Tuesday, August 03, 2010

What a weekend.......

Yes, I know I am late for the weekend wrap up; but when you hear about our busy weekend-you'll understand why!

Saturday: Started off ok. Got up around 7am in order to get the kids ready for their swimming classes. We had our usual of waffles and cereal. The only hiccup in this process was that Mike did not go because he was not feeling up to it. Ok. I schlep the kids to the YMCA and we all stand in the hallway waiting for one of the three family dressing rooms to open up. In all actuality, there is only two that we can use-unless we want to endure torturous screaming. The third room is the bathroom-and we all know PUBLIC RESTROOM=TOTAL MELTDOWN. We finally get changed into swimsuits and make our way to the pools. I get Nick all situated with a life jacket, and we get into the little pool where Nick has his lessons. I don't see his regular swim teacher. Uh-oh. There was a sub on this day. Uh-oh. Nick wanted nothing to do with her. Everytime she came near us, he cried and looked the other way. After a couple of times of this, M, the older girl in his class(she has epilepsy) said matter-of-factly to the teacher: "You're making him cry! You need to stop doing that to him!" We all got a chuckle out of that. Fortunately, the teacher has an autie of her own, so she took no offense to him utterly ignoring her! After that it was time for Michael's swim lesson. Michael's are in the big lap pool. Me and Nick got changed back into our dry clothes and sat on the bench watching Michael. Nick was at this point, getting a little out of sorts, but nothing extreme...yet.
By the time we got home, Nick ran straight to his room to lay down. He was screaming and shaking his head; his behaviors were reminiscent of the months before we started Risperdal. Oh G*d, not this again!
Mike went into his room to see if there was anything he could do to soothe him. He came out and said "I think his tummy is hurting...he keeps putting his hands down there and holding it. I think you should go in and be with him." I went in, kneeled by his bed and asked "What do you want Nick?" He sat up and replied "I want squeezes". At this point, I am thinking he is still upset about the sub teacher. After a squeeze, he laid down again and was still upset. I asked him if he wanted more squeezes-and he sat up and said "More squeeze". I squeezed him again; he laid down and said "goodnight". A few minutes pass, and he then comes out and lays on the floor. Still trying to figure out what is going on with him when we notice the wretched smell coming from his diaper. Nick had the mother of all BM's and this was smelly even by his standards! It was a ripe and heavy load. We got him cleaned up and were on our way to playgroup. He was feeling much better, and back to his normal self. WHew! Playgroup today took place in the gymnastics room. Safe to say that both Nick AND Michael enjoyed this!! They were jumping on the trampoline(which happened to be part of the floor...very neat!), Michael was swinging into the foam pit, Nick was swinging on the bars, and they both just had a grand ole time! Afterwards Nick had another ripe BM, but this one not as bad as the first. We went to skate, and that was pretty much it for Saturday. Saturday night Mike found Michael sitting in his room watching "Temple Grandin" on HBO! HUH??

Sunday: I am getting a shower when Michael asks through the door, "Mom? When did Nick start talking?" "Ummm, around four I guess." "Hmmmm, just like Temple Grandin!" he answered back. He still uses quite a bit of his own jargon, but little conversations are emerging. On this night, he told his brother "Goodnight, I love you." I know this because I suddenly heard Michael say "I love you too Nick!" Michael has been waiting for nearly 6yrs to hear his brother say "I love you". It was enough to make you cry tears of joy. I decide to try and take Nick off of his melatonin. The PC3X has a calming effect(YAY), and the Risperdal also makes him a little drowsy. I figured it would be worth a shot to try and decrease what we could. So, for the past two nights, we have been free of melatonin. Cross your fingers that we can continue!

Yesterday we had his chiropractor visit. Before the doctor came in Nick was jumping up and down saying "want doctor, want doctor" WHAT??!! I explained that we would have to wait and that the doctor is not ready yet. When Dr A. came in, Nick was giddy with laughter and played peek-a-boo with him! I told him of his rather smelly BM on Saturday, and he just said "GOOD! That means it is working! It is cleaning him out, just what we want it to do." Even the small things are being noticed...for example, Mike now says that he can now tell when Nick is doing a BM-he gets that 'look'...which leads us to think HE might now realize when he has to go as well. One day at a time.