Is it enough?

I'm having another one of those phases of wondering if what we do for Hannah is enough. It's probably brought on by the pressure of maximizing the botax window, making sure we don't waste this precious time and do everything we can to strengthen and stretch and build new skills. It might be compounded by the winter blahs-we're stuck inside so often and it's really hard to find creative ways to keep Hannah physically active.

I'm hooked up with a great listserv for parents of kids with CP and the many and varied treatments people are exploring to help their children is really impressive. I know that in our day-to-day activities with Hannah, we are already doing so much in terms of how we handle and position her, encourage her to move in certain ways, foster skills and incorporate stretching and strengthening. But is it enough? We're pretty busy, always running from one activity to the next, most of which involves therapies for Hannah (PT, OT, swimming, hippotherapy). But there's not much time outside of those limited activities to incorporate some of the many other things I feel like we should be doing for her. I have this great book, a resource I turn to often: Teaching Motor Skills to Children with Cerebral Palsy. I love it and yet, it makes me crazy because the pages and pages of stretches and activities you can do to foster different skill building are limitless, and my time is very much limited. I read it and get great ideas as well as a huge pang of guilt that we just won't get around to incorporating very many of those ideas on a regular basis.

There are places where we could take Hannah, intensive "camps" for kids with cerebral palsy where they focus exclusively on these very activites, for hours and weeks at a time. Living in a rural state, nothing like that exists close by. To take advantage of it, we'd have to relocate temporarily and pay and arm and a leg for the tuition. I'm wondering though if it's something to consider, if not right now than maybe next summer? I don't think I want Hannah to spend all of her time working on her motor skills because I also want her to be able to be a kid, and to spend time with her sister and the rest of her family. But for a short time, maybe it would get her past some hurdles and push her into a new developmental area.

On the other hand, maybe she just needs more time. Thinking back to this time last year, Hannah has made great strides. The progress of kids with CP is slow. There are peaks and valleys. Maybe, just doing what we're doing, keeping Hannah engaged in some different therapies, being mindful of maximizing her potential through stretches/strengthening/etc, and also just living an active life, she will develop and progress at just the right rate she is supposed to. But what if she could do much, much more if only we took it to the next level?

For now we've decided to do some preliminary looking around at other intensive options, maybe for this summer, as well as be sure we stay on top of our regular routine. Hopefully for now, that's enough.