Nolan - 18 month follow up

Yesterday, Nolan had his 18 month (corrected) neonatal follow up (Asher had his last week).

I was really excited to see Nolan get tested after watching Asher. Asher really impressed me with how he was able to demonstrate his learning skills, even though he was physically prevented from carrying out a lot of the tasks. I was looking forward to seeing Nolan attempt the same things so I could see how well he'd fare in comparison.

As expected, Nolan did not disappoint. His cognitive skills were evident and it was really fun to see him in action, putting pieces in puzzles, stacking, and general problem solving. Not only did it assure me that Nolan is cognitively doing great, it especially showed me that Asher is doing just as well - there was only one problem solving skill that Nolan "beat" Asher at, and a few times, Nolan was actually a bit slower than Asher at figuring things out (How hard is it to figure out which washcloth a ducky is hiding under? Child's play for Asher; apparently a bit of a challenge for Nolan!!) .

Physically, other than walking, Nolan is fantastic. Both the physio and the doctor noticed that his right leg is a little bit tighter than his left, so that "could" explain why he's not walking. They are by no means overly concerned, and think that the likelihood is that it's a pattern he's developed to learn to crawl even faster. The consensus is that at this point he has no real reason to walk when he can crawl so quickly, besides the fact that his best friend is stuck on the floor, so why would he want to move away from him?! It was however, good to have other eyes to pick up on this tightness, so they will alert Asher's PT to just keep an eye on Nolan. Additionally, they suggested that it would be of huge benefit to both boys if they could be at the same level as often as possible, so we will work on finding Asher a stander that is lower to the ground and more eye to eye with Nolan when he too is standing.

Overall, they were very pleased with Nolan. He is "right on" for his corrected age, completing tasks exactly as expected. Of course his walking puts him behind in the grand scheme of things, but we're ok with that. He was 14 weeks early, he is a twin, and he is male after all! Three strikes against him in the development department!

There was such dread for both of these appointments and they turned out so positively in the end. All my stressing for nothing - as usual.