New thing to worry about

I need help from parents out there. I'm really concerned over Wes' new "trick". I apologize if this is too graphic, but I'm at a loss.

Wes has been holding in his urine lately and for long periods of time. Yesterday, he woke up completely dry in his diaper. The last time he urinated was the night before bed. His diaper was wet, but not full. Anyway, he woke up dry and didn't urinate until nearly 12:30 in the afternoon. When he did go, it was so much that at least a cup of urine did not absorb into the diaper. It was completely full from front to back. He had at least three cups of liquid (milk and water) and still didn't go until after noon.

I'm really worried about what this holding in is doing to his bladder and kidneys. I've got a call into his pediatrician to discuss this issue and possibly take him to another specialist to see what's going on and if there is any damage already. I don't know if it's behavioral or not. We're still trying the toilet training but with him holding it for hours, it's not really going anywhere.

Has anyone else experienced this? What was your course of action? I'm really lost here.

That's using your noggin

It's official. Casey will be in a toddler bed as of tonight. After putting him in his crib and making sure the side rail was up, he tried to escape with some painful consequences. I was in the kitchen getting Wes' boots, coat, and backpack for school when I heard Ba-Boom! and felt the house shake. I took off upstairs, pushing poor Wes out of the way, and found Casey laying on the floor near his crib with a stunned look on his little face. He turned to look at me and said "Mama, I fell on my head". I scooped him up and make sure there was no blood or broken bones. When I asked if he was alright, he started crying. I felt so bad for him.
So tonight is a big night for him. We have tried using the toddler bed feature on his crib and that turned into a disaster but I can't leave him in the crib and God forbid something worse happens to him when he tries to escape. He's going to have a pretty bare room for a month or so until he learns to stay in his new bed.

What has happened to my child?

I don't know where the Wesley is that I've known. He seems to have disappeared and been replaced with a child who changes everyday. I'm loving this new Wesley, but with it comes new learning from us all. New learning on how to deal with all the changes he's making.

Tim and I took a much needed and much deserved night to ourselves. It was our anniversary and the boys grandparents offered to take them overnight. Casey has never slept overnight at any ones home, but he is comfortable there and loves going to visit so I knew everything would be just fine. Except for escaping the crib there too, the boys had a blast. Casey likes to pretend he's sleeping. He asks us to put this blanket over him and fake snores. He thinks he's hysterical. Wesley has been watching him and jumped on the floor and laid down on a pillow. He said "Help me please" wanting his blanket over him as well. Once the blanket was down, he closed his eyes and started to fake snore. What an accomplishment to mimic his brother and kind of make a funny.

While at the grandparents, Tim called to check on them and Wesley wanted to talk on the phone. Here's how the conversation went

Wes: Hi Daddy!

Tim: Hi Buddy!

Wes: (giggle) Hi Mama!

Me: Hi Angel!

Wes: (more giggling) Hi Daddy!

and on it went for almost 2 minutes, back and forth. Might not be much of a conversation, but he has to start somewhere!

Today, at lunch, I've been really trying not to give Wes any goldfish unless he earns them. That's all he will eat and all he'll ask for at lunch. Today was a yummy treat of peanut butter and fluf sandwich with some apple slices and some baby carrots. I got him to take a teeny tiny bite of apple and one carrot. He asked for some fish. I told him he could have fish if he ate his sandwich. I turned my back to help Casey and when I turned around, the sandwich was gone, in his mouth, and he was chewing it. Oh how motivating goldfish crackers are.

Leaps and bounds lately. Not sure what's happening or what is working but something is. We haven't changed a thing.

Tiny bubbles (not in the wine)

This is huge. Who knew how hard it would be for a child to learn to blow bubbles. It's always been a favorite past time in our home. We always have bubble soap in the house and even have a bubble machine. Casey asked to use the bubbles so I wanted to make a game out of it. I blew the bubbles high in the air and told the boys to jump and "catch" the bubbles. They were both having so much fun jumping up and down (the ulterior motive was to make them tired). Casey asked if he could try so I let him. He was a bubble champ! I was interested to see if Wesley had gained this skill yet or not. Instead of blowing, he makes the F sound with his teeth against his bottom lip. I pushed his cheeks in to form the O with his mouth and success! He figured it out after two cheek squeezes and was so proud of himself, as was I.

We've had some tough days lately with his rigidity with routine. Since the Holiday break, he's gotten worse instead of better. All of the snow days and sick days haven't helped either. I hope this changes soon because I'm nearly at my wits end with him. I've been using this schedule board more now then ever and when we makes choices, I use visual cues to go along with the verbal (usually verbal was enough). He's been making great choices and not being upset by them, it's just when the usual routine has a slight variance that sends him over the edge. I'm just praying for strength right now.

Grant Writing

Monday was our monthly parent meeting with other parents in our school district who have children with autism. I love these meetings and am sad when they are postponed in the summer time. Our topic for this month was Grant writing. I was so excited to attend this meeting, until I became ill and couldn't go. I sent Tim to collect the information and prayed that he would remember everything. The speaker was a parent who has a child in the school district and has just received her son's diagnosis. However, she has been writing grants for her son even before his diagnosis. I really wished I could have gone and met her. I hope she starts to attend our meetings.

Anyway, she made a packet for everyone and included links to organizations that help with grant money for things like medical bills, equipment, evaluations, private therapies and even one that offers grant money for extracurricular activities! She also included a sample letter and what to include in the grant request.

Immediately, my mind went to wanting to write one. I'd love for Wes to receive ABA therapy outside of school for everyday living. Unfortunately, our insurance won't cover it and it's just too expensive. The other obstacle is to find someone around here that is a provider. So that's my new mission. I can just see Wes making so many advances if we had an ABA provider at home. He's getting some at school, but not enough in my opinion. There's only so much you can squeeze into 2 hours a day.

It seems like every time I seem to be hitting a wall, something like this falls into my lap. I know, I know! Maybe I should stop the anxiety and see what will happen before I turn it into a disaster.

The escape of inmate 090206

He's gone and done it. I knew it was only a matter of time because this kid is part monkey. He will climb on just about anything. Now we can add climb out of to his list of tricks.

It was a peaceful nap time on a Sunday afternoon. Wes was busy playing a Nick Jr game on the computer as a reward for being well behaved. Suddenly, I heard Casey's white noise CD playing louder than it had earlier. I figured his door must have popped open because we didn't hear any other noise. It was 2pm and I figured he'd be up soon anyway. I debated on checking on him, but I didn't want to wake him if he was still sleeping so I didn't. Ten minutes later we hear the distinct noise of tiny feet running up and down the hallway. My first reaction was Oh crap!. The second was Oh great!. I made my way up the stairs and a tiny little faced peeked from around the corner at me. Hi Mama! was his reply. I knew that some damage had been done, I just had to find out where. Making my way to his bedroom, I found it. Every toy that child had in his room was strewn about on the floor. Every book lay in a heap in the middle with all his cars. Then I realized just how smart this little boy really is. Somehow, the side of the crib was left down and that's how he escaped. But before he made his way over the fence, he threw all his blankets and pillow on the floor to help break his fall.

Crafty little fellow.