December McCurdy update = stress, commitment, development, STRESS, anticipation

December has been a busy month for us.  I've been really exhausted, so the goal was just to make it through healthy.  Unfortunately, Zach got the flu and was sick for almost a week.  On top of that, my blood pressure rose.  Since I had preeclampsia was Mason as well as a second trimester miscarriage, we were obviously quite stressed about it.  It rose high enough where I had to go into the hospital. Thankfully, it lowered enough to be discharged and my other labs showed that I did not reach the danger zone for preeclampsia. I've been laying low to try to keep myself and baby boy healthy.  My doctor's appointment and ultrasound in two days will hopefully show that things are still going well.

Mason only had one speech appointment before our speech therapist had her baby and left on maternity leave. She is really pushing us to use more pictures/visuals with him.  One of the hardest things in communicating with Mason is to help him mentally prepare and comprehend situations when his verbal communication is quite low.  He loves routine because it helps him makes sense of this world that his body and mind can't make sense of, but unfortunately, life does not work as a perfect routine. It's hard to know what he has mentally prepared in his head, so it's hard to predict when he will have a melt down because his mind was thinking something different.  For example, we went to Costco this morning instead of our usual Meijer routine.  As soon as we turn in the parking lot, it was major meltdown. We had told him that we were going to Costco, but he didn't comprehend it until we were in the parking lot. Using pictures could help us and him with this communication gap. The technique hasn't felt very successful with Mason yet, but I need to push myself to keep working on it.  As with any technique, repetition is key.  I sometimes see his therapist keep repeating a phrase or action, and I think, "There's no way he is understanding or following through with this." For example, Mason would try to climb a ladder with a ball in his hand every week, and she would repeatedly tell and show him to give it to her before trying to climb.  He never followed through. This week he finally gave the ball to her before trying to climb.  It may have taken months for a simple task, but repeating things verbally and visually is so key to helping him.

Mason had rough OT appointment at the beginning of the month, but he ended on a good note with both OTs.  He was really just disregulated for no real reason at the appointments.  Sometimes I can figure out that he is disregulated because he is tired, hungry, had a different idea in his head, etc.  He was just off.  He didn't really follow through with his ideas and wouldn't listen to other ideass. That means that he wouldn't really play with anything well, which can make it difficult to have a productive therapy session.  One of our OTs said that there have been such big steps in his communication that it can cause some disregulation because he of big changes.  He has also been asserting his independence and voice more, which is great developmentally but not nice with his regulation.  The OT place where he always has a meltdown just changed buildings.  Overall, he is doing much better with new buildings and places.  He is still nervous but does not have major meltdowns. I think the change of buildings was really good for him.  I wonder if he was always triggered with negative feelings at the old building, so he was able to create a new normal at the new building.  Hoping that we are continuing on a good wave of appointments after the new year starts.

The absolutely BIGGEST stressor for Zach and I right now is Mason starting preschool.  It is a change in almost every routine that Mason currently has in place.  He only be going to his current daycare one day a week.  Zach and my mom will be transporting him to and from preschool on those days. My amazing sister-in-law will be bringing her two kids to our house and will be watching Mason the other four days of the week.  He will also be riding on the bus to his preschool these days. Because there is no way to communicate these HUGE changes in routine to Mason, I know this will be VERY hard for him.  He will be on the bus for around 50 minutes each way. Honestly, I cry whenever I think about it, and I'm not a big crier.  He is familiar with his school since we have been taking him there for speech therapy sessions.  He has met his teacher and parapros, but he does not know them.  I am confident that this will be a great experience for him, and he will grow so much.  I am so excited about that.  I am absolutely torn up inside about watching him be so confused and upset about it all in the beginning. It's painful for any parent knowing their child is in pain (physically or emotionally) without being able to do anything about it.  That's how I feel about January.  I hope he adapts to the changes quickly and then looks forward to his new routine because having a new baby brother will be another rough transition for him.

Thanks for checking in with us. We are taking everything day by day!!