Home sweet home

We arrived back on Friday after an uneventful flight. Bella has managed this whole trip extremely well!
It was so nice to everyone at home especially Max. He has been so sweet and loving to me but I can see that he has struggled and is a bit insecure. Our garden has just blossomed while I have been away and is looking lovely. It was my Dad's birthday on the 17th so we had a good South African braai on Saturday night. What bliss to eat home style food. Here is a picture of my Dad on hiw new Harley Davidson.

Bella went to see her Neurologist yesterday and Dr T is very pleased with her progress, We are now going to continue with her Phenobarbitone weaning schedule. I am a bit ner vous about it but it will be so good for Bella's development if we can get her off this medicine.

Bella has continued with her crawling though it did slow down a bit for the first few days we were back but she seems to be back on track now. I am busy setting up speech therapy for her now as she is now ready for it. That brings our list of therapies to 9 per week excluding everything we do at home. I am back to my hectic life already. New York seems like a breeze!

Last few days in New York

Bella has been doing beautifully. She is moving with far more purpose and I am really happy with the therapy. I intend on writing a blog which details my understanding about some the principles of the Anat Baniel Method (ABM). We will definitely be coming back again!!!

I have downloaded my pictures and have inserted them in some of my older posts...

We have had a very busy few days. Yesterday we went up to the top of the Rockerfeller centre, this is not for someone who is scared of heights. When you get in the lift they switch the lights off and the ceiling is made of glass. There are lights which light up the elevator shaft so you can see how far and fast you are going up as the lift races (and I mean races) to the top floor. Quite scary. Here is a picture of central park from the roof of the Rockerfeller centre.

Last night we went for a picnic in Central Park in the Strawberry fields just outside John Lennon's apartment building where he was murdered. (V had to educate me on the fact that John Lennon had a song about Strawberry fields). As we were leaving there were people singing and putting flowers down on the IMAGINE memorial mosaic.

It has been so great having V here with me. We have had a great time and I so appreciate her having joined me. Thank you V if you are reading this... One thing I can say is Oh Boy V can shop. Here is her 'Shopping Shelf' after just 4 days...

We are coming home tomorrow and I just can't wait!!

The weekend in New York

We had a wonderful weekend in NY with V. The weather was beautiful and we did some serious shopping! Bella only had one session this weekend just to give her a little break. This evening she crawled about 1 meter without a toy to entice her. I was standing in the kitchen and she just crawled to me!!

Yesterday we went to back to Times Square for some more toy shopping and had a lovely dinner at Isabella's.Today we went on a tour and saw Madison Gardens, Ground Zero and the Statue of Liberty to name a few. In between all of this V and I walked about 50 blocks so we are both completely exhausted tonight. We also went to central park and had a horse drawn carriage ride. Tomorrow we plan on going to Harlem and on a harbour cruise.

To end off, I saw another NY character today, a Rastafarian Chinese man doing Yoga on the pavement outside our hotel....

Singing in the rain

It has been pouring with rain in New York today. Bella and I had a duvet day and just relaxed. Luckily there is a laundromat in the hotel so I did some washing. It was quite drama going to Marcy in the rain. There I was holding two umbrellas, pushing Bella's pram and trying to dodge the traffic and the puddles. While I was doing this Bella was squeeling with delight at the wind and rain. Her noises were so cute it sounded just like she was singing in the rain...

Here is a picture of Bella, its not a great one but I really struggled to take a photo in the rain.

My Dancing Girl

We had a good session with Marcy this morning. Again Marcy commented on how well Bella transitions. In fact her exact words were "Bella's transitions are exquisite" and that I must definitely take her for dancing lesssons when she is older because her transitions are so smooth and beautiful. Bella going for dancing lessons is not something I have thought of since she was born. Wow, what a mind shift!!

A lot of the work we have been doing here is trying to develop Bella's intentions. Marcy feels that she has all the capability to move but needs to learn motivation and intention with her movements. She is already more motivated in reaching her toys and intentionally crawling a few steps towards them. Once Bella is completely off the Phenobarb it will also help a lot with her motivation. A lot of Bella's toys are more 'amusement' toys and I need to look for more toys which will require her to do something to get an outcome. I certainly dont need any excuses to shop....

Tomorrow is September 11th and there is a lot of preparation going on here for the ceremonies. The whole block around our hotel has been barricaded so I am sure something is going to be happening in our block tomorrow.

V arrives on Saturday which I am really excited about. It will be really nice to see some of New York with her. I am looking forward to coming home and to giving Max his bag of toys and treats. The little M.A.N has been super brave.

Teething and Rollerblades

Bella has been super grumpy today. Shouting a lot and generally being otherwise. I noticed that she keeps putting her finger at the back of her mouth and when I managed to get a look in her mouth I can see that one of her back teeth is coming through. The inside of her cheek is bleeding and it looks like she has bitten the inside of her cheek. No wonder she has been so grumpy but its really bad timing. She also hasnt done much of her new crawling the last 2 days. But thats how she has always been. I will go and look for some teething gel tomorrow and hopefully it will be better than the South African ones because those dont help her at all. When I went to chemist to see if I could get some Panado or similar, they seemed horrified that I wanted it without a prescription from a Paediatrician. Luckily I seem to have enough with me anyway.

Marcy has also been talking a lot about sensory issues which ties in with what Kate (Bella's OT) says. I also noticed that a fair bit of the work Marcy does is similar to what Nicki does (Bella's Physio). From what it sounds like the Physio's in America do things quite differently to those in South Africa. I just keep realising what excellent Doctors etc we have in South Africa.

The kitchenette in our hotel room does not have an electric kettle. It has a 'pot' kettle which you use on the gas stove to boil water. This was quite a challenge in the beginning but now I am used to it. But, I am really missing Grant's cooking. The food here is so oily and I really dont know what to eat. I can't wait to come home and have some nice clean healthy food. Luckily I brought some Woolies Honeybush Rooibos tea with me.. Interestingly enough Starbucks coffee shop has Vanilla Rooibos on their menu. I must try it out...

I have done a lot of strolling on the streets with Bella. Now I know why Americans call Prams 'Strollers'. Today I saw a very funny sight. I was standing at a major intersection waiting to cross the road when a very old chinese lady flew across the road on a pair of rollerblades. The NY taxi's nearly crashed into her but she just carried on completely oblivious to the chaos she had caused.

More tomorrow..........

 

Day 4 for the Transition Queen

Today was our first day of double therapy and I was a bit worried about it because Bella seemed very sick
this morning. She did really nicely though and I think the antibiotic is starting to work. I was amazed at
all the different people who have come from all over America to bring their children here for ABM therapy
with Marcy. There are even people who have moved to New York so that their kids can have regular therapy. I
met a little girl who had a stroke at birth and is now learning ballet and to play the piano. Wow!!!

Bella had 2 good sessions and I am starting to understand the therapy more, the key elements being information
and differentiation. I am starting to see some progress with Bella and again Marcy commented on how well she
transitions between positions. She even said she is her Transition Queen. Now I am starting to worry about
how I can come back again in terms of money, time, leaving Max etc etc.... One step at a tim for both myself and
Bella.

Session 3

Bella had her third session with Marcy which went much better now that she has finally had some sleep. Marcy is impressed with Bella's movements and ability to transition between positions. She does not think her ability to move is a problem at all and wants to rather focus on working on her 'intent' /  'purpose' when she moves so that Bella can really understand what she is doing.

I have had so many comments on how beautiful Bella is, which is why her name Isabella which means beautiful is so appropriate....

Tomorrow we will have 2 sessions so I am off to enjoy some retail therapy now.

Some sleep at last

At last we had a decent nights sleep. Bella slept from 8:30pm to 5:30am. Yay!!! She has had quite a bad runny nose and a cough and seems quite miserable today so I phoned Dr K and we have decided to put her on Antibiotics just in case. Luckily I brought some Augmentin with me so hopefully this will help.

At last I am managing to get her to eat even though its quite a drama. She is insisting on being on the floor and crawls around to play with her toys. So in order to feed her I have to crawl around on my hands and knees and feed her while she is moving. It is a problem I am ecstatic to have!!!

We have her therapy session this morning so I am planning on taking a walk to Hudson river before her session and on doing some shopping later this afternoon. From tomorrow onwards we will be having 2 sessions a day.

Here is a picture of Hudson river from our walk this morning.

In New York and Bella is crawling

We are here! Bella and I had a long but comfortable flight to New York. Luckily we managed to upgrade our tickets to business class and the seat next to us was empty so Bella had her own flat bed on the flight. Here are two pictures of the little madam on the plane.. I particularly love the first one.

Since we arrived on Thursday Bella has not slept for more than 5 hours at a stretch so we have both been exhausted. She has finally gone to sleep now as I am writing this and I really hope she gets a decent nights sleep. We have had 2 ABM therapy sessions already but Bella was so grumpy that it was quite difficult to do anything. Be that as it may BELLA STARTED CRAWLING the night we arrived. It is too special for words. She is doing her new crawl / hop across our hotel rooms floor chasing her balls. She is clearly very pleased with herself and I am super proud. The one objective I had from this NY trip was to get her crawling and she has done that before we have even started. I think the ABM therapy looks very promising and I hope she is better rested tomorrow so she can get the most out of it.

Since we arrived on Thursday we haven't done too much. We have been to Central Park, Times Square and done a fair bit of shopping. I plan to go on a horse drawn carriage drive around Central Park in the next few days. Very touristy I know but Bella and I will both enjoy it.  This is a picture of Bella in Central Park playing with her piano.

Here is a photo of where we are staying in NY. On the left hand side you can see the blue Hotel Beacon awning which is where we are staying. The large building on the right hand side is the Ansonia which is where the childrens therapy centre is. You will notice the wide clean pavements and trees. I really noticed the difference in the Upper West Side to Midtown NY today when I went to Times Square. The buildings in Midtown are very tall so there is not much sun, there are no trees and there are lots of people and litter. In the Upper West Side where we are staying it is quieter (by NY standards), sunnier, cleaner, the people dress better and there are trees along the streets. A very different vibe.

   

I dont know what has happened to the formatting of my blog, still trying to figure it out....

Sleep tight