Gradually coming to his senses :)

Jude's sensory therapy has been a really exciting thing in our lives right now. I look forward to his weekly appointments and what I can learn in order to help Jude throughout the week. I know I've said it before, but we truly feel blessed that Jude is working with Miss M. She is so kind, patient and helpful!! She truly wants Jude to thrive and that means so much. Thank you God!

I don't take my big camera with me to Jude's appointments, I just snap photos with my phone when I'm there, so sometimes they're blurry. Every week when we arrive the gym looks totally different. They can hang different swings, move slides and ramps, so Jude is always sort of surprised and curious about the changes. This week he found something new he wanted to try. There was a short ramp and at first he wanted to "snowboard" down it on a mini snowboard, but then he noticed this little board on wheels. I'm sure he figured that would move much faster = fun in his mind. :)





A big part of Jude's therapy is to get his brain to make connectors with his muscles. He has a lot of anxiety because his body never really feels comfortable - his inner senses don't really know where he relates to his space, so he moves a lot, touches a lot of things, loud noises scare him because he isn't really sure where they are coming from, etc. His body will be more at rest (peace) when these muscles have made connectors with his brain. His body will kind of "know where it is" in a space, rather than constantly needing to figure it out. Miss M said that he'll be able to sit still in a seat for school over time. That's really exciting considering that Jude use to hardly be able to stay in his chair during dinner time. Constantly moving. Over the last few days I have begun to notice that he is able to be a little more at peace. For example, today in school he only got completely out of his chair once, instead of standing up on his chair every 2 minutes and jumping off of it. :) He still was squirming a bunch and loves to slouch over his work (he his core muscles aren't as strong as they need to be), etc. but I am noticing some small changes that give me hope. I feel like we're FINALLY getting somewhere after 2 1/2 years of doctor appointments.

One thing Miss M has been working on with Jude is to get him into these hanging hammocks. Jude is kind of afraid of them. She got him to swing into one this week and the first thing Jude said was, "Oh, this isn't so bad!" The reason she wants Jude to use it is because it forces him to use his whole body when he's moving around in there and there's a lot of resistance, which is good for his muscles/brain connection.

The newest thing we've begun, along with his "vestibular vitamin" is using the Therapressure Brush. I'm suppose to brush the entire length of his arms, legs and back, and vigorously in palms of hands and soles of feet every two hours. Then I'm suppose to do 10 joint compressions at his wrist to elbow, elbow to shoulder, knee to hip, and ankle to knee. What does all of this do you ask? The purpose is "to quickly fire-up multiple pressure touch receptors in a large body area." And then the "use of compression immediately following the brushing program has been found to enhance the results. Quick compression fools the brain into thinking the bone may become displaced, so all the proprioceptors in the immediate area fire at once to stabilize and protect the joint."

So far Jude is doing just fine with it! Miss M said that this will help with a lot of Jude's little anxiety producing activities like having his hair cut, brushed, or nails clipped, etc.

Sorry if this is terribly boring for some of you to read! This is a great place for me to share info with grandparents and in the future to have this info in our family blurb books. :)

Two weekends ago my mom, brothers and sister-in-law came up to Portland to celebrate my mom's birthday. It was so nice of them to come all this way to make it easy on Josh and me, since we have little kids.
We adults went and saw War Horse, which was so good! I just loved it! Here's a pic someone was kind enough to take of our group after the movie. :)

Then we came back to our house for cake and snacks. Josh whipped up a yummy cake! Chocolate chip brownie cake with coconut pecan filling. Mmmmm!!!




I almost forgot the most exciting news of all!! I wanted to say thank you to everyone who prayed for Josh's dad, Mike, and his recent surgery. Just after Christmas Mike discovered that he had aggressive kidney cancer. Thankfully it hadn't spread throughout his body, but was contained in his kidney. He had his entire kidney removed two Mondays ago, and got the post-surgery biopsy report back yesterday that said he is cancer free!! Praise God!! We rejoice!! :)