so the therapist suggested we try 2 cheerios a day for a couple of weeks and then move on to some puffs and cookies. I know Riley is excited about that as she loves to eat.

Addison scored high on her gross motor skills. she is able to be in a sitting position better and hold her balance longer than Riley. Addison is close to getting up on her knees to a crawling position. She has strong belly and bottom muscles that are working hard to get her moving. She is not as advanced with the fine motor skills as Riley. She is playing with toys but she doesn't pass the objects back and forth between hands as much and is still learning how to pick objects up off of a flat surface with one hand. But overall, she is doing exactly what she is supposed to for 5 1/2 month old adjusted baby. The therapist recommended that we take feeding Addison solids a little slower because she is not quite ready to use her tongue properly. We are only going to give her a bite or two of food while we are free to feed Riley normally.

We are so happy to learn that the girls are learning very fast and have caught up to where they should be in development. Both girls weighed in and Riley weighed in at 16 pounds give or take an ounce and Addison was 15 pounds and 15 ounces. They are about the same height 26.5-27 inches long.

When we got home, Riley got to try some green beans and she loved them just as much as she loves squash and sweet potatoes. I'm happy that she is not taking after her father with his dislike for veggies. We plan on introducing more foods after she passing her 3-4 day window for allergies on each new type of food.