Strong Spark

While Darryl was in Cambodia Calvin decided to pull out all the stops. He slept through the night; woke up most mornings without intense screaming sessions; made progress in therapy; smiled and giggled often; and learned to partially sit. The last one completely floored me. 

We discovered it by accident. I was doing some head control exercises in his bumbo while chatting to my sisters, Kristin and Amy. The kids were having a hay-day with the rice bin (evidence in the background).

He was holding his head up remarkably well.

After the bumbo I put him into a sitting position in front of me. Usually he's like a wet noodle that droops over to the ground with no muscle control whatsoever. This time he drooped but didn't tip over. Hmmm...good sign, right?

I put my hands on his hips to steady him

Then he put it into high gear and actually used his OWN muscles to pull himself up straight!

The result? One shocked elated momma. And the first few seconds of Calvin actually sort-of sitting. Way to go, Calvin!!!

It was a very exciting two weeks. Each night I'd give the reports to Darryl over skype. Sadly though, the day Darryl came back Calvin started to plummet again. We suspected he was having more seizures but quite honestly, it's often very hard to distinguish between his seizure activity or his normal behavior which can be very atypical. His therapy regressed and he began to have strange changes with breathing, sleeping, retching, etc. This morning our suspicions were confirmed when he began seizing strongly. We are working on med changes and hope the seizures will be more controlled. 

For the first time in those two weeks we had a glimpse of what Calvin can do when the seizures are not interfering with his brain activity. We were able to really see him alert and relational too. I want that little boy back.