As you know, one of our main focuses and goals over the past few months has been getting Hope up on her feet and walking. Sometimes progress feels slow but we are definitely making progress and we just need to keep working on strengthening Hope’s legs and core strength.

It’s Friday afternoon as I write this, and Friday is our physiotherapy day so I thought I’d share about our therapy session this week.

We arrived 10 minutes early this week so we weren’t rushing as we walked in. Hope was in the stroller and we went up the lift and into the physiotherapy waiting area. While there Hope was her friendly self, waving and talking to absolutely everyone. When arriving early, it’s always easier to have Hope in the stroller (for me anyway). Hope can be very inquisitive and active so if she wasn’t strapped into her stroller, she would be off crawling down the hall as fast as possible and if I tried holding her on my lap, she just fidgets like crazy, making things very difficult for me. We entertained others with some songs and animal noise attempts until it was our turn. When the physiotherapist came to get us, Hope greeted her with a very excited wave and a smile. While her therapists make her work hard, she still loves getting to see them.

Within seconds of walking into the therapy area and taking Hope out of the stroller, she was up on her feet. It’s like she knows exactly what she is there to do. Often she will sign baby because she knows there is a baby doll in the room, and she loves giving them cuddles and playing. This didn’t come until a little later today. With Hope on her feet, we got to practicing our walking straight away.

We first worked on just walking, going from the therapist to me, then eventually we brought out a ball and a doll to encourage her to walk to them. We then add some stepping stones which we help Hope to step over. We walk hand in hand with Hope and she goes walking and then when she reaches the stepping stone, she has to step up and over it. The purpose of this is to strengthen muscles as well as practice a little balancing and adjusting of the weight. One of the biggest struggles for Hope is the change of balance from one foot to the other, so we do a number of exercises to try and help with this.

Now, one thing we find with Hope is that she likes to play games, and her favourite game while at physio is the escaping game. This is NOT a game that we initiated and it’s really just Hope looking for a space and crawling as fast as possible down the hallway and out of her therapy session. Within the first few minutes of being there, she had attempted this multiple times, so out came the portable wall, and the hallway was blocked off. Sorry Hope!

We have found that Hope will walk short distances (10-20 steps) every now and then however, as Hope struggles to turn corners at the moment, it’s difficult to find a big enough space at home to attempt longer distances. While at physiotherapy, we have a big room, so after doing some stepping stones, we worked on distance. While holding onto her clothes, we offer some extra support while encouraging her to walk further. By this time, her legs are already showing signs of being tired, and we’re only 15 mins into our 1 hour session. We do a little of our longer distances and it’s time for a short break. We want to work Hope as much as possible, and we want to get the most out of these sessions, but we’re not going to get good work if her legs are so tired that they are collapsing underneath her, so these short little breaks are just as important as doing the hard work.

After a little bit of playing we work on some more stepping stones followed by some one foot playing. We put some toys on a big foam square and let Hope stand and play. While she Is playing and distracted, we lift up one leg behind her making her stand on one leg. Doing this again, is helping with her learn how to adjust her weight. When we switch legs, she then has to figure out how to shift her weight again. Doing this while playing with toys means that it’s not just hard work, but it’s fun at the same time.

The final thing that we really worked on today was side stepping onto stepping stones. By now, Hopes legs are getting very tired, and this is possibly one of the harder things we worked on. The steps are placed on the floor in front of the wall, and pictures or small Disney dolls were stuck on the wall with blutac. The aim is to get Hope to side step her way across the steps to reach all of the things stuck on the wall. Again, it’s working on that weight placement and strengthening the muscles in her legs. We go one way, and then it’s time to go back the other way and suddenly, Hope’s legs are like jelly. She really did not like going back the other way, showing that she has a leg preference and potentially a stronger side. After another very short sit down break, we did this again.

The last walking exercise we did before finishing for the day was some final walking back and forth. We found one of Hope’s favourite toys, a toy cd player that sings songs. The cd’s were with me, while the cd player was at the other end with the physiotherapist. Without much explaining Hope understood she needed to get the cd’s to the cd player and each time she stood up and walked. It surprised me at this point, that she didn’t just give in with the walking and crawl. We had to encourage the standing a little from time to time, but most of the time, she just did it. She would fall to her bottom when she reached an end, she’d spin herself around and then she would walk back to the other side.  On her 3^rd trip back to the cd player with the cd it was every obvious that her legs were very tired. She was still working hard and walking but her legs were further apart and you could see it was difficult. The muscles were visibly tired so we called it a day.

For a bit of fun at the end of the session, we turned on some music and had a dance. Hope loves to dance and finishing a session of hard work with something fun means we finish with a smile. We finished dancing, strapped Hope back into the stroller and we were ready to head out. But not before practicing our goodbye wave with an attempt at saying “bye bye” which sounds a little like bubba at the moment. Off we went back to the car, with sore legs and a tired and hungry Hope. Did she sleep on the way home? Of course not!

Today was a good day. Some days aren’t quite as productive. There are days where escaping is all Hope wants to do, or she just doesn’t want to cooperate. Maybe because she’s tired or simply because she is acting like a typical 2 year old. Either way, we keep going because we want Hope to improve. These sessions are not just for Hope but they help us as parents learn how to help Hope. We learn exercises that will help strengthen her. We find out what it is that may be slowing her progress. And we also get encouragement which is so important. Encouragement for Hope is great, but encouragement for us as parents is also important. We don’t feel like we’re doing it alone, and are cheered on as parents to keep doing the best for our child.

The work doesn’t end there though, we have to continue the work at home. While Ben and I are very encouraging and work with Hope to try and get her walking, I do wonder sometimes whether we have been a little lazy at times. I know we have very busy lives and we have 2 other kids to also care for but it’s little things that perhaps we need to change to encourage her to try to walk more and make walking the “normal” thing to do. What I’m talking about is the trips from the playpen to the bedroom to get dressed, or from the lounge room to the kitchen for dinner. Up until this week, we have either picked Hope up and carried her to where we need her or we’ve just let her crawl. As she has started taking steps, I wonder if us not encouraging walking these small distances is making her think that walking isn’t the “normal” for her. Obviously, crawling is still her preferred choice as it is faster and less work on her muscles. This week however, we’ve started holding her hands and getting her to walk these short distances with help. The plan is to not only strengthen her legs but for her to begin seeing walking as the preferred way to get around. It’s not like we expect her to just get up one day, start walking and never crawl again, but we would just like to see her choosing to give walking a go more frequently, not just when we are working with her.

So where are we with walking? Here’s a little video from today’s physiotherapy session.