This picture is of Olivia eating lunch in her new chair.
Dave is most excited about this piece. It has some really cool features: The seat tilts to change her positioning. It has a tray that can change angles, so if she's leaned back a little, the tray can be adjusted so it's still parallel to the floor. There is an activity bar that we can attach toys above the tray. The head support actually will provide stability to her head, with "wings" that will keep her from rolling her head to the side. The back reclines slightly (we won't actually use this too often because of the tilt). And the neatest part about it is that it can raise up to table height, and all the way down until her footrests touch the floor. If you imagine a barber's chair, it works in a similar fashion. Click here to see the website for this chair.
The stander is a large support frame with straps and pads to keep her safe and secure in an upright position while she is playing on the attached table surface in front of her. It also has an activity bowl that can be used to hold small toys, pudding, play-dough, dried rice & beans, etc. The purpose of this equipment is to have her bear weight on her legs so her muscles and bones will stay strong. This is going to be an extremely important piece of equipment after her surgery, but I am not sure yet how long the doctor will recommend her to be in it. She tolerated it for about 25 minutes while it was being fitted for her. It comes with the "grab rail" and the hyperextension pads shown at the bottom of the website as well. Click here to see the website for this stander.
The toilet/bath seat we chose combines the need for two pieces of equipment into one item. The website does not show all of the accessories that we needed to get to keep Olivia safe, but the vendor we worked with made sure we got everything we needed. It is too heavy for Jack to lift it in to the tub, and it's bulky, but Dave and I can do it relatively easily. She seems very comfortable in it. It sits right over the toilet, and there is room in the bathroom for it. Click here to see the website for this toilet/bath seat.
Her car seat is very plush. I wish I could fit in it! Robin is glad that there is so much padding on the sides. She got a chance to test it out on the way home from our friends' house on New Year's Eve! The chair has a 5-point harness and will fit Olivia until she's 105 lbs., or 5'2" tall, or 10 years, whichever comes first. We hit the 10 year mark before she grew out of her last one. Click here to see the website for this carseat.
The gait trainer that she is getting will give her a way to stand, as well as possibly get her to take some steps. I don't think she has any doctors that have hope that she'll ever walk on her own, probably not even with one of these, but there are still benefits to getting this piece for her. She has been able to take some steps and move around. I really look forward to having this so she can dance with support. She's getting heavy for me to hold while I'm bent down. Click here to see the website for this gait trainer.
The ramp we got is to be used off of the front porch. Dave plans to build a transition down from the door. We expect to be able to leave Olivia's wheel chair in the car, now that we have a good place for her to sit in the house. But as she grows, and is too big to carry that far, we'll use the ramp more often. It's nothing too fancy -- just the basic non-foldable 5'x36" ramp, but it'll be very useful. Click here to see the website for the ramp.
As we are very excited to have received all of this equipment, we realize that everything needs a place to be stored when it's not being used. Thankfully Liv does not have much furniture in her room, so we can put some stuff in there. I'm considering getting some changing screens to help keep her room from looking like a gym or something. IKEA might have something that could help. We'll check online.
That's it for now...
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