Feeding therapy - Day 2

An early start today. Had to be at the swimming pool for 8. Of course we were late (we're allowed we have two babies) but the pool was closed due to some maintenance problem. The physio opted for a mat session with her instead. It was Lilian's first visit to the physio so we went through the usual background checks and current progress. Little did Lilian know what was in store! This physio is going to play hard ball and not take any mucking about. Mette and I were a little nervous at first but seeing the results come flowing out minutes later we soon got into it. Essentially we're being too nice to Lilian and need to make her work harder. Over time she's leant to rely on us to hand her toys and to move her around the place so she's not really learnt how to by herself. This was partly born from us being told Lilian has poor muscle tone. The physio disagrees and says Lilian is fine she just needs to "work out" more to build up her strength. I'm not saying it's easy but Lilian made big progress steps today in just over an hour so we're going to stick with it. Having a little brother whose just starting to learn how to crawl is a great help and Lilian is essentially at the same stage so she can learn from Oskar.

Next up was another occupational therapy session. More of the same as yesterday on this front. We're definitely going to get Lilian a big box and fill it with uncooked beans for Christmas. She just loves decanting beans to a pot and back again. Some fine motor skills were also worked on for her finger/thumb grip. Lilian has always excelled at OT so she just got loads of applause today.

Last session of the day was a feeding picnic. This is daily and the core reason we're here of course. Yesterday was a settling in session. Today we worked; Oskar too. Lots of guidance and advice and Lilian started to take an interest in some of the fluid she was offered. Small steps but again she's made progress since yesterday. I started to feed Oskar on my lap and was told to put him on his front and to feed him lying down. We'd never have done this ourselves but it really worked. He ate a whole kids size pot of peach and apple purée and loved it. Apparently as he's still little he can't sit properly on his own. If we sit him up them he has to think about sitting and eating. If he's lying down then he can concentrate on eating. Which he did with gutso. At the end of the session we were talking over some ideas with the teacher. She sorted out a bottle of water and some of the peach/apple mix. Lilian took the teat in her mouth and sort of sucked it but only when nobody was looking. She had this coy way about her which was really sweet. We went to the shops to stock up on new teats and more peach/apple mix so we can practise at home.

An early finish today so we walked home in the daylight. It's freezing at the moment quite literally. The floor is white and if there were any clouds it'd surely be snowing. Hats and gloves for definite. A day off for Austria tomorrow to get started with the Christmas festivities so we're going to take it easy and get our heads together. It's been a bit mad the last couple of days so we need to breathe.

Some pics of the walk home and a picture of our temporary home.