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| Melanie didn't fall asleep until 10:30 last night, at 2:45 she woke up and came into our room looking for us, and after HOURS AND HOURS of trying to get this girl back to sleep, finally at 6:15am so was out. Now I have to wake her up to get her ready for therapy. Today I'm gonna feel like shooting myself. |
As the caption says I woke her up for therapy just minutes after taking this picture, and we actually had a really good therapy session!
Lets start with Monday 1/26. We woke up and had breakfast immediately, then rather than turning the TV on which she always ask for, I told her we weren't going to watch any TV until we changed her diaper and she was dressed. She turned away and took off to play instantly. She wasn't going to have anything to do with getting dressed. That was at 8:15, over the course of 2 hours she would randomly walk by the TV and turn it on. I would repeat myself... diaper and clothes. I got a lot done, dishes, laundry, cleaned my room, and BATHROOM TOO; and finally she was ready for clothes and the diaper. We changed, went to the gym, went to the grocery story, she took a nap, and we only watched about an hour of TV all day. 30 minutes after she got dressed and 30 miuntes while I made dinner. I was shocked at what a great day it was. There were NO meltdowns! I have implimented this as part of our daily routine, and its been working to get her dressed... I might also be occasionally bribing her with suckers.
I was so happy putting her to sleep thinking we'd had this super awesome day! Well then we had Monday night which was terrible (re-read caption for a reminder). So on to Therapy. I mentioned to Kamber the details of the night we had experienced, because surprisingly Melly was in such a great mood! She was way more talkative, and she even played a little with Kamber. Usually she has nothing to do with Kamber. While Kamber was sitting in my family room, and we were talking about this aspect of SPD and that I had an epiphany! I was so much calmer than I had been the week before. I had worked 3 days the week before, and felt totally overwhelmed. Thus my last post. But because of the availability of my babysitter I needed to take the week off from subbing, and just focus on being a mom. Remember last week my final complaint/fear was 'how am I supposed to keep myself calm enough to be Melanie's anchor', well that was my epiphany... stop subbing. When all I have to do it take care of Melanie, and Daniel I can keep the balance. I'm much more calm, way less stressed. I'd work myself up not just over working, but also about dropping Melanie of the the sitter, not knowing what Melanie was doing there, most of my stress was anxiety about doing it all.
So we had a great week. I focused on Melanie, I had dinners made, the house "mostly" clean, and I even had someone over for dinner last week without stressing about it.
We're still working on the sleep. I actually had another night like last Monday, and we have had a few in between now and then. After last night I have decided to put Melly back in her crib. I did some reading and think its the best thing to do, we're going to try it tonight and see how it goes!
A few of the the things that were recommended for Melanie this week are the following.
*Brushing- The purpose for brushing is used for tactile defensiveness and sometimes other sensory processing challenges.
-Brush her in the morning before getting her dressed, and at diaper changes, and again at night after PJ's are on.
-Brush from shoulder to wrist, hip to ankle, and neck to bottom. If she takes the brush to other parts of her body (tummy) allow it.
-After brushing have her jump 10 times.
I don't know how or if the brushing is working but she does like it. She doesn't refuse it, and she sure likes the jumping afterwards.
*Sleeping- These were just some suggestions of possibly ways to help her sleep better at night.
-Try putting her in footy Pajamas, or onesies that is too small.
-Integrate brushing in to night time routine.
-Do more "heavy work", proprioceptive activities, crashing into mom and dad, being thrown onto the sofa, pushing heavy boxes, carrying heavy objects from one table to another, etc.
*Tent- Similar to the squish box. The actual recommendation was to put a small pool of beans inside but Melly would very likely throw them all over the place and I don't really want to be constantly picking up dried beans. Though I do think I'll get her a tent and put some toys inside, or more pillows.
Next session with Kamber is this Friday. I was supposed to be yesterday but we needed to reschedule.
Hopefully you can tell I am a much happier, but also more tired Kelly this week.
