St. Louis- therapies and daughters

Thanks to wonderful in-laws Isabelle, Alayna, and I were able to run to St. Louis at the last minute in May for a new type of therapy for Isabelle.  It's easier to do therapy when they come to my house and I don't have to pay anything.  Driving 3 and a half hours and staying away from the rest of my family, and paying a large chunk of money is much more difficult to get yourself worked up to.  It took me about a year of researching.  I ordered a DVD of  a workshop and tried my limited knowledge out on my daughter.  She went from complete noodle legs with no resistance to the standing pro you have seen in other posts.  So, I was convinced that it would be of benefit to her, but finding someone within a reasonable distance was more difficult.  At first I thought we would have to go to CA and pay a Huge chunk of money, but i think the Lord led me to this practitioner in St. Louis.

For those that are interested, the method is the Anat Baniel method and it is different from normal PT and OT in that instead of working on the muscles and trusting that the brain will catch on it works on the Central Nervous System and trusts that the muscles will catch on.  She uses very gentle repetitive but slightly varied movements to teach the brain how to move.  We have learned with Isabelle to celebrate every "inchstone"  We see a new one at about once a month, maybe if we are really lucky once per week.  In the 3 days that we were there we saw 3 "inchstones".  She started catching herself with her hands when falling from sitting, she started coming up into tall standing while holding on to his arm completely on her own, and she uses her arm to help sit herself up.  I have studied the method as much as I can without spending the major $ for training classes.  I have been working with her at home as well and she has started to push off of me with her legs and pull her other leg up to be by the first one in a crawling position.  I really want to take her back.  So I'm working on getting some grants.  (:  In the meantime I will continue to do what I can with her.

One of the best parts of the trip was that Alayna got to come with me.  We shopped, talked, laughed, read and listened.  She is really growing to be a wonderful young woman and I am so grateful to be her mother.