Fun fact, I'm getting interviewed this morning by Susan Wheeler-Hall BSW, NGH. Susan is an Author, Coach, Educator, Speaker and Radio Host. She'll be interviewing me around 11 am this morning. I'm not sure what we'll be talking about but it should be fun. The boys are home from school today and I'm hoping they will cooperate.. ☺
Unfortunately, Gavin's had a rough day. I feel I need to stress that this wasn't behavioral, at least in the way it would have been a few years back. The first issue is in regards to Gavin's bladder problems returning today for the first time in a long-ish time. This is par for the course with Gavin because these things pop up now and again. The first thing we will do to address this is work with the Miralax again. We had backed off a bit because everything was going well. That's all we can do at this point. As for the second issue or challenge, I think that was probably harder for me than it was for him. The problem was that Gavin required a great deal of patience…
I wanted to take a minute and share a bit of insight into what Gavin experiences in regards to his IVIG Infusions. Gavin receives these medically necessary procedures twice a week and will do so for the rest of his life. These infusions provide him with the immune system his body naturally lacks. Without these infusions, his body would not be able to fight off infections. While these treatments are a blessing, they aren't always pleasant. The pictures below show what the infusion sites look like and it's incredibly unpleasant for him. Gavin has almost no body fat and so all the swelling is from the infusion
We had to get both Gavin and Lizze's bloodwork done this morning. Everyone cooperated pretty well and I'm grateful for that. We also had to stop by the UPS Store on the way home. Elliott and Emmett were distracted by Pokémon Go during the hour or so we were gone. They actually had fun, which made everything much easier. Everyone is in a good mood this morning, at least for the most part. I'm hoping that good mood will continue when we get home because I have some small projects I'd like to work on today.
Being a parent period, is a difficult but rewarding task. When you're an Autism or Special Needs parent, that difficulty level is increased to the nth degree as is the reward factor. Raising a child with a developmental disorder like Autism, is extremely difficult because of the very nature of the disorder. Autism is a very dynamic condition and often presents in a very fluid manner. This means that everything involving the parenting of a child with Autism can more often than not be a moving target. In my personal experience with my three boys on the Autism Spectrum, something that works today, may never work again. Likewise, something that's never worked before, could actually work today. Every single day that I wake up, I honestly have no idea what…
This morning was particularly rough for me personally. Elliott was up until almost 4 am and shortly after falling asleep, he woke up screaming because he must have bitten his the inside of his cheek. He was really upset and in pain but I couldn't figure out what was going on until we were up for the day. Elliott wasn't able to tell me what had happened because he wasn't fully awake. He did go back to sleep but when the alarm went off to get the day started, we had only had about 2 hours of sleep. The boys did get off to school without much issue but I'm going to have to take a nap..
How I handle my kids with #Autism not sleeping. Tools I use as well as my last resort trick.
I wanted to share this brief video of Emmett being cheered up by one of our ferrets. He was overwhelmed by something going on and was gearing up for a meltdown. Saved by the ferret.. ☺ 💙 https://youtu.be/SWu-gSYEVfE