get those arms moving

When we first had Lua, we spent a lot of time trying to figure out what caused the condition, what is the condition, how will the condition manifest, but we never found any answers with her. For Sol, I pretty much have stopped worrying about it and just try to work our hardest and hope for the best. His legs have always been his strongest muscles, his arms and hands have always moves the least. We get use to it of course, I remember a lot of parents of kids with AMC always say their kids find a way to do things on their own in unique ways. That holds true for Sol as well, so we just do our best with what we have.

Over the summer we had a really amazing accomplishment, I think most everyone that reads this blog follows Sols page so everyone already saw what it was and that was him being able to (with arm support) bring a spoon to his mouth and feed himself. It seems like such a little thing, but when we first got our arm support device Sol was moving very little to almost not at all in it. It took weeks until he was able to build up the strength to get his arms making any movement at all. Now suddenly he is making larger and bigger movements, enough to be able to bring a spoon to his mouth. That is a huge accomplishment! It also encourages him to eat more as well, a win win!

We got our adaptive arm equipment from www.savorlifeadapted.com , another momma of a medical fragile child, they have such awesome ideas for their kiddo and gave me the idea to get this for Sol. The arm sling helps eliminate gravity by using the arm cuffs and a bungee cord. The cord gives nice extra movement compared to just using string or something that is stiff. So overtime, sort of like how sols legs started out, he has kept building and building the endurance he needs to get those arms moving! This last week we had therapy and we are in the middle of switching over to the school system therapy so we have a bunch of new therapists that need to learn all about Sol. At one session this week, we worked on popping bubbles by moving his hand into it. It really surprised me how hard he kept working to swing his arm into it to pop it, and he eventually got it! This is the baby that started out with no movement in his arm at all! Now when we are on the couch if you put his arm up, he will move it back and forth on his own. He is working at petting his dog, he uses his legs to help him bring his arms down, but it brings him a ton of joy to be able to pet his dog!

I have to admit, I didn't really know what to expect when all the AMC moms would say their kids find a way of doing things in their own way, I thought maybe it wasn't true at all, but given time and support it is true, these kids can figure out anything! Maybe that is why he is so stubborn ;) 

Yay Sol!