Author: Melissa

Seriously, living in New England I shouldn’t act so surprised but in the Boston metro area we don’t get very many big storms.  I think this is only our 2nd or 3rd this winter.  Usually, we just get a dusting or nasty rain/snow/sleet mixes.

Duhdee (with a little prompting from Umma) built a small hill in the backyard for Monkey to go sledding on.  It was quite a hit.  I know you can’t really see his face very well…call me paranoid…but I think you can see how excited he was, lol.

It hasn’t been a cure-all but maybe an improvement.

Out of the 6 nights that Monkey has slept on the floor he has slept through the night 3 times. The other 3 nights he woke up 5 times, 3 times and 2 times. The night he woke up 5 times was really the only bad night. He was basically up from 3:30 AM to 6:30 AM when I gave up on putting him back to bed. The other two nights he woke up thirsty and went back to sleep quickly after he found his cup of water and we likely wouldn’t have known he’d woken up if he had been able to find his cup easily.

In the 3 weeks prior to his new sleeping arrangements he slept through 0 times, 3 times, 1 time. He had 6 really bad nights (3+ wake ups). 3 of those really bad nights occured during the week he didn’t sleep through at all. That was an awful week for everyone!

So I guess it looks promising but is not at all conclusive. We’ll just keep on plugging and hopefully good nights start to become habit for him. Please?

In anticipation of a visit at the FX clinic in early March, we’ve been keeping a sleep chart for Monkey for the last month. We’ve been experiencing MONTHS of repeated wake ups with him (3-7 times each night) and finally decided we need some help. We’ve done everything all our “experts” can tell us to no avail. He falls asleep easily but cannot stay asleep. Sometimes he will go back to sleep after he wakes up but other times he’s up for HOURS. It’s exhausting.

A couple days ago, however, he seemed to want to sleep on the floor. Now, he’s always been one to slowly slip out of bed at night but we usually put him back in bed and he continues to sleep without waking. This time he actively wanted to sleep on the floor. So I gathered his blankets and pillow and let him. He slept for 7 straight hours!

We’ve been trying to put him in his bed each night since he seems to need to fall asleep there initially but at his first wake up he’s pretty insistent on sleeping on the floor. I have to say, he is sleeping MUCH better (never more than 2 wake ups so far and no staying up) but I do feel a bit guilty about it. A bed seems so much cozier but I guess I just have to let him lead on this. I’ve heard that it’s related to sensory issues but I’m not sure if that’s really true or not. I’d probably feel better if he’d keep his covers on but he usually loses them and this drafty, old house gets a bit chilly at night…especially on the floor.

Monkey will be 4 in May and is largely non-verbal.  We’ve been seeing lots of signs lately that expressive language is coming along (his receptive language has always been very strong) and we are very excited! 

Since he was born I’ve made it a habit to sing a bunch of different songs to him.  He’s been signing along to Itsy Bitsy Spider for quite a long time but recently I’ve been trying to get him to sing some songs WITH me.  Read more →

Someone hacked our server this past week.  Duhdee discovered the problem on Friday night just before bedtime.  He spent most of Friday night working to backup all the sites so the server could be rebuilt.  Yesterday, was spent in trying to recover.  There are still many hours of uploading ahead of him as he tries to restore service to everyone affected.   What a waste of time because someone was bored and wanted to be a pest.

I believe we lost a submission to the web ring as well so if you made a request to join and are not listed on the web ring please re-submit.

Duhdee and I are both big fans of computers so it’s probably no surprise that Monkey is as well.  One of Monkey’s favorite activities is to surf YouTube.

Read more →

One of my favorite bloggers is having a contest. All you have to do is comment on this post and you’re entered to win the iPod. You can comment up to five times for a total of 5 entries or you can link to her for 5 entries.  You have to enter by 2/18.

She’s an Olsen twin look-a-like, sexual abuse survivor, former Marine, Broadway Musical fannatic who has adopted one child from foster care and is currently parenting 3 additional foster kids ranging in age from 2 – 17. Seriously…how much more hardcore could you get? I’m sure I’ve left off other key descriptors. Oh, and, she has a great sense of humor.