walk, walk, walk

Today was physical therapy, Hailey started off o.k., excited to see Jen and play with all the toys, but this time Jen decided to jump right in and try the lite gait. Jen has learned after working with Hailey for 3 months that Hailey doesn't mind letting us know how she feels and so we work through it. It used to be that when Hailey threw a fit we would give her time, now we just go for it and let her work through it. So we put her in the harness and started the treadmill. As always she started crying. Well, for those who know Hailey, she loves dogs, so we brought Buddy down and he settled her down enough to walk for 5 minutes pretty much all by herself. We then took her out and did other exercises till the end and then tried again, this time for 11 minutes. Now take note that Jen said Hailey has the best walk she has ever seen and if she just gained the confidence to go she would have no problems. Well, after impressing us all with her great form, this time she learned she can rely on the harness and drag her feet so doesn't have to walk, so Jen now has to move her legs in the walking motion. Hailey does what she wants and when she wants, meaning she will walk when she wants, but if we want to work with her or stand her up and tell her to come to us she plops back down. With that personality I think we could be in trouble :-)
Anyway, for all of you wondering what is a lite gait I finally was able to take a picture today. As you can see Hailey is not quite happy, but the theory is that she will get the motion of walking better than using a walker, because with that they don't get as many steps. Each week I do see an improvement. She balances like a pro, she can bend down pick up a toy and stand back up without losing her balance, she can even hold something heavy and play without losing her balance. Just for some reason she doesn't have enough confidence to just walk. The PT thinks it is her personality, plus some sensory issues. She said to keep in mind her adjusted age of 13 months as well. We are still waiting to hear back about the OT eval. Either way the PT thinks she will outgrow these issues, but why not get help now and have her overcome them early. Oh and before I post the picture, this week on top of still trying to overcome her cold, she is getting 3 teeth at once! Two on top and one on bottom! Oh the joys of growing up!!
Here is Hailey "walking" -