Thank you, Nana & Dandy

My parents (aka Nana & Dandy) gave us this small exercise trampoline for Maggie to use. Needless to say, she has been jumping and jumping and jumping on it for hours, every day. Do you think she likes it?!?!

One month in....

We are one month into our new routine/regimen and it's going fairly well, I think.  We gradually added Maggie's medications and as of this week, we are fully medicated. Thankfully, we haven't seen any negative side effects from any of the medications -- other than the obvious increase in energy due to the high levels of B12 she's receiving. Kinda funny that one of the most active children I know is in great need of B12!

I am thankful that Maggie has always been a great medicine taker - no issues what.so.ever. She even swallows pills without water (yuck!) She's a trooper.

We have a pretty strict routine with her, as routine makes our lives and her life much easier and much more manageable.  She thrives on knowing what is going to happen and when. Any interruption to her routine and we could have a disaster on our hands. So, we do the same thing, at the same time, in the same order - every.single.day. (or well, we at least try to!)  We have a chart that shows all the different medications, when we take them, nap time, play time, therapy at home, therapy outside of the home...it's quite intensive but necessary, and definitely helps keep us on track of what we need to do for the day.

The tantrums/outbursts are further apart these days but do tend to be much more intense than they had been. So I'm not sure which is better - less frequent or more intense? You pick.  We are seeing some great steps in her ability to sit still for longer periods of time, to concentrate a little longer than normal and responding better to our requests.  She still has plenty of moments where she just doesn't "hear" us (she's totally zoned out), where it takes 20 minutes to do one simple task and when she doesn't understand why she can't something that she NEEDS! (ha!) But we're getting there.

She loves being at home with her Daddy in the mornings. Thankful for the ability for one of us to be with her at all times. It is critical to her healing.

Maggie is now attending OT (Occupational Therapy) and ST (Speech Therapy) twice a week for 2 hours. She had some adjustments to the new place and new therapists but now she can go in without any issues/fights and have good sessions. And momma gets to sit in the lobby and watch tv on my iPad :)  We've been able to reduce her behavioral therapy sessions back to just once a month (we were going every week, then every other week). This was a huge success!  Her therapist, Beth, just couldn't get over how much she has changed/developed/improved since we started seeing her in February. Maggie still has a long way to go, but we are seeing great changes.

As a parent, it's hard to see those changes sometimes...you are with your child 24/7 and you tend (or I should say, I tend) to remember the meltdowns, fights, challenges, disruptions, all the negative stuff.  I'm learning to really rejoice in the positive things.  But those close to us have seen and noticed the changes in her and have told us so - and that makes this Momma's heart swell. 

It's a lot of hard work...especially all the different therapy and creative discipline we've had to do. It hasn't been easy. It's very time consuming.  It would be fine if this is all that I had to do, but it's not.  I have a family, a home, a job, etc. There were plenty of times that I just wanted to say - no more. Can't do this. Don't get the point. What does rubbing her head have anything to do with her outbursts? etc, etc....but I have learned to trust in the professionals and do what they say. And all the hard work is paying off.

So many times I have questioned whether or not I'm doing the right thing, could I be doing more? Should I try this technique? See this doctor? Talk to this person? Read this book? Research this protocol? And I've learned that you do what you can, where you are at, with what you know and just keep pressing on. And then repeat!

The Lord has been so faithful to put just the right people in our lives at just the right time for us to do what is best for Maggie. We cling to Him ~ He will not let us go.