Music Therapy

I took Gavin to his first Rainbow Songs class when he was four months old. Some terrible cynics may believe that it’s a waste of time to take small babies to music class when, for the most part, they lie there trying to eat their hands while their mums act foolish for their benefit. To those cynics I say, you’re wrong. Although Gavin couldn’t even sit up on his own he was enraptured by music class. He became so animated each week, and loved the part when we pulled out a bag of maracas and tambourines.  As a younger baby he wailed in distress when it was time for the instruments to go away. As he got older, he helped distribute the instruments and put them away.  At a certain point, I decided we should take a break from Rainbow Songs because he was going through such an inquisitive phase, he couldn’t sit in the circle but insisted on wandering the room rummaging through people’s bags. I would always catch him holding someone’s wallet or trying to open the door to get out.

We still sing many of the songs we learned there, and to this day he sings (his version of ) the “Clean Up” song when it’s time to put something away. We’ve also kept in touch with quite a few of the lovely friends we made there. I was thrilled to find out that a music therapist visits the unit a couple of times a week, but had yet to connect with her until today. She joined us this afternoon for some music fun, and although Gavin wasn’t feeling the best, he had a blast experimenting with the chimes, bells and drums she’d brought in. I was amazed when he picked up a shaker and kept the beat perfectly. (Budding musical talent?) He has yet to be able to really sing more than a few words of a song but is getting there.

This was the big highlight of the day, otherwise, sweet nothing happened. He had a platelet transfusion again this morning, refused to nap again so kept us pretty busy all day, and managed to avoid spiking a fever although we were all sure he would. He played a bit more quietly today, but had a few rambunctious moments using his bed as a slide and playing on the mats. I think we managed to make it through the day without vomiting, which is wonderful, but did have to start TPN again to get his calories back up.

Hoping for another uneventful day tomorrow. In the last round, the Wednesday was the day when all hell broke loose and he ended up getting x-rayed and ultrasounded all over the place. Fingers crossed for no fevers!