What a rough night last night was! The girls were up till really late again (about 9:30) and I'm not sure why. Savannah seems to get really upset at bedtime lately. I think she's getting two more bottom teeth. She cries until we finally pity her and get her out...and of course we can't get one kid out and not the other! :) Then, for some strange reason I just COULD NOT FALL ASLEEP last night! I had absolutely NO caffeine yesterday. All these things kept running through my mind and I kept praying "Please let me fall asleep soon...I have to get up in three hours!"...and finally sleep came but I'm feeling completely disconnected this morning! The girls are in bed for their naps now and I'm going to join them but first wanted to update on how therapy is going.
Sasha was VERY impressed at how well Hannah is doing with both the eye contact and with touching different textures. She always does some sort of exercise to see how Hannah will respond. Today she filled a container with soapy water and used a straw to blow bubbles. Then she waited to see if Hannah would touch the bubbles or not...and she did. She loves bubbles! :) Then she gave Hannah some little rubber bath toys (a fish and a star) and put them down in the bottom of the container with the soapy water. She wanted to see how Hannah would react, whether she would touch it...a lot of kids with texture issues hate the feeling of water on their hands or body. (Sasha was actually telling me that she's working with SO many kids that have the same issues as Hannah...she does this same exercise using bubbles with one particular little boy and she said it's really hard because he literally screams and cries when his hands get the slightest bit wet. He refuses to participate in things she tries to do with him.) Anyway, Hannah also did well with getting the toys out and putting them back in the container. Hannie's never really had issues with water that I've ever noticed...she loves bathtime and she loves rubbing her hands on the table after I wipe her mess off of it. :)
We also started another aspect of therapy today and it's a little different! I was not too sure about the idea when Sasha first told me about it...it's called the Wilbarger Brushing Program. It's basically taking a little brush and rubbing it all over Hannah's body (except her face, head, neck and tummy) and then doing joint compressions...which is basically getting her to jump up and down 10 times to work her hip, knee and ankle joints and then trying to get her to walk on her hands about 10 steps. We both agreed Hannah really can't do the walking on her hands part yet...so I'm going to work her shoulder, elbow and wrist joints with my hands for now until she's a little bigger. (Sasha did it to Hannah and she really liked it!) It's nothing harsh or harmful to her body...it's very firm but gentle. It's supposed to be done every 2-3 hours!!!! but for now we're just going to start slow and do it before or after meals. The whole idea behind this therapy is that it's supposed to help Hannah adjust to eating, and speaking better and to respond more "normally" to things around her. Hopefully it will be beneficial...time will tell. Here's a link to a website I found in researching this a little bit. It helps explain the program a little better than I can:
http://www.pbbkids.com/the_wilbarger_brushing_protocol.htm
I know this is a book, so I'll wrap it up, but I just want to say again how thankful I am that the Lord gave us the therapist he did. Hannah cried and stomped her feet again when she left! It was so cute. :) She really seems to be getting attached to her already and she told me today that Hannah is really a beautiful kid with a great personality and that we are so very lucky to have her! :) I couldn't agree more!! Oh...and with all the other screaming kids she has to deal with everyday, I can tell our therapist really enjoys being at our house...Hannah is always so cooperative and Savannah is always there smiling wanting to participate in what we're doing with Hannie. Other than that, as far as therapy goes...we're just going to focus on doing these exercises with Hannah everyday...playdough, bubbles, playing with toys in rice or sand...and try to use the signs for "eat" and "more" when eating to encourage her to communicate what she wants. Pray for me...this is all so encouraging to see Hannah's progress, but it's VERY overwhelming. It seems like the entire day should consist of just focusing on Hannah and unfortunately there are other things going on too...and I don't know how we're gonna do potty training all at the same time, but we'll just have to take it one day at a time, right??? (Stacey, if you're reading this, you're my absolute biggest hero! I don't know how I could ever do therapy 5 days a week!!) :)
That's all for now. Have a great weekend everyone! We'll post again next week on how it's going...
Just wanted to say, in my humble, older sister opinion =), that don't pressure yourself with the potty training if this is a stressful time right now. There's nothing wrong with waiting till they're a little older, and they would probably train faster too... too many new things to learn all at once would probably be really overwhelming for Hannah and would just cause her to regress. Just a thought. Glad to hear the therapy is going well though. =)
ReplyDeleteAww, thanks Heidi. Although there are many days I still feel disconnected, lol. It can feel very overwhelming in the beginning, but once you get into a routine, it'll get easier :o)
ReplyDeleteWe did brushing with Josiah too. We did it about 4-5 times a day for about a month or two. He wasn't thrilled with it at first, but learned to enjoy it. Then we stopped the brushing, and moved to lotion. Once again he hated the feel of it, but now likes enjoys it.
Glad to hear Hannah's enjoying therapy! Josiah used to always cry when his therapists left too. He didn't want them to take their bagful of toys them either, lol. Eventually he realized they'd be back soon, so the meltdowns became less and less.