Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Dear Child...


Adventures in Speech Therapy

So last week the Speech Therapist penciled us in for this morning, and said she'd text before Tuesday to make sure we were still on, etc. Well, no text and no Speech Therapist. We're all still new at this, so I'm pretty understanding.

I took the initiative to text her asking about our next session and she suggests Thursday at 1:30pm. I remind her moods are in higher spirits before noon. She says she's booked Thursday morning but can offer us tomorrow at 11:00am instead. That's actually perfect. She replies, "I'll see you then. ;)"

Like, omg no. Don't winky face. That implies you might be joking? You might not show up again. This is not the place for winky face! lol.

Friday, September 11, 2015

First Speech Therapy Session

First session of speech therapy was today. Mostly just letting Jude and the therapist get comfortable with one another (because Jude is shy with adults). They had fun. He cried when she took her toys and left. It was very sad.

She tried to teach him More, along with the sign for it. It's something we'll be working on until next week when she comes back. She was also playing a game with him where she'd exclaim "Achoo!" and now he is saying "Achoo" when he wants more of something.

I guess it's kind of progress?

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Meeting The Preschool Teacher

This morning Jude got to meet his future preschool teacher. He liked her a lot, and of all the new people he has met through this ongoing process, he warmed up to her the fastest. She even got him to touch Playdoh, something he hasn't been willing to do for me at all.

He played with her while she asked us questions about his development and the other assessments. Jude was fascinated by the bells she had brought with her. So much so that while we were helping her clean up, he grabbed one and hid it. No one noticed until a few hours later when he came out of the kitchen ringing it proudly. Tiny thief!

It's his new favorite thing. I planned on buying him one after seeing how much he enjoyed them with her, but now I'll probably just buy her a new one and let him keep this one. It's seeing A LOT of use.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

School District Assessments

Our day began at 8am sharp. We met with the school district's psychologist, speech therapist, occupational therapist, PE specialist, and a nurse all before 12. Jude handled it surprisingly well, though he was thoroughly done by the end and just wanted all of these people out of our house. Haha.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

ASD Evaluation

Yesterday pretty much everything that could have gone wrong did, but it inevitably ended alright anyway.

It started the night before, when I realized right before bed that we had a major appointment in the city the next day and I had no time to prepare for it. That probably seems pretty minor to a lot of you, but when you have autism prepping yourself for what to expect when you go someplace new is very important. This generally takes about 24 hours, which I did not have.

So I spent the majority of the morning on the brink of an anxiety attack, all while trying to get myself and Jude ready to go. Jude, who woke my up in the middle of the night again, so we were also both exhausted before noon. But his appointment wasn't until 3, so I basically followed him around for hours trying to prevent meltdowns so that transporting him from point a to point b wasn't a nightmare.

By the time we actually leave I'm actually having a panic attack but I've no choice but to truck on. We get on the freeway and there's wonky construction happening all over the place. The lanes are split and divided by cement blocks. So when we realize we're actually on the wrong 80 (there's 2 and maps rarely specify which), we can't get off because of the dividers.

Aaron plugs the address into his phone to try to navigate us there but his phone is absolutely not cooperating. Now Jude is fussing loudly. I offer him snacks now thinking the complaints are hunger related. They are not.

Just as I'm about to have a heart attack to my mounting anxiety, he barfs. Car sick. We knew he got car sick (I do too) but before it had only ever happened in stop-and-go traffic. This was a straight shot. Welp. "Should we turn around?" Aaron asks.

"No. I think he's got spare clothes in the diaper bag. I'll clean him up, you just get us there."
He cracks a window and I put my seat back so that I can scoop the bloated raisins and bile off of the child and out of his car seat. It's gross. Strangely having to enter ULTIMATE MOM MODE completely took away my anxiety though. So, thanks unexpected toddler puke.

We arrive and Aaron calls to let them know we'll be running late and why, they are gracefully understanding. I use a bottle of water and some paper towels to give Jude a sponge bath in the trunk and then put him in a clean shirt and diaper. There aren't any pants in the diaper bag, but he's not old enough to be embarrassed about running around half naked yet so that's fine.

Aaron takes the clean child and heads inside to get us all situation while I scrub down the car so that it isn't rancid in the summer heat for the 3 hours this is supposed to take. I realize as I'm walking into the building that Aaron took the paperwork with him so I have no idea where to actually go.

It didn't wind up mattering because Jude would absolutely not let him enter the suite without me, and he had to loiter outside in the hallway with a half naked, screaming toddler getting looks from people until I arrived. lol.

We go in, he won't let me put him down. I hold all 40 lb. of him for 20 minutes until we're call back. The appointment itself goes well enough, considering. She suspects ASD but it can be difficult to say definitively at this age. Afterward, Jude falls asleep while I'm holding him and the doctor is talking to us. She talks to us for like... eternity. My arms actually feel like they've been shred to ribbons when I can finally load him back into his car seat. Which was thankfully dry and didn't stink.

We got home, hung out with Jude a while then put him to bed. He of course didn't want me to go, so I sat with him in the dark until he fell asleep. Then I came out and tried to play some video games to unwind, but my dying computer wouldn't let me. Thankfully Aaron suggested we watch a movie instead, because I would've probably bashed my head against that wall until just going to bed defeated.

We watched Kung Fu Hustle and ate chocolate and kettle corn while he basically doused me in Icy Hot. Then, for the first time since last Monday, Jude actually slept through the night.
I feel it is important to share bad days as well as good ones. Not only to vent but because hiding the bad stuff is dishonest. I don't want my life to seem easy so others feel bad when they struggle. No, man. We all struggle. Read about my floundering. Share in my pain.

tl;dr: anxiety attack, loads of barf, arms day ever day, technical difficulties, kung fu hustle, actual sleep.