Walking Update

How I'll always picture the Claire of this period—holding my hand

Well, she's still not walking unassisted, but Claire continues to make progress. For almost two weeks now, she's been walking everywhere holding just one of my hands, and she gets steadier every single day. This has been a HUGE improvement over the two-handed walking, since I now have one hand free to grab the phone, drink coffee, etc., while we're walking around the house. This also allows me to walk with her without hunching over, which is far easier on my back (and on Bob's, who had even more trouble with that, since he's taller).

At this point, Claire is walking steadily enough that I think she could take off on her own at any minute. I often feel like I'm not helping her balance at all. But for whatever reason, she still clearly isn't ready for that. Every time I try to let go of her hand, she immediately (purposely) sits right down on her butt. Lately, she even seems to have some control as she sits down, which REALLY makes me think she could walk on her own, but she doesn't want to, so I'm letting her do things on her own terms. It's clearly the only way to go with her.

About two weeks ago, we met with a caseworker from the Ozaukee County Birth to Three program. She is not a physical therapist, she will only serve as the coordinator of our participation in the program. She spent about an hour asking me a million questions about Claire's development to determine if we qualify for the program (which is mostly paid for by the county, no matter what your income level). She said anything up to 18 months is "normal" as far as learning to walk, but she thought we probably would qualify anyway since Claire never crawled. (I pointed out that Claire scoots everywhere on her butt, so ever since she learned how to do that, she had no motivation to learn to crawl. But there wasn't any mention of "butt-scootching" on the form the caseworker was filling out, so I don't think that's taken into consideration!)

Anyway, I finally heard back from the Birth to Three program yesterday, and we do qualify, so we have an appointment with a physical therapist set for Wed., Sept. 29. Considering how much progress Claire makes with her walking on a daily basis, I'd be pretty surprised if she isn't walking on her own by then, but we're keeping it on the calendar anyway, just in case. Even if she is walking by then, I might keep the appointment anyway, since it's paid for. Claire's gait seems a little strange to me—it's very stiff-legged, she doesn't bend her knees very much (which could be why it's taking her so long to walk). Also, Claire can finally pull up to a stand, and she has done so on a number of occasions, but for some reason she still usually seems reluctant to do it. If she sees a toy on the ottoman that she wants, she would much rather scream her head off until I hand it to her than try to pull up. I don't understand it—her butt-scootching clearly takes major leg strength, so that can't be the problem. The pulling-up issue concerns me a lot more than the walking ever has, so I would like for somebody to look at that, unless it improves dramatically by then.

One final thought about Claire's walking: It suddenly occurred to me that there will come a day when I'll be nostalgic for the Claire who toddled around, her chubby fist clinging to my index finger like it's a lifeline. As aggravating as this has been, I know I'll miss that eventually. Elsa never really spent any time walking with me—she just kind of took off. So this is very much a Claire thing, and will live in my memory as something that was uniquely hers.