"When one door of happiness closes, another opens;
but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."
Helen Keller

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Brycen is officially...

POTTY TRAINED!!! 

We waited to share the big news until it had been an official month of peeing on the potty.  Unfortunately he is not completely trained with his bowels yet...he'll go a few days with having accidents and then have a few really consistent days of using the toilet, then backtrack again.  But we choose to look on the good side and see how far he has come in just a couple months! 

The first few days of extensive training were rough for all of us, but it paid off.  We still have him wear a pull-up underneath his underwear when going to school or away from the house just in case, but at home he only wears underwear. 

Even after a month, the excitement has not worn off of watching him run into the bathroom, complete his duty, wash his hands all with NO PROMPTS before coming back to play.  He has gotten into a good routine of at least trying before we leave the house, as well as going after waking in the morning and before bedtime.  He was even staying dry at night for so long that we decided to rid of the overnight pull-ups as well!!  Now when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he either goes into the bathroom right away or after a prompt from us.  I can't remember the last time he wet during the night in his pull-up! 

Not only are we saving money on the overnight pull-ups, but I have been able to cancel his last two shipments of day time pull-ups from the company that was delivering/billing them to Medicaid AND our garbage is so much lighter!! 

So to all of those parents who are in my "old" shoes just a couple months ago, it CAN happen!  We went from having a child who wouldn't even sit on the potty, screamed when we made him, to not even having to prompt him to go during the day because he really gets it.  Your child can do it too...just find the right time and right environment and set him or her up for success!

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Autism and Our Family

"Autism"----It's one word that can change the life of a child and family in so many ways. Autism Spectrum Disorders are being diagnosed at a rate of 1 in 68 children currently. If you do not already know someone that has been diagnosed, the statistics say it won't be long before you do.

Our son developed typically until around the time he turned 2 years old. We heard words...we saw him play with other kids...we watched as he played with his toys appropriately...we made eye contact with him...overall we understood his wants and needs. In a matter of a few months, that was all taken away from him. He began lining up toys, lost all of his words and signs except for one word "ball", ignored other kids, could not sleep through the night, lost eye contact and the ability to follow directions, and he had no way of letting us know what he wanted or how he felt. It was heartbreaking to see something happening to our child that we couldn't stop!

Brycen began receiving home therapy 1-2 times per month for about 6 months before we realized it wasn't just developmental delays. We knew it was Autism...we just didn't want to say it outloud to anyone. He was officially diagnosed with Autism (classic form and regressive), as well as Mental Retardation in August 2009 by the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

We continue to learn as we make our way through this journey with Brycen and we will continue to share this journey with you on this blog! The blog has been a great therapy for us to be able to vent our frustrations and struggles with accepting that we have a child with special needs, while sharing how blessed we are to have a child teach us what life truly means. It has also been a great way to inform others of his progress and changes over the last couple of years.

Thank you for your support of Brycen and our family! We hope you are able to learn something through this blog no matter if you are a parent of a child with special needs or a neurotypical child, a teacher or therapist, a family member, or just someone that is interested in the journey that a family goes on as they learn their child is battling a life-long disorder.