Wow, it's been a while since I've blogged. Things have been very busy between home and work. On the work front, I got to spend a delightful, fun filled (not the sarcasm) week in the paradise of Iowa. It seemed like a nice place, but extremely cold and I spent most of that week outdoors in single digit weather.
"Playing Sherlock Holmes"
One of the things that any parent of a non-verbal child needs to learn is how to be a detective. Since your child can't speak, or doesn't know the right way to express him or herself, he or she can't say "Mom, my throat is scratchy" or "My tummy hurts". So you need to look for clues and deduce the problem.
Unfortunately for Monster, it seems I'm more like Dr. Watson than Mr. Holmes, but thems the breaks, kid.
The first thing that you notice is that he/she is acting out of the ordinary for them. For example, Monster had been going to sleep around 8 or 8:30 watching a movie. We then moved him to his own bed where he slept until about 4 or 5 in the morning when he crawled over to the big bed. He then slept until 6:30 or so the next morning. That has been the pattern for a few weeks, maybe since about mid January. Last week, however, he woke about midnight and didn't want to go back to sleep. He would then eventually fall asleep about 2 or 3 (or maybe later) in the morning.
Once you've established that something is off, you go searching for any and all clues. Monster has been having a problem focusing in class. He has been more resistant to activities he generally likes, he has had more meltdowns, he has been fixating on things more often and is more resistant to transitioning away from them, and he has been needing both Mom and Dad to be around in the morning this past weekend. Physically, he has been congested at night, he has had multiple cold sore outbreaks and his riding coach said he was leaning to one side on the horse (to her this suggested a potential ear infection or balance issue).
Ok, you now have a list of "symptoms" (sorry, I should mention I've been watching back episodes of House). Off to causes. What has been different? Have we switched up his routine? Did they start something new in school? Did he start eating a new food? Well, Mom was out of town for a week. That was a big thing so I'm sure that had some impact on the focus, sleep and meltdowns. We also have been reducing the amount of time he spends watching DVD sneak peaks and home videos of himself-both of these activities were very "relaxing" to him because he could "check out" when he did them. As we did that, we also increased the amount of time he spent playing-building things, playing board games, playing ball, reading, etc. This does require more focus, more interaction (which = more self control). We also eliminated a lot of the trips to the library (where he would check out his movies). Monster has been requesting Daddy for night time duty and I've forced my way in a few times to do the bedtime routine (even though he wanted Daddy). He had been swimming a lot, which reduced the amount of epsom salt baths he had per week (he showers at the pool rather than getting a bath at home). And he had a nasty, lingering cold over Christmas.
Now comes the hard part. How does the list of symptoms match with the list of changes? What change is causing what problem and how do we fix it? Mr and I are still trying to figure this part out at the moment. We've switched Monster to a sleeping bag with a heavy blanket to help keep him asleep longer (so far, mixed results, one night I put his pillow in the wrong spot, which caused him to wake up; another night I put the blanket up too high on his back). We've opened the door to his room a bit to reduce the temperature inside (another reason he was waking up). I do think getting a better night's sleep can reduce a lot of stuff. However, the focus problem can also be caused by the cold sores hurting. In addition, a lingering cold can turn into a sinus or ear infection. Unfortunately, Monster rarely presents with a fever, even when he has an infection. We rarely know about it until he hits the completely lethargic state. Of course, these days sinus and ear infections generally warrant a "wait and see" approach, rather than antibiotics (and I agree with this approach), so there wouldn't be much we could do anyway. Still, we may take him in just to eliminate this as a cause (or rule it in). Not something we really enjoy doing during flu season.
Of course, Mr. got a haircut, which can throw Monster off (because Mr. looks differently). Monster has been a lot more picky about my hair lately, so I know Mr's hair cut threw him off a bit. Plus we don't know if there were any small changes at school-a classmate being out or getting a haircut, a new unit in PE class, etc. Or he could just be gearing up for new breakthrough. He told his speech therapist he was "mad" spontaneously one day.
We'll figure it out eventually. Then we'll have a few days or even weeks of somewhat peace (or at least predictable routine) before the next great mystery arises.
Now, for the reward of schlepping through my ramblings. Monster ice skating :D
This is the first weekend we went:
This was this weekend
Monster flying solo:
