Today the physiotherapist came to meet and assess Massimo. We had asked for a referral to the physiotherapy team to help us teach Massimo to cope with his rather larger than average head and also to learn to what extent we needed to be aware of his tracheostomy when handling him or placing him.
Elly came to see us at around lunchtime and she and I spent a happy hour with Massimo and his activity mat seeing what his range of movement is and seeing what positions we could encourage him to lie in. Specifically, most babies learn to lift their torsos by being placed on their tummies and this is the first step to learning to roll. Massimo is never placed on his stomach as this tends to elicit a bout of crying but with Elly and a judiciously placed blanket rolled up we achieved the desired position and Massimo looked very comfy indeed.
Just before Elly left we also tried to place Massimo in the Kangaroo position. This is used in the NNU to promote a baby’s closeness to his or her mother. Due to Massimo’s trachy it is a position in which I have never held him and as the picture shows we achieved a close approximation to the Kangaroo position and I felt so incredibly close to Massimo that I nearly burst into tears with the overwhelming emotion. Massimo felt so comfortable and comforted that he promptly fell into a deep sleep.
