Stuff in the works.

The past few nights of sleep have been rough. Ohh our sweet Elijah. :( My heart literally aches for him. I cannot fathom how he must be feeling, operating on such little sleep. It is virtually impossible not to become frustrated with certain behaviors, but I do recognize that he isn't himself right now. Our sweet little boy is in there and Dan and I continue to do whatever we possibly can to get him feeling better. Here was last night's sleep record..

He was awake from 1:30-4:00am. :( Every morning when I pull up the FitBit results I cringe and wince and my heart sinks to my toes.

Homebound instruction begins on Thursday and we were super excited to learn that E's case manager from last year will be the one helping him. WE LOVE MS. W! Yay! We also received a copy of Dr. M's letter requesting the homebound instruction. To be honest, it was a bit hard to read. He listed all of Elijah's diagnoses and explained that due to everything working against each other, he has "severe anxiety" that is severely disrupting his sleep and causing school to be impossible at this point. He requested four weeks at home and for further efforts to be made to keep him at baseline once he returns. As I read through the list of diagnoses, I forgot I was reading about my boy for a minute. Sometimes it seems unfair that he has so much to contend with, but I truly believe that there is a greater purpose for it all. 

We have a lot of things in the works! This week I started bringing Elijah to Fraser (love them!) for weekly skills therapy sessions. Especially because of NLD and the way his brain works, learning skills will always be a huge part of his life. We are starting with learning skills to stop name-calling, blurt-outs and physical aggression. After that, we'll move onto lesser needs like social skills and transitions.

This coming Saturday both boys start swim lessons. Sammy is so nervous about it, but I know he'll do great! We decided to put E into private lessons, as we believe that will get him swimming more quickly. We've had him do a few group lessons in the past few years with no real progress. Elijah finds such peace when he is in the water, so my mama gut tells me to get him swimming ASAP.

I scheduled another appointment with a sleep doctor for next Tuesday. We decided to see a different doctor since Elijah has totally stumped the previous one. I'm going to insist on a sleep study to start!

And the following week we have an appointment with the wonderful Dr. M (developmental ped) to discuss anxiety. I feel like he is going to suggest meds, but I would like to explore a sleep study first.

We also have a few essential oils coming our way, which I'm super excited to try! We are willing to try ANYTHING at this point. Please pray with us that all of the above will help at least tiny little bits in order to help our oldest boy!

I'll end with a Sammy funny from tonight. I told him "good-night" and he replied, "Good-night, Jellyfish Blue. Oops! I mean, Mrs. Cheese." :)

Thanks for peeking in!