Brady's Page

a sleepless night…or two…

Brady has been a great sleeper for it seems like forever now…10+ hours at night and a 2-hour nap nearly every day.  But Saturday night, our poor little sniffler stayed up most of the night.  He had a runny nose, droopy eyes, whiney, and a fever.  This is a huge surprise to us, because Brady never gets sick.  This is only his second fever in 3 years, he has never had any infections, never had any antibiotics, so we haven’t had much experience here.  So Sunday we spent most of the day laying on the couch, watching Noggin or the Olympics, sipping on some juice, nappng, resting…you name it.  Good news is he slept well Sunday night, woke Monday with just the runny nose (which is still around) and finally had some energy again.  The good news about all of this is that Brady’s body (his immune system) is actually trying to fight rather than surpressing every illness into his gut, as it has in the past.  Maybe the probiotics and antifungal supplements are working for him!  So…e all got a good night of sleep Sunday night, then Monday night Ty decided he’d stay up most of the night.  This again was a huge surprise, he has been sleeping almost 11 hours a night since before he hit 6 weeks.  So, I was sure he was getting sick now too, which is scary since we’ve chosen not to vaccinate him.  I was wrong…he was cutting his first tooth!  Its halfway through the gums, and he is smiling and showing it off already.  I call Ty our “wonder baby”   They both seemed a bit better this morning, so we went out to breakfast to First Watch.  We don’t eat out much, really ever…except for breakfast.  The boys were both well behaved and it was a good time by all.

I wanted to ask advice from all you mommies out there – whether your kids have delays or typical development – whomever has a suggestion.  Brady is still sleeping in a crib.  I am in NO hurry to move him out of it because he sleeps SO well.  However, I for thr first time caught him with one leg over the side last week.  It has amazed me for months that he hasn’t tried to climb out considering he climbs everything else in our house, but he hasn’t tried the crib yet.  I’m not sure how a typical child learns to stay in a toddler or twin bed and go to sleep at night or naptime…but I have NO IDEA how Brady will learn this concept.  He doesn’t appear to understand our words, pretty much ever, so I am imagining that as soon as I leave the room he will get out of the bed, run around the room, open the door and come back downstairs.  Any suggestions???

Brady has been making huge strides in my opinion with his expressive language in the last week or two.  He now tries to verbalize some words – outside, bye-bye, TV, uh-oh…on occasion.  Even more than that, he pushes or pulls Jerod and I, his therapists,  and his grandparents to whatever he wants.  He will push me to the back door and put my hand on the knob to show me he wants to go outside…It is SO cute!  He is a huge fan of his new PECS too.  Every day when he goes to a session in his therapy room, before he even sets down his PECS book, he pulls out the TV pec.  He tries to use the pool and swingset pecs often in therapy too.  Of course, all of these items are moved to the “No Page” pretty quickly during therapy…which has made the words “No, not right now” insanely popular for his therapists.

I have been having a difficult time emotionally lately…it seems I go through this every few weeks.  It is just so much to get done, between taking care of all the home health hours documentation, waiver stuff, applying for the autism scholarship, getting everything done for Brady’s IEP, gathering ABA materials, printing and copying data sheets, reading up on his biomed and keeping a calendar record of supplements ad progress, looking to hire additional therapists, filing reimbursement forms with the insurance company, scheduling appointments…there just aren’t enough hours in the day!  More importantly, I feel like all of these tasks take away from my time with Brady and Ty, which is the most important of all.  I am still trying to find a balance and normalcy for all of this, but it is constantly a struggle.  In trying to keep the faith, remember God is in charge and stay focused on Brady’s recovery, we posted a message on the wall in our great room…there is a picture below of Brady reading the words…the very words I hope speak of my little boy and what is ahead for him.

Sara,
I am a mother of a 17 month old and also a OT.  I have not yet transitioned my little one to a toddler bed but from what I read and what I have heard, the best way is to “baby proof” the room, and put a baby gate across the door so they can’t get out.  If they get out of bed, you go up and lay them back down.  Yes you do this often the first week or so and as they begin to understand that when I am put in bed I stay in bed the threory is that it will decrease and sooner or later they will remain in bed.  You try not to talk to them, cuddle them and all that jazz when you have to keep puttin them in bed.  It should be matter of fact but with Brady that may be a tough skill for him to comprehend.  If you need more help email me… I hope this is helpful and good luck.  I have been staying informed with your blog partly because I am interested as an OT but also because I am in grad school studying ASD for my master program.

Sarah,
First, I would like to thank you for sharing your story with everyone!!!
I have a two and a half year old son who is diagnosed with Autism.  He did figure out how to climb out of his crib around 26 months.  We had no choice but to get out the toddler bed.  We babyproofed the room and put a child safety latch on the door so he could not get out.  We kept the same bedtime routine every night to keep it consistent.  We would lay him in bed and leave his room.  Of course, we heard him running around and a few times we would go put him in bed and remind him it is “night-night” time.  Usually he would fall asleep on the floor and we would put him in his bed.  If he was really tired, he would stay in his bed. 
After a few months, we felt like he did not have much space in the toddler bed and he was still falling asleep on the floor.  So, we gave him a full sized bed with bed rails on each side.  We made a VERY BIG deal about him getting his own “big boy bed”.  He is non-verbal, but he was smiling and laughing as we celebrated this step!!
I must say that he has done excellent ever since we made that change!  We will still hear him get out of bed sometimes, but he is almost always asleep in his bed!  We are very proud of him!!!
Good Luck when you make your transition!!! 
Thanks again for all of the updates!!!!