just a little "jumpstart" needed . . . .

So, for those of you who want to know, but don't want to ask:)  Spoiler alert - all good news! . . . We took the boys to the Physical Therapist, Dee, this morning.  Bowen, of course, is fine.  Dee said he has a little stiffness in his legs (due to being born so early, not normal stiffness), but that he is overcoming it fine on his own and does not need any help.  We credit that to his strong curiosity, determination and independence.  If he can't do something, he just tries harder; it's his inherent personality.  No one else (probably not even most therapists) would notice this stiffness.  The only thing Chris and I and Aunt Beth have noticed is that he occasionally likes to stand on his tiptoes (a sign of this abnormal stiffness, or "tone").

So we had prepared ourselves for the worst news with Luke (even though our guts say he will be fine), and got pretty great news.  Dee said she sees that Luke has poor trunk control, stiffness in his legs, wants to stand on tiptoes more than not, does not like to separate one half of the body from the other (as you would do with crawling - moving one leg then the other; he wants to move both at the same time).  All this we knew already.  Nonetheless, she said he has good motor patterns (yeh! that's a good thing).  She feels (which we already knew) that he will need motivation and tough love (he only does what he wants to do; he is just as stubborn as Bowen, but his stubbornness drives him in a different direction).  He becomes quickly frustrated with a task and (as Dee says) "twits out."  However, he will do the task if you put the right toy in front of him or play the right game with him, etc.  I offered for her to use the boys for demo in the P.T. school pediatrics class in August, so the students could see the difference in development between premature TTS twins.   Her response - "That would be great, but I don't think there will be anything to see by August."  Yeh for Luke.  So, Luke will start twice a week PT & OT sessions, and once a week speech sessions to get him jumpstarted.  Which is what Dee said is all he needs, a little jumpstart.  So we are very pleased with this prognosis.  

In the meantime, we'll roll the video tape for Dee to use for her class, and maybe I'll finally get some videos up on the blog! . . . 

And a personal report - I'm taking my huge board certification exam on Sat, March 14th.  If you think about it, say a little prayer for me to do well!