Changes are coming....

Oh my, as we quickly approach C's 3rd birthday I have so many mixed emotions. I am first and foremost thankful to God for sharing this precious little man with us, he has taught Josh and I so much about life. It's so hard to believe that almost 3 years ago we were fearing the unknown of having a baby born at 28 weeks. Anyways, I will leave the sappy stuff out for now, I can save that for his birthday post! :) 

With 3 years old peeking around the corner, we have been doing many evaluations with the school district. With his prematurity, speech delays, and autism diagnosis he basically qualifies for special needs preschool for 3 year olds. He can actually start school the day of his 3rd birthday, but there is no way in heck this momma will be able to handle all of those emotions that day! I imagine we will wait several days and then start, no matter what day we start it is going to be rough on me. 

We have his first IEP (individual educational plan) meeting the week before his birthday. This meeting consists of a lot of people talking about what is best for C, setting goals, and what level class he will be placed in. My understanding is that school will last around 3 hours and it is offered in the mornings or afternoons.

Also when he turns the BIG 3 his ABA switches from babynet to PDD waiver. This changes things a lot. Instead of having a line therapist and consultant he will have a consultant that comes twice a month, a lead therapist  that comes twice a week, and hopefully 2 different line therapist who come to our house a minimum of 9 hours per week. Right now he is receiving 12 hours of ABA per week from one therapist. So basically he will have his own ABA team that will work with him. 

My worry is how do we fit in his daily school hours with speech and occupational therapy at school, home speech and OT, follow up feeding therapy, ABA therapy, naptime, and downtime just being a kid?!  Just thinking about it makes me tired, makes my brain hurt trying to get our schedule figured out and realizing how much life truly does change when he turns 3! We have been on the same therapy schedule for years (since coming home from NICU) with the addition of ABA. It's like when 3 hits, our schedule is turned completely upside down! I am trying not to worry and stress because we always have made things work and adapt to our life without a blink...shoot, our life has been everything but "normal" ( I hate that word) since day 1. 

So you see, big changes are coming...

I know we will be fine...there will be no whining...this is what's best for C and we are sure as heck going to give him our best...I will remember that we aren't the only ones with a hectic schedule and other families have been doing this for years...and I am reminded daily that life could be much, much worse. 

Essential Oils

It's official....I have become an "oily mommy". To be honest with you I kinda didn't believe in them. I have read all these amazing reviews but couldn't believe that a simple little oil would help so much with specific things. This may be part of the nurse in me who is used to modern medicine. Don't get me wrong, I am also game for taking more of a natural approach with things...hence the reason we switched to a blenderized diet (almost 2 years ago) in C's gtube instead of the man made formula full of corn syrup and ingredients I can't even pronounce. Once we switched we saw a new child who looked healthy, nails grew, hair sprouted on his head, and he basically quit vomiting! How could that not make you a believe that natural is truly better for your body?! 

Ok, I could go on about that forever but let me get back to these essential oils! I was given a blend from a special NICU mommy friend around a year ago. This blend had amazing raves about how well it helped calm hyperactive children, helped with their focus, and helped with restful sleep. I was skeptical but absolutely willing to try anything! I will admit, we tried it for about a month or so. The first week or so I noticed a little more focused,some what calmer child but that wore off and he was back to his whirlwind self! We put the oils away since I didn't notice much improvement. 

Fast forward 8 months later, I stumbled upon that special blend while cleaning out some drawers.  I figured what would it hurt to give it another try! That second try has been amazing! We roll it on each toe and then down the middle of his feet twice a day, sometimes three. Connor thoroughly enjoys this! When we talk about his oils, he quickly pulls his socks off, takes the lid off the oil and tries to put it on his feet. We take over or else the blend would be all over his body, but he counts each toe out loud and then he says "down" when we roll it down his foot! 

* Oils in a roller bottle*

Since starting the oils back (4 months now) we have noticed his focus has improved dramatically. He is a lot more attentive in therapies ( even his therapist noticed the improvement), meltdowns have decreased (if he has any), he's calmer ( like sitting to read a book or watch tv- typically he would be constantly running and not really focused), and somewhat better sleeping patterns. The sleeping patterns were going fairly well until we ran out of our blend last week! The waking at 3:30am and 5 am are so not for this mommy! 

Thanks to a great friend, who just recently started to sell essential oils, she was able to come up with a blend just for Connor! We will call it "Connor's blend". It is a combo of different oils that work on different things like calming, relaxing, empowerment, energy balance, mental focus, and soothing. So far he is doing very well with this blend. He absolutely rocked his delevelopmental evaluation today at the school, it was a tad hard to get his attention but once they did he was able to do absolutely everything they asked of him! 

So yes, we will do these oils as long as we continue to notice that it helps Connor. :)  

DIY

Not sure if you know me well, but the ones that do know that I am a DIYer! I love do it yourself projects, therefore I am in love with Pinterest....my problem is finding the spare time for me to do all these projects.

I have had several things on my list and have been able to check a few off! 

My first is a sensory box. I made a sensory box about a year ago but decided to do some theme boxes....that last one is a huge hodgepodge of different textures and items. This one is simple, several bags of field peas and a set of Zoo animals from hobby lobby. Connor loves it! We can work on some many things just with this one box: tactile exposure, work on naming and counting the animals that he "digs" out, work on following 2 step directions (big goal in speech therapy right now). I, myself like to just dig my hands in the peas and feel the textures...very relaxing to me! My next sensory box is going to be an under the sea theme.

My latest DIY project has been coming up with a visual schedule for Connor. He understands more than we know, but we can't assume he knows everything we are talking about. He has difficulties with transitioning....you might wonder what I mean by that. Basically switching from one task to another, one activity to another, one  routine to another can cause some fits (or meltdowns as they call it in the autism world). I wanted to help him understand what we are asking of him and by doing a visual schedule that helps. 

I found these wonderful *FREE* visual pictures online at www.do2learn.com , printed them, added some color,DIY laminated them, then put some magnets on the back. FYI- you can buy laminating material and slide the sheet inside of a tshirt and use your home iron to laminate it! No need in spending $100 on that fancy machine that laminates things....

I purchased a large oil drip pan from the automotive section and hung it on Connor's closet door. Right now the  morning rountine is very difficult and takes quite some time to complete so I figured that would be our first schedule to introduce to him. Under the sun on the left are all the steps that we need to complete in the morning and the star on the right is what to expect for bedtime. I am hoping to find a little basket or make an envelope to place the task once he has completed it. We are working on introducing this slowly, hopefully he will get the hang of it and it will make our morning routine a lot smoother. 

 

At the bottom I just bought some cheap ($.69) wooden items, slapped some magnets on the back and just let Connor play with those. 

Whirlwind update!

Merry Christmas! We had a wonderful Christmas. Connor got plenty of toys, definitely toy overload! He was sensory overloaded at everyone's house we went to...constantly running, opening & closing doors, Turing light switches on and off, barely sat down for a minute. It is truly exhausting chasing him around other peoples house so once we got back to our house we all were exhausted! 

Our little family of 3 celebrating Jesus' birthday

Connor went skating for the first time and LOVED it!! I was worried it would be too much but he loved it. Of course his wheels were locked but he went around the rink with a big ol' smile on his face. The heavy weight of the skates provided a lot of input to him, I think that helped calm him down. Needless to say, he got a pair of skates for Christmas and we will be making frequent trips to the skating rink! 

Enjoyed his first Krispy Kreme doughnut...in 10 seconds flat! 

We proudly introduce the newest member of our family, Bailey! We got Bailey for Connor, with hopes to do some training to help calm him and be his best bud. Hopefully we will be able to use Bailey to distract him from some of his repetitive behaviors, lay across his lap to give heavy pressure to help calm him, and just provide a sweet cuddly friend for him. 

Bailey is as energetic as Connor right now....needless to say I send both of them outside and let them just run. They both come back inside all worn out! :) having a puppy is like adding another toddler to our bunch....constant and exhausting but her sweet face makes it all worth it! Milo on the other hand is not too fond of her sweet face....he is still adjusting to the new addition. 

Connor's first snow...ever! We got about 3 inches of snow last week. He really wasn't a fan of the snow on his hands or when he fell down, other than that he did his usual running and playing as if the snow weren't even there. 

Eye exam: this little guy was rather intrigued with all he gadgets and buttons while waiting on the eye doctor. His eyes are slightly nearsighted but the doctor said it isn't anything to worry about right now. He will continue to monitor him.

And our most recent trip to the doctor....Connor hasn't been gaining weight since we quit using his feeding tube, he actually has lost weight. :( My concern is that he is eating plenty of food, I have seen him eat more than some kids his age. I know he is 100mph most of the time, but I feel like he should atleast have gained a little since November. He weighs 24.5 pounds right now and he is almost 3! His height is definitely increasing but his poor clothes are falling off of him. He had about 4 tubes of blood drawn to check basic labs to make sure nothing else is going on and also some other labs to check his nutritional status. We are waiting to hear these results....mommy is fairly anxious waiting for these results.

School update: we have met with Saxa Gotha Elementary school in January. He has about 4 more evaluations before his 3rd birthday before they can determine what level class he will need. 

Therapy: Still getting therapy 5 days a week. Early Intervention, speech therapy, ABA therapy and occupational therapy. Who hoo...keeping us busy! He is making improvements, very surprising things. Like today, he spoke in a full sentence....appropriately asking me " turn light on please" while reaching for the light switch. He has surprised me with pointing out his alphabet letters and knowing just about every single one of them.  He can work an iPad like nobody's business! He is a very smart little guy, the challenge is getting him to slow down enough and focus long enough to see all the things he knows!