Here’s the latest on David and his back:

Yep, little man is crawling on his knees! He’s also pulling up on all the furniture and occasionally a person or two.

At his 12-month check-up, our pediatrician was still a bit worried about David because he dragged himself around the floor instead of crawling, and because he had only pulled up to standing a few times. Dr. M said that he wouldn’t be worried about David if he hadn’t had surgery; he would assume David was a late bloomer. However, he wanted to be extra vigilant due to the lipomeningocele.

Dr. M referred us to Tennessee Early Intervention Services, which offers in-home therapy to help infants and toddlers who have developmental delays. A case manager came to our house and tested David’s abilities to see if he qualified for services.

Um, he didn’t. Not even close. For one thing, to qualify for services a child has to show a 40% delay in gross AND fine motor skills, and David’s fine motor skills are, well, just fine. And he had progressed so much in the two weeks between his 12-month appointment and his evaluation that his gross motor skills were pretty good as well.

So after speaking again with David’s pediatrician, we decided we’ll just take a wait-and-see approach before looking into any other therapy options. However, the case manager did send us some exercises we can do with David to encourage even more progress with his motor skills. I thought that was fantastically kind (and a very good use of my tax dollars!).

So at this point, David’s just an ordinary toddler. And I am one grateful mom!