Lucas' Journey with SPD Super Mega Blog Hop!!

Check out Lucas' Journey W/SPD, they've entered a contest and could win some much needed funds that would help with therapy items for Lucas this summer!! Click on the button above and follow the links to the contest!!

Good luck Lucas and Debbie, too!!

Be sure to tell her how you found her, and follow back!!

Have a great weekend!

Erika
© erikalandon 2010

Night Terrors... ongoing...

Levi has night terrors. Not nightmares, but these terrors. They suck. I'm sure they suck for him as much as they do for me, but the *good* thing about them is he has virtually no memory of them if I can calm him without waking him. It's so hard to stand next to my child that is screaming that he needs you and that he can't do this while trying to comfort him and tell him that I'm there when he is not awake and can't understand that I am there.

But Levi has come a long way. When he was little (infant to toddler) he woke alot at night, also had Night Terrors then, but was small, easy to carry and I had ways to calm him. As he's grown some of the methods have contiued to work, some have not. And my need for sleep has also prohibited some of these methods that I was able to employ when I wasn't working 60+ hours a week.

The thing that has stayed the same throughout is Levi's sweet demeanor when he is not in the middle of a terror. He is so loving, so caring. I never get tired of his impromptu "mommy, I love you" or even hearing him tell his brother or sisters the same thing.

The night terrors are believed to be yet another symptom of his central nervous system disorder, another part of his Sensory Processing Disorder, but thankfully it is something he doesn't remember the next morning. He awakens thinking he had a good night. If he is woken during them, he asks me the next day why he is different and can he just have a new body. That's heartbreaking. As long as I am able to keep his terrors from waking Daddy, they usually resolve quickly. But yes, I do look forward to a day when I am able to go to bed in the evening and not awaken until 2:30 or 3:00 am when it is time to get up for work! But, the coolest part of Levi's active sleeping is that between 3 and 3:30 each morning it's not uncommon to hear him giggle and talk in his sleep... the times he has remembered he has told me that he was playing with Little Eric!

There's even more information about SPD on Lucas' Journey with SPD; follow them on their Easter Weekend Blog Hop here:






She's got some really cute Easter ideas and Giveaways on her blog! Remember to leave her a comment telling her where you got the link, and comment here, too, so I can follow back!!

Happy Easter Weekend!!

Good Friday: 4 years from the day Vivian's Trach was closed!!!


Erika
© erikalandon 2010

The dinosaur keeps biting my pants!

Levi has night terrors, which basically means that my little guy talks, screams and wakes at night, all without REALLY waking up. I hear the funniest things when this happens (on the night when it's not blood-curdling screams)

Tonight, about 1:30AM he told me that we needed to get back into the classroom. So, I said, okay, we're back in, it's ok. And he calmed (while I scratched his back). These night terror times are usually accompanied by leg pains, or intense itching on his part)

Then, at about 2:15, he was down stairs, he started to cry out, then asked me to itch his hip because "The dinosaur keeps biting my pants!"

SPD, night waking, intermittent screaming and all, I love my little snuggler - But would someone please tell the dinosaurs to bite someone else's pants? This momma need some sleep!

Erika
© erikalandon 2010

you said atleast one page of homework a day, and I did ONE!

Imagine this:

You spend a day in a loud classroom. Every loud breather, every sniffle, every rustle of a coat in earshot, every voice, everything assaults your senses. You're not like most others. Your brain lacks the ability to compartmentalize each sound. You're unable to 'block out' the sounds that you don't need.

He handles it. He does well, but it is tiring. He is alerted, or excited by each noise. But he is a seeker, so looks for things that alert his senses at times. Not that that is best for him. He also craves things that calm him; swinging, rocking, scratching and chewing. These activities help him calm and able to concentrate.

Imagine your shirts are your chewing companion. You have tools, these things called "chewys" that you can take with you wherever you go. But a well-meaning teacher tells you one day to take that thing out of your mouth.

He wants to please people. He wants to do right. He cries to me; asks me why he is always in trouble. My heart breaks. He wants to be good. But it's so hard. So hard to stop touching things, stop chewing things, stop letting things distract him... To fight against these urges.

His fight with Sensory Processing Disorder is ongoing. So our story continues. His story continues.

He is a good kid, even if sometimes he feels like he is always in trouble. He is the light of my life.

To be continued...


Erika
© erikalandon 2010

Walking to school...

A week ago I asked my boss for 3 days off this week and had asked Eric to spend a couple nights at the beach: just the two-of-us. Buuuuut, he thought it was a better idea for me to spend the time helping Matt look for a job, so I am using this time to help Matt on job search as well as get him going on GED prep...

The silver lining in this cloud is that I get to spend some much needed Mommy time with the little one's and also get some housecleaning done.

I miss out on being able to kiss them bye at the bus stop and be there when they get off the afternoon bus and get the happy-screaming hugs that they offer at that time. I am thankfull that I have a job, and I DO enjoy my job, but I miss these times with the kids. They're growing up so fast!!

Today Levi wanted to walk to school. His first time ever. And, true to form, Vivian wanted to do the opposite: ride the bus. So I kissed her at the bus stop, left her with Daddy and headed off to walk with Levi. It's cold. Like 28 degrees outside. (please let my newly budding plants live through this)But my little dude and I walked to school. His hand even got cold enough that he gave in and held my hand in my warm pocket for a few minutes :) We met his friend Gunner outside his house and the boys walked (well ran) towards the school yard...

I watched as they (a LOT of loud kids) waited outside the doors to their wing until time to go into their classrooms. I got to see how Levi deals with the noise attacking his sensory being. He did well, I can see the coping mechanisms that are not-so-obvious to any other bystander; unless, that is, they are also raising a sensory kid, I guess. He did great. He has made some great friends this year with boys in their grade, and even asked this morning if he could play at Gunner's house after school. The bell rang, Levi was chosen to help hold the doors open and they filed in the hallway. I knew I shouldn't leave until Vivian arrived on her bus, or she'd never let me hear the end of it...

So I waited.

and waited...

and waaaaaaaited...

Bus 250 apparently had a malfunction. It arrived after the last bell. Off the bus bounces my Vivian. Happy as ever to see me, as if she hadn't seen me just a short time before when I walked away from the bus stop. I got my Vivian hug, and off she trotted towards the land of first graders, my utterly independant girl (when she wants to be).

I'm enjoying my extra time with the kids this week, happy to insert into "their world" a little more than I am able to on a weekly basis.

Only thing that could have made the walk to school this morning better would have been for me to be walking all my little one's to school, trying to hold three hands... Strange how the smallest of things trigger the longing for Little Eric once again.

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What he can do, he does well....

In a kid with Sensory Processing Disorder, there are moments, and then there are moments...

Eric and I were talking the other day about how Levi has these "all-together" moments, and then the SPD seems to rear it's head again. They are the fleeting glimpse of the inside of this kid, and they are wonderful, but the SPD almost always overpowers...

Today, there was one of those "all-together" type of days...

I know the video is small, but you can get the jist...It was taken with my phone spur-of-the-moment, so crappy resolution...

Important part is that he is overjoyed to be able to hula hoop before his sister... and yes, it's HER hula hoop...


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