Worth it!

Sunday was day one of a med change. Day went fine.

That's good news.

With the exception of the 3rd night in a row of my little guy waking up at 4 or 4:30am- being awake for about an hour and a half then going back to bed.

It's hard to sleep when you know he's awake, fixing something in the kitchen, moving about the house.

You just don't really sleep until you know he's settled.

But at least we can't contribute the waking in the middle of the night to the change in meds. He was doing this before we changed the meds. This is just him during periods of time-

So a few positive experiences we've had the past few days with our little guy: 1.He asked daddy to read to him Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at bedtime.

Unheard of- and he picked a Magic Tree House, Hero Dogs book. WoW!

If he wants to be read to (which is so rare to begin with )it's always a dog care book, a book on animal facts, or some sort of sports statistics/fact book.

So this was awesome to hear him ask for a book and then to be different then his "usual" - it's just a wow moment for us as parents! (aka less rigid, more flexible, more open to something different- yes!!!)

So onto the second positive experience: He read out loud to me the Pokemon Trading Card instruction sheet. With no help, with pure confidence, and it was amazing. I just smiled the entire time while I listened to him read words like reveal, evolution, declare, additional, section, opponent, enough, knocked. Again, no words: just WOW!

So thirdly : and this by far is one of my favorite because it is probably what has help contribute to these other positive experiences. We've been learning more about something called Yogapeutics. I"m loving it! I learned about it from the "A Sensory Life" website by Angie Voss, OTR. I love her information, suggestions, and experiences working with kids with Sensory Processing Disorder.

On her website she has introduced this new technique that a friend of hers in Austin, TX has developed.

It's called Yogapeutics- and it's using a hammock and specific aerial yoga moves that she has specifically designed for kids. She herself is an Occupational Therapist, and all I can say is wow!

This Yogapeutics is just what my child needs- so he's been trying some moves. One is called the hanging monkey.

Last night before bed, he was a bit overly excited, having a hard time calming down for bedtime. So he asked me if I would watch him do some Yoga moves in the hammock.

Ummm Yeah!

This is awesome... pure and simply awesome!

For a kid who struggles so much with everyday tasks, with regulating his body enough to participate in our family, a kid who simply cannot exist outside the home environment due to his nervous system jumping straight into "fight or flight"-

a kid where the world challenges him so much that it becomes dangerous for him either because of fleeing or fighting. Both suck!

And he wanted to hang upside down, in a hammock, that is compressing his body, hugging it all over, inverting his head, compressing his spine. So much good stuff I just am giddy with pride and joy for him.

This is nothing new for us, with the exception of his cooperation. His willingness to participate in activities that we know will help his body. Activities that will help him be more regulated. Movements that provide the proper inputs to his body to calm his nervous system, which then allows him to participate in the world around him. WE KNOW ALL THIS....we just have a hard time getting him to do these things. And the more dysregulated he is, the less likely he is to respond and cooperate. It's such a horrible cycle that goes round and round, getting worse and worse.

Until we shut the external world out and close down the bubble and get back to absolute focus on what will help his body and help calm his system.

He doesn't know any of this- he only responds either positive or negative. This is what makes things so challenging during those more difficult days. But with out bubble, zipped tight, this kind of activity- perfect!

< And he smiles every time he's doing it. These are the kind of times that I know we are doing right by him, despite the lack of understanding from the general public (which at this point we are so over anyways).

We know our child, we know what helps him, we don't care if "you" don't understand. (you is the judgmental people that are close and far, who feel they know but yet have no clue..... you know the type! ) :) When we see this happy, joyful, excited about life kid : yeah it's all worth it!

Now of course this is the week of Halloween.... gosh I hope we can get through this week without too much regression and without major incidents. Halloween typically is not a sensory friendly holiday....... :0