Another dry morning…that’s 2 in a row and 3 of the last 4. I told him last night if he goes 7 nights in a row he can stop wearing diapers to bed. *fingers crossed!*
Month: February 2009
Folic Acid
We started Monkey on folic acid therapy in August of last year. I can’t believe I didn’t mention this at the time, lol. Anyway, the literature all says that it takes a minimum of 4 months for the effects to show up, if any, and we’re well past that mark. In fact, the 4 month mark was in early December.
I would really encourage other families to consider this. We’ve had no side effects at all and we just so happen to have witnessed a marked increase in Monkey’s ability to attend and communicate starting right around the 4 month mark. Part of this could be explained by the increased sensory OT he’s receiving at school but he maintains on weekends and during school vacations when he’s not getting any OT so I don’t think the extra OT can account for all of the improvements.
Normal developmental stage?
The worst thing about having an only child with FXS is that I never know what is “normal” behavior and what is maybe a sign of problems.
For instance, this weekend Monkey was pretty much glued to me. I said on more than one occasion that I wished I had a way to tie him to my back so I would at least have my arms free. He was hanging on me constantly or asking for piggy back rides (he sign’s “pig” and says “back”, pretty darned cute and he came up with it all on his own.)
So..is this normal 4/5 year old behavior or a sign of anxiety?
Another dry morning!
I’m so excited, Monkey is doing so well “holding it” during the day and it seems that he’s able to do the same overnight as well, very cool!
On Sunday, when the plumber was downstairs cutting the cast iron pipes below the bathroom floor, we put Monkey in a diaper. The noise in the bathroom was tremendous and it was coming in spurts, Monkey was too scared to go in the bathroom to do his business. Rather than risk an accident we thought a diaper made perfect sense. Monkey didn’t seem to mind at all.
Then, a few hours later, Monkey came running to the kitchen where Dudhee and I were talking. He was very upset and he grabbed his diaper. I thought he’d gone and wanted a change but I quickly realized he was still dry. Duhdee ran down to ask the plumber to take a break and we rushed to the toilet. Poor Monkey barely made it…he really had to go! I was happy to see that he is this determined to be potty trained. He seems to have really turned the corner on this and is much more motivated than he had been.
Not so much on the poop still. We still have to catch him or he goes in his pants. He knows he has to go, he runs to hide, but he isn’t willing try to go on the potty yet. I wish I knew why :-\
In other news…I’m back to work today. *YAWN*
The plumber has left the building!
We have a nearly functioning shower! Duhdee just needs to put the…uh…piece….back on. I am no handywoman, obviously. Grampy still has a hole in his ceiling and his wallpaper also needs to be patched but Duhdee will get to that tomorrow.
The plumber insisted on showing us what he snaked out of our pipes. I asked him if he was sure I needed to see and he said yes. I may never sleep again. He was very impressed. Try to imagine what it takes to impress a plumber. *shudder*
T-minus 20 minutes until the arrival of the plumber!
Duhdee is down in Grampy’s bathroom tearing out his ceiling. The leak damaged the plaster so it needed to be repaired anyway but the added bonus is that the plumber prefers to go through the ceiling anyway! That saves us having to rip up our bathroom floor and remove our toilet. Yay!
Grampy wants the plumber to replace anything that is questionable, not just the leak. The plumbing is 70 years old, all cast iron….my fingers are crossed that this won’t be a multi-day event!
What an awesome day!
We had so much fun today, both Duhdee and I thanked Monkey for such a great day as we wished him good night. What did we do? We cleaned the basement. Seriously.
We spent 5 hours in the basement sorting through toys, clothes, books and random crap. We trashed tons of stuff and we have about twice as much set aside to donate. It’s astounding how much was down there. Even Grampy got into the spirit. He was so impressed with how much we got done that he gave us the go ahead to clean out his stuff as well. Monkey enjoyed playing with some of the old toys but mostly he just enjoyed running around enjoying all the new SPACE.
We were going to spend tomorrow morning doing runs to Goodwill but they don’t open early enough for us to do all of that before the plumber is due to arrive. Fortunately, I’ve taken Tuesday off so we can do it then instead.
Who would have thought we’d have such an awesome day…cleaning?!
He stayed dry all night!
We have not been worrying about this, he will do it when he can. We encourage it verbally and celebrate it when it happens but when it doesn’t, it’s not an issue. This morning he woke me up around 7:30 and we did our normal weekend morning routine. I gave him some Cheerios and juice, we played on our respective computers, we had tea (hot chocolate for him) and then I suggested it was time to get our day started. We went to the potty and he was totally dry! He went all night plus an hour and a half this morning! Woah baby. He used the potty and is now, very happily, wearing a pair of his new Spiderman underwear.
I’m so excited for him and yet part of me wishes he concentrate on the poop part of potty training first!
We’ve been wondering and now we know.
The plumbing here sucks is not good.
Duhdee ran a snake through the pipes because the tub was draining very slowly. Now we have a waterfall in the basement! Awesome. And the plumber? Well, he just had elbow surgery earlier this week so he’s out of action for the next two weeks.
Am I a day off? Is this really Friday the 13th? It sure feels like it.
**Emergency plumber will be here tomorrow between 10 and 12. No showers until tomorrow night at the earliest. Regular plumber is back at work elbow and all fortunately. He’ll be here on Monday. No showers until Monday night at the earliest but that extra day is going to save us a lot. Let me just say it again. AWESOME!**