Rambling about Ryder: September 2012

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Ryder's First Day of School!

Today was the big day, Ryder started Stepping Stones. The morning was a little different being the one waking up Ryder instead of him being my alarm clock. I got a huge hug right away and the first thing to come out of his mouth was " I love you Momma cat..." Love my boy! Drop off was successful, he was very excited to see all the other kids and hit it off with his Autism support worker right away :) How could he not when she had a big tub of toys with lots of cars in it. Each child has a worker and they have their own little cubical they work in. Then there is a big play area where the kids can all play together. We got Ryder settled in his little desk and chair watched him play for a couple minutes then said our good byes. No tears and he didn't seem to care one bit that we were leaving. Tyler and I stuck around in the waiting room for about half hour just to make sure he would be okay. Of course he was so off we went.

We left to pick him up a little early to beat the rush (and I was very anxious to see him.) His worker suggested we actually keep doing that from now on to avoid the chaos of everyone coming and going. We will do a early drop off and early pickups which actually works better with Tyler's work schedule. Ryder's worker said he had an AMAZING first day! He didn't cry at all!! Got a little sad a few times when he was asked to share with other kids but that's very typical for Ryder and I'm so glad he has the opportunity to work on it daily. She said he didn't ask for us at all! I guess there were enough distractions that he didn't miss us too much. He got to play with one of his best friends that also goes there and he was very polite and used his please and thank-yous when talking to the other kids. All in all a very successful day! YAY!!!! My baby is growing up and I couldn't be more proud of him. ♥

Friday, September 7, 2012

Way to go RYDER!!!

I have lots of updates as I haven't posted in a while but they can wait! I am so excited I cant stand myself! So extremely proud of our little man!!!

link to book here

I'll start off by saying the last couple weeks my main focus has been on balance and finding new fun games for Ryder to play that will work on this area. I get all my home exercises from a book my mom bought me when Ryder was first diagnosed with CP. It has always been an awesome resource but I don't think I have ever seen results like this, in such a short time! Everyday we have been playing these 3 little games to work on balance. Ryder loves them and actually asks to play each one all on his own. The first we play "Bad Guy" he sits on a foot stool and Tyler or I will pretend to be the bad guy and knock him over. He has to use his core strength to stop himself from falling down. He laughs the whole time. Another "Cars" he sits on the same stool and has to bend down pick up a car, pull himself back up, then he reaches over to drop it in a bucket. He'll do this one for a LONG time - again loves it. The last one "Engine's" sitting on the same stool we hold up a train above his head and he has to reach up with both hands and grab it. This one sound fairly easy but it's a lot of work for him to not lose his balance while reaching up like that.

Not sure if it is just these games on their own as we have also started to use a stander for an hour everyday to help stretch his hamstrings. And we also bought him a new walker that is a light frame like his Kaye walker but has four wheels. It does require more control so I'm sure all of the above are factors in doing this today....

Ready to cry? haha Well maybe you wont but I sure did!

Last time I tried these canes with Ryder he could only take a few steps then would fall. I gave up on them for a while because I thought I was just getting way too ahead of him. I pulled them out again a few weeks ago and put a harness on him but it was the same thing he would take a step then just rely on the harness and he was ALL over the place. Today I decided to take the harness off and let him show me what he could really do knowing that he had nothing but himself to rely on. Of course I stayed behind to catch if needed (this being why the video kinda sucks and you cant really see how far he actually travels.) When I get an extra set of hands I'll take another from the front :) But wow! WAY TO GO RYDER!!!!!!!

More updates to come shortly :)

Ryder's Story

Ryder and Wyatt are our identical twin boys that were born 12 weeks premature. They suffered from a "rare" disease called Twin to twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS). TTTS affects 10-15% of identical multiples sharing a single placenta. Basically what happens is there are crossed vessels in the placenta forcing one baby to have way too much blood, nutrients & oxygen and the other not enough. Left untreated this heartbreaking disease has a astonishing mortality rate of 90%. Unfortunately I was not diagnosed until I had already gone into labor at 24 weeks gestation so not much could be done. Thankfully the doctors were able to stop my labor and we all made it to 28 weeks. The boys entered their nicu fight together but sadly on their 24 day of life we had to say our goodbyes to sweet Wyatt. Our hearts broke in a million pieces but somehow we picked up a few and continued our fight for Ryder. Ryder stayed in the nicu for 67 long days and was finally able to come home 2 weeks before their anticipated due date. It was a bittersweet day for many. We were told by every doctor that Ryder was just a "normal" baby and not to worry. I never felt right about this and knew there was something more to come. When he was 11 months old he was diagnosed with Spastic Diplegia Cerebral Palsy. Our hearts broke once again and we were left to wonder what his future would hold. When we started this blog Ryder was 19 months old and still could not sit, crawl or walk unassisted. Since then he has made tremendous leaps but he still has a long way to go. He see's his physio therapist and occupational therapist twice a month and speech pathologist once a month. This is what our government will offer and we don't feel it's enough. He has so much determination and we know given the proper tools and therapy nothing will stop him. With your help we sent Ryder to Ability camp in January 2012 and there are many other treatments and alternative therapies we want to give him the opportunity to try. Thank you for supporting Ryder and following his journey!