Read more about the article I just can’t catch a break
Autism Parenting Woes / Elliott / Sleep Issues

I just can’t catch a break

I just can't catch a break at this point.  Thankfully, Emmett fell asleep and is still sleeping. Unfortunately, shortly after he fell asleep, Elliott woke up and after trying for awhile to go back asleep, we moved downstairs to the living room.  It's about 5am and he's still stuck in awake mode.   At this point, what's point in going to sleep now, even if I could? I'm so tired that I'm not even tired anymore, if that makes sense to anyone.  

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August 11, 2016
Read more about the article Autism Parenting woes: Who needs sleep anyway?
Autism Parenting Woes / Emmett John / Sleep Issues

Autism Parenting woes: Who needs sleep anyway?

I wish that we could get to the bottom of Emmett's inability to fall asleep before it's time to wake up in the morning. I'm trying to find the humor in this but that proving to be a bit tough because my brain is fried suffering from sleep deprivation. He actually fell asleep earlier but then woke up and can't fall back asleep. This isn't meant to be all about me either.  Of course I'm tired. In fact I don't really have a word that accurately describes how tired I am, so I looked one up. Turns out that I'm Petered out. That's how tired I am.  Truthfully, my concern is about how this is impacting Emmett.  He's been so wearisome (yes, I looked that word up also) to work with during…

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August 11, 2016
Read more about the article An end to a pretty good day 
My thoughts

An end to a pretty good day 

It's been one of those days where the weather sucks and money's tight, so we're limited to what we can do.  We've gotten a few things accomplished but nothing super ambitious. ☺  There was also some of the same old same old as well.   We had a few meltdowns because Emmett's snuggling a bit with life and Elliott had a few of his own as well.  Gavin's been sorta been living in his delusional world and fighting bad guys for most of the day.  He's happy but stressed out because I guess it's not always going so well for him and his visibly challenged band of super best friends.  The boys played with the ferrets and of course, that's always fun.  We even built a new house for the…

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August 10, 2016
Read more about the article I don’t know why he won’t sleep but it’s getting old
Emmett John / Sleep Issues

I don’t know why he won’t sleep but it’s getting old

Emmett was unable to fall asleep once again last night.  We ended up camping out in the couches in the living room because it was the best way to keep tabs on him and hopefully get him to fall asleep. Sadly, we saw the hour of 2AM before he finally fell asleep.  In the above picture, Emmett's snuggling under a 25lb weighted blanket. This picture just happens to capture him in mid-point because he most definitely wasn't sleeping.  I was able to sleep for a short while after he fell asleep but I'm an exhausted walking zombie this morning.   Lizze and I just traded places and I thought I would finish this post before closing my eyes for a little bit. I need to be up in a little…

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August 10, 2016
Read more about the article Come see what Gavin did because I’m so stinking proud :) 
Gavin / Speech Therapy

Come see what Gavin did because I’m so stinking proud :) 

We've had a pretty good day. Gavin did really well at speech today.  In fact, he kicked ass. How can someone kick ass in Speech Therapy? Check this out... Gavin was given an assignment and that assignment was to write a game review of his favorite video game. Physically writing with a pencil and paper is really hard for him and so I suggested to his therapist that he type it in Microsoft Word on his tablet. She agreed that became the game plan for this task. The way I see it is that as long as he can type his words, that's pretty much all that's required anymore.  The important thing was that he create the original content and translate it into something that could be read by others.…

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August 9, 2016
Read more about the article Problems with Occupational Therapy 
Emmett John / Occupational Therapy

Problems with Occupational Therapy 

Gavin and I are here at Akron Children's Hospital for his Speech Therapy. While we were here, I had to check on what the deal was with Emmett's Occupational Therapy, since it was stopped during his Functional Independence Group.  The group finished up a week ago and Emmett was supposed to pick right back up but unfortunately, that's not going to happen.   His therapist had a baby (Congratulations again if you're reading this ☺️) and we were supposed to pick up with another therapist until she came back.  Something happened, Emmett has fallen off the schedule and no one knows why.  I've confirmed that Emmett will be without therapy until at least the second week in September.   This is really frustrating because Emmett is dying to return to…

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August 9, 2016
Read more about the article What do you struggle to keep in stock in your home? For us it’s toilet paper
My thoughts

What do you struggle to keep in stock in your home? For us it’s toilet paper

This may seem like a silly question but I think it will be interesting to see the various differences across households. Sometimes these things are related to Autism and other times they aren't.   In my household, we can't seem to keep toilet paper in the house.   We use Cottonelle toilet paper because it can be used as a paper towel in a pinch.  For some reason though, we just can't keep that in stock.  Part of the problem is related to Autism because the boys have a routine as far as the bathroom goes and go through a tremendous amount.  Often times it's needless because they aren't actually using the bathroom, they just think they need to and compulsively follow through on their routine.   Is there something…

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August 9, 2016
Read more about the article Progress has been made on the medication management front 
Medication Management

Progress has been made on the medication management front 

So I've mentioned before that we had switched to a new pharmacy because of all the problems we've had with Walgreens.  This new pharmacy can prepackage medications into daily doses and that eliminates the need to put meds together manually.   The first month we used this service, it was pretty rough because the meds were not correctly divided or weren't included because of refill dates.   We just began the second month and are much farther ahead this time around.   Elliott's and Emmett's box is perfect.  All I need to do is simply tear of the little packet off and dispense the medications.  It's so much easier.  Gavin's is almost perfect as well.  There are only two things left to fix and that will be done by next…

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August 9, 2016