Maxwell and Me: Slippery Little Sucker

My baby had a stroke and it happened when he was only 10 weeks old. Do you know how common it is for babies and children to have strokes? I can't be bothered looking up the stats, so I'll just say it's pretty darn tootin common. Some days I'm ok with that and other days I wanna scream with rage. I'm learning, that it's ok to have moments of sadness and anger. It doesn't mean that I'm ungrateful or that I forget about people worse off than me (far from it). It's because someone recently said to me "no one can be positive all the time" and then I realized that it's ok to grieve .

No one actually imagines themselves as the parent of a disabled child. When I was pregnant, I didn't brush up on my knowledge of Neuro-developmental rehabilitation strategies before the birth. Back then, I googled normal stuff like 'painfree labour', 'how much does labour really hurt?' and 'how will i know if I'm in labour?' because my child was going to be perfectly healthy (and I was really scared of labour). Back then, I felt so connected to other pregnant friends. We compared annoying pregnancy symptoms, freaky cravings and moaned about the daddies drinking too much bourbon. I still moan about daddy and his bourbon, but now I feel alone.

Other mummy's can spend time looking up cute baby outfits and accessories. I spend my time researching rehabilitation strategies. I'm trying to implement the optimal diet for his brain development. I'm trying to figure out the correct 'therapy vs relaxation ratio' for us. At the moment, I'm trying to understand the role of vestibular stimulation/destimulation in Neuro-developmental rehab. I tell you, it's really interesting stuff and you should read more about it. What's that?? Neuro-development isnt 'your thing?'. It wasn't my thing either, until about 5 months ago.

We've been kicking some major goals since we have started doing the Snowdrop Program with Max. He's now being stimulated in the areas of his brain that need it the most. His language has exploded, he is starting to become aware of Mr Righty, he is no longer 'spaced out' (he has quite a little attitude) and his feet are getting ridiculously clever.

Max drives his 'car' with his feet.

Max has all but given up on rolling, now that he realizes he has two perfectly functional feet to do the work instead. Yesterday, I was teasingly waving a toy in front of him to work on his visual tracking and reaching skills. After a few seconds he picked up a piece of paper from the floor with his feet, triumphantly passed it up to his hands and proceeded to munch away on it. "Stick THAT in your rehab pipe and smoke it mum!!"

Yesterday, we sat down to watch Max's 'baby signing' DVDs. He tried to mimic the kids doing sign language on the video with his hands and his feet. It was so stinkin cute.

He can move a toy closer to himself by picking up the rug between his toes and dragging it closer. cheeky, little, ragbag . Today, he completely freaked out the pathology nurse at the hospital by grabbing her shirt and pulling her closer- with his feet.

Do you know how difficult it's starting to get having a baby with a new found stubborn attitude and three limbs that are capable of grabbing things they aren't meant to grab? It's so bizarre. It's so amazing. And it makes me so darn proud.

I wonder when Einsteins mother realized that her son was a genius?