"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

Sunday, February 7, 2010

A great night out with Brycen!


Brycen went to his first hockey game last night...and he loved it! We always hesitate to take him any place where there is a lot of people, noise, and where we don't always have an escape route for obvious reasons, but he amazed us last night with how he tolerated all the people and noise and really seemed to enjoy himself. He loves action, and though it was probably one of the worst hockey games I have ever been to, it still involved enough action to keep him happy. The only drawback was when the Muskies mascot came around to greet people...Brycen tried his hardest to curl up into a ball on his seat to escape him, but then it was back to the game once the mascot walked away! He clapped, he responded to his name, he waited in line to the best of his ability, and he said "hi" and "bye" to people when just a month ago he would have just yelled at them! Yay for Brycen and for adding another achievement to the growing list!

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Monday, February 1, 2010

The sleep issue again!

I think we are at another stand-still with the sleeping with Brycen...and I just don't know what to do. Mike gets the lack of sleep from dealing with Brycen in the middle of the night, and I get to deal with the guilt of his and Brycen's lack of sleep!
For awhile there, we thought we had mostly solved the problem with special overnight diapers. Since he wasn't leaking out at night, we think that helped him to sleep longer or if he woke up, to be able to put himself back to sleep. The melatonin is still working at helping him fall asleep faster (most nights anyway) but it never did work to keep him asleep. We are now back to 5-6 nights a week of him waking up at least once even though he is no longer leaking out of his diaper!
So, back to the researching if medicating him is the right thing. He wouldn't go to sleep last night, woke up during the night, was up early when Mike was getting ready, and then I had to wake him at 7:20 to get him ready for school. He continued to whine all morning until I dropped him off at school. When I picked him up, they informed me that he didn't fall asleep at nap time until right before 2 which means he only got about 1/2 hour of nap...so of course as soon as we get into the car to head home, the whining and crying starts right where it left off this morning. I'm guessing he is overtired, but what if there is something else wrong that I can't determine. What if he is getting sick, or his tummy hurts, or he's upset about something else and I can't figure it out and make it better?
This is so frustrating and this is one of those days where I am questioning once again, why, why, why?! I know everybody is entitled to these days but I wouldn't mind a few less of them in our lives!
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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.