Brady's trip to the Geneticist

Today we had our yearly visit with the geneticist. It has only been six months since we last saw her, but from now on it will be yearly. She basically asked questions about his development and checked him over before we had to bring him for blood and urine testing for his calcium level.

She said his muscle tone was pretty much in the realm of what they expected, although she was plesantly surprised that he would grasp her fingers and pull himself up to a sitting position. She noted he was tight in the hips and knee, which we knew, but overall said she was happy with his PT work and we must have a great PT. Yeah! Thanks, Lisa! (That's Brady doing PT on the left).

However, she did say that she would have expected his speech to be a little more progressed by 11 months. He is saying the vowel sounds (luckily in her presence, too) but not babbling as often and she questioned his hearing exam. Apparently our January 5, 2006 hearing exam wasn't in the computer at Children's Hospital so she didn't know he had a retest (he had failed his left hearing exam at birth). I told her he did pass it and that I would fax her my paperwork on that. I will mention it to our Speech Therapist and see if there's anything more we can do regarding his speech. He only started the "chewier" foods recently and I know that is a big help on his cheek muscles. He did seem to enjoy the popsicle I had last night, so maybe we can start him off with ice cream sundaes! :)

She also mentioned we don't need to see Neuro, which our pedi had wanted us to check (because of his delay). Yeah! One doctor we don't need to go to! My mother, who was with me for the visit, asked the geneticist half kiddingly when Brady would smile. The doc smiled and said she knew he would smile, but couldn't give her a date, like December 6th. So, of course, we all think he's going to give us a big broad one on December 6! :) Later on, though, my mother was chatting with him and he gave her a half-smirk that she said, "I'm counting that as a smile!" Which of course I responded, "That's because you just want to tell everyone the first thing he smiled at was his grandmother!" :)

One other sidenote, the geneticist also commented that we were getting a lot of services for Brady - something to be thankful for, I know. We currently have Physical Therapy twice a week; Speech once a week; Occupational Therapy every other week; and we will start swimming with OT every week at the end of Sept. I'm not sure what other parents are doing for their child with WS, but I am glad we are doing as much as we are. I have also signed him up for yoga classes with a girlfriend on my own, and that will be once a week for the next eight weeks. It will be a good thing for Brady, but also a little guilty pleasure hanging out with Angela and James. :)