Happy 11 months (and 6 days) Gracie girl!

If I ever post a "happy ? months" to Grace on time again, I'll be quite proud. Taking the pictures and actually uploading them seems to always take a few days longer than I would like. Just happy we've kept it up this long! Weighing in at 17 lbs. 12 oz, our little girl is maintaining a pretty consistent weight (now that she's movin' and shakin' so much), but getting longer and more flexible every second. The flexibility is seriously mind boggling to me! As much as Zach would love to attribute this quality of hers to his genes, there isn't a chance her middle splits and lack of ACL's is from either of her parents! I would have given anything for her joints during my gymnastics days. I was the gymnast that had PRIVATE FLEXIBILITY LESSONS - yes, those existed. Haha. She's a gifted lil' lady!

We had our long awaited appointment with Dr. Donavan, a Pediatric Rehabilitation Specialist in the area, early this morning. I had thoughts of canceling multiple times since Grace's torticollis was looking wonderful lately, but extremely happy I didn't as this past week we were back to a major tilt. We've learned that with every milestone, or physical change, the tilt could reappear as its what feels most "natural" to Grace. This past week Grace received a few pleasant visitors in the back of her mouth (aka molars... ouch) which could easily be contributing to her tort reappearing. We also learned that her developmental delays are largely due to her flexibility and not her torticollis, which was news to me! Dr. Donavan mentioned that she may not start walking until the 18 month mark for this reason as well since controlling muscles with all the flexibility is pretty difficult (obviously). We'll be ordering mini Hip Helpers this week to help control her tendency to pancake from the sit position to her stomach. Sure she'll be thrilled to wear an uncomfortable, and quite ugly, pair of spandex shorts every morning!

All that aside, it was a great to get a specialist's perspective and potential future suggestions if we're still struggling in the next six months or so. In the meantime we'll be getting her eyes checked (just as part of the elimination process for outside causes to her tilt) and continuing physical therapy once a week at Beaumont Hospital until our next appointment with Dr. Donavan three months from now.

On another note, our little girl is happy, healthy and constantly chattering up a storm - so no complaints from this mama :) Life is good.