Lydia’s 10th Month

This little one is in double digits! I can’t believe we are nearing her one year mark.

Lydia is full of lovable, wonderful, chunkiness. She is 20 pounds 4 ounces (64%) and 28.3 inches in length (59%). She is still in nine month size clothes and takes one nap. Her routine is pretty solid right now.

This month has been a doozy {in so many ways, right?!}. This month was also a bit of a doozy for our little Lydie as well.

I realized that I have probably been a little vague about things with Lydia and I want to write down what we have been experiencing.

When Lydia went in for her six month check-up, back at the beginning of December, her pediatrician was concerned with the shape of her head. She had developed a bit of a flat spot on one side of her head because she had a side preference – to the left. Our pediatrician felt like she might need the assistance of a helmet to allow her brain and head to form as it should.

ALL of our other children had a side preference to a degree. We weren’t really concerned about it. Jacob had a FAR stronger preference than her and they had never brought anything up about it.

But our pediatrician referred us to a physical therapist in town that would work for her. No one in our family has ever done physical therapy and so we were in uncharted territory. I had no idea what to expect but we went for it.

I immediately developed a really good relationship and trust with our physical therapist. He has a son that has a very rare condition that at first presented itself with a side preference and flat spot on his head.

At first, I was concerned that that might make him a little alarming – that he would jump to those conclusions for Lydia. BUT, I actually found it to be the complete opposite. Since he has personally had to go down that path with his son, he was very slow to jump to any conclusions.

Throughout December and January, Lydia would go to her physical therapy appointments every two weeks and they went well {“well” except for her crying the whole time} and her head preference and flat spot were slowly, but steadily, improving. By the end of January, we were actually thinking we didn’t really need to go anymore.

Our physical therapist didn’t see any need to get a helmet for her and we were so relieved.

But even though we started going to physical therapy because of her head shape and preference, the focus very soon shifted to simple physical development and milestones.

At the beginning of February, Lydia has made no changes in physical milestones in two months. She was still not even close to sitting up, she barely had head control {so she wasn’t flopping}, and would hardly do more than lift her head slightly during tummy time.

I had a really serious discussion with her physical therapist where he vocalized his concerns about her. It was really difficult to hear. We didn’t know what else to do to “motivate” her or encourage her to make strides in development.

I also didn’t really know what this all meant. Did Lydia have some sort of mental condition? Was this a temporary thing? Was this a life-long thing? There was a lot of tears and uncertainty that month.

By nine months she had made some improvements – but they were pretty minimal. Our physical therapist said he believed she needed to see a neurologist but wanted to hear what our pediatrician’s thoughts were about it {we hadn’t seen or heard from our pediatrician since her six month check-up}.

The day before her appointment, our family participated in a fast for our little Lydie. I really don’t do well with unknowns. It’s not so much a fear of change of anything, but more I just don’t like being in limbo.

Lydia and I went to her nine month check-up {at the beginning of March} and it was very strange. Our pediatrician was not aware of any of her progression or notes from physical therapy and so I tried to quickly summarize our experience and where we were at with that.

It was strange because where our chief concern was with development, he seemed to zero in on her head shape and side preference – which had not been a concern for us OR her physical therapist for quite some time.

He immediately referred us to Primary Children’s Hospital to their plastic surgery department. This was definitely not a route we anticipated.

He did not feel like we needed to see a neurologist {he dismissed it jokingly that she was showing signs of development because of her “stranger anxiety” around him}. He did refer us to our local child development center to be assessed {although I am pretty sure this was just to pacify me}.

I left having really mixed emotions. On the one hand, I was grateful that he didn’t think we needed to see a neurologist and therefore Lydia might be completely “normal“. However, I wasn’t really convinced either. There was just something nagging me.

And I was really thrown off by us going down to Primary’s to check her head. We got an appointment for three days later and the kids and I headed down to Salt Lake.

I had never been into Primary Children’s Hospital and my heart truly hurts for all of those families that have to spend time there. As soon as I walked in and saw children being pushed around with trails of nurses carrying tubes and carts behind them, it was hard to keep the tears back. Those children and their families are true warriors.

When Lydia got called back with the nurse, the nurse was pretty openly surprised that we were there. She said she would be shocked if Lydia was given a helmet and she looked okay to her.

The plastic surgeon was in the room about five seconds before he said she definitely did not need a helmet. He said there was some flatness but it would all fix itself in time – and whatever wasn’t you would never know once her hair grows out. He said there was no need to be concerned with that and any physical delays was not due to he head shape.

We were grateful to finally have that issue OFF the table.

The next day I had an appointment at the child development center here in town. They basically just sat me down and asked me some questions about Lydia’s development, and gave her an eye and hearing screening. She passed both her eye and hearing tests and they said they would be in touch with us.

The next week they called and told us she was in the 1% for development in several different areas. That’s a little concerning. They wanted to do a more formal home assessment later in the month.

Then, everything happened with COVID-19, and we are sitting on pause. It is not seen as an essential medical need and so they are closed until this all passes {whenever that may be}.

Our physical therapist was not happy with our pediatrician when I told him about our visit. I could tell he was trying to keep it in, but he was frustrated. Ultimately, it was decided that we stop seeing him {only because the child development center has its own pediatric physical therapist} but he told us he was keeping her case open at his office in case we had any questions. He was incredibly kind and good to us and we are grateful for the time we spent with him and the help he was with Lydia.

But we continue to dwell in limbo – remember…not my favorite place. Most days, I feel okay about our little Lydie Lou. She is happy and healthy. And I don’t want there to be anything else, but if there is, I would rather move forward and get her the help she needs. Does that make sense?

BUT let’s move on to all of the wonderfully sweet things that are going on with Lydia.

This girl is SITTING UP! We are so happy! It is so great to see her up and sitting.

She is also rolling around pretty well. She is mobile in her own way now!

One of my favorite things Lydia does happens at bedtime and naptime. Before we lay her down, we always read her a story or two, sing a song, and then wrap her up. But when I am reading her story, she spends probably 75% of the time, gazing up at me and smiling. Oh my…it is SO hard to keep reading. She looks up at you like you are the best person ever.

Sweetest girl in the world.

As truly thrilled I am about her finally sitting up independently my favorite thing about our Lydia from this month is after nine long months of waiting, she finally gave us her first giggles.

The. best. sound. in. the. world.

We love our Lydia Rose. She brings a unique light and life to our family. She radiates goodness and we all can’t get enough of her.