To the left, to the left

Kraemer had to go out of town at the last minute this week, leaving Calder and I to fend for ourselves. I can tell you there have been no gourmet meals with the chef out of town. Although, since I cannot go to the supermarket with Calder, but cannot leave him home alone, there has been a lot of creative cooking and baby-holding.

These days Calder is learning to pivot on his belly. The “steps” in the development process, I’m told, aren't really steps, exactly, since some could potentially be flip-flopped given their overlapping estimated time of initiation. They include movements such as rolling over; pivoting; crawling on his stomach; balancing while sitting up by leaning forward on his hands; crawling on his knees; balancing to sit up by leaning side or back on hands; pulling himself up to sit; standing with support; etc. Pivoting is one “step” in the process I likely would have missed in observation if I hadn't been told to work on it with him. Right now he can pivot to the right and is sort of pivoting to the left; we're working more on the left.

caption, this, Mom!

Pretty soon, I won’t be around to observe Calder’s PT sessions – but someone else will. A nurse! I have been working at this for months, literally. We need a nurse as opposed to a nanny because of Calder’s specific medical needs, particularly his oxygen and G-tube. (Not to mention that day care is out of the question for us, according to our docs.) Of course, the need for a nurse was much greater (in both a medical and number-of-hands sense) when he first came home around Thanksgiving last year, but with me going back to work (starting with teleworking) on May 1, there is now no question that we need more help at home. Finally, FINALLY, I have been told the nurse will be on our doorstep next Tuesday morning. We will have two who split the week, so this should give me just enough time to show them the ropes before I hole myself upstairs with my computer throughout the day.

Poop on Michigan. Calder took
this to heart.