Poop and Other Stuff

Not too much to report yet this week.  Cody has been working on self-feeding at two sessions per day.  Yesterday at oral motor therapy he started working on self-feeding with one of his "safe" foods (applesauce in a cup with green in it AKA pear applesauce).  Short back story- Cody holds his poop.  For days.  We pump him full of Miralax until he can't hold it anymore.  It happens every couple of weeks for whatever reason.  His behavior gets increasingly worse as the "holding" days go by.  Tuesday it had gotten really bad.  So, he starts crying during oral motor skills because he felt the need to poop.  Naturally the therapist asked me if I wanted to take Cody to the bathroom.  My instinct was no, but wouldn't a "normal" mom say yes? I mean, a "normal" kid would go to the bathroom and poop.  Cody is scared of the bathroom and holds his poop.  So, trying to be "normal" I said ok and took Cody to the bathroom and asked him if he needed to poop.  When he just looked at me like I was crazy, I took him back to the therapy room.  That set off a tantrum like some of you have never seen.  Also, the therapist just uses random (and babyish to me) toys as incentives and Cody doesn't care about them at all.  So the therapist gave up on self-feeding and moved back to chewing like she worked on last week.  I calmed Cody down by talking about his birthday coming up in June, since none of the toys she had were interesting to him.  I'm not trying to say it was the therapist's fault.  I'm just saying there were a lot of pieces that just didn't line up right yesterday and made for a terrible session.  He proceeded to do just fine with self-feeding at the next two sessions. He struggles with the motor skill, but he's trying. 

After "school" it was really nice outside, so I took Cody to the playground by our apartment. I knew I was playing with fire, because he was so temperamental due to holding his poop.  I also knew that running around and playing would make it harder to hold the poop than sitting in the apartment watching tv. I was right.  Yet another example, however, of me not being a "normal" mom.  I watched Cody many times drop to his hands and knees or do "potty dances" and I never even spoke a word about going to the potty or asking if he needed to go.  I've learned by experience that talking about pooping only makes things worse.  The best thing to do, in addition to the Miralax, is ignore it and give him as much alone time as possible.  I'm sure the other moms at the playground didn't know what to think about me or Cody, but oh well.  After about 30 minutes, Cody came up to me and said "maybe we could drive home now." I'm assuming this is because he finally pooped and did feel much like playing.  The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful...

...As was most of today.  I fed breakfast and dinner sessions.  He worked on self-feeding at snack and lunch.  We played on the playground at the Marcus Center after school.  We made it through the Starbucks drivethru and all the way to the apartment before remembering the three stuffed dogs Cody had taken to the playground with him.  Yes, that means we drove all the way back to the Marcus Center to retrieve the dogs.  Luckily we still made it there and back before 4:30 and so the traffic was still decent. 

Cody was ready for dinner earlier than expected tonight. I prepared string cheese, pineapple, french fry, and corn purees. (They were already in the fridge).  I had noticed on a previous occasion that when I make corn it is much thicker than at the center.  After you blend the corn you have to put it through a strainer to get out the hulls.  I did all of that, but still my corn was much more firm than what I had fed Cody at the Center.  Anyhow I went on with it, because last time I made corn it was no problem, despite the thickness.  We got about 20 bites into our session and Cody threw up following a bite of corn.  He threw up one other time at the Center, so it's not totally unheard of, but it did surprise me.  Cody didn't like getting dirty, but he was otherwise fine, so I kept going.  We got another 10-12 bites along and Cody threw up a second time after a bite of corn.  Then I knew it must be the corn hulls and I didn't puree my corn correctly.  At that point I threw in the towel and declared the meal over.  I think I have mentioned before that you have to weigh the food before and after the meal to see how many grams Cody ate.  You're also supposed to weigh the spills.  So, yes, I cleaned up Cody's vomit with paper towels (which each weigh one gram) and subtracted that amount from Cody's total gram count for dinner. We came in way lower tonight than Cody normally does.  I'm just thankful Cody handled it so well and went right on with his evening like nothing had happened.  

That's all the therapy news, so....

Other random events: 

• Last night and tonight were the first times Cody realized that I was trying to get him ready for bed before the sun had gone down.  My mom said he was "quick!" I said "quick" would have been noticing Sunday night.  
• I recently told Cody that my favorite dog on the Paw Patrol is Everest.  A couple times since then when the show is on, Cody will say "Mommy... I have a surprise for you!", then lead me to the tv and show me that Everest is on that episode. I think it's so sweet of him to notice and think of me... and I have to take note of this, because, despite what my mom thinks, he's not always so sweet! Cody and I have come toe to toe more over the last 6 weeks than ever before, but I'm sure that's expected. 
• Today one of the feeding therapists came in the family lounge to pick up another patient.  I about jumped out of my seat when I saw she was wearing a pink Medtronic insulin pump! She totally understood my enthusiasm, however, since we both know it's not everyday that you meant a fellow insulin pumper.  I am wearing a more updated model of the one she has, so I'm hoping we can have another conversation in the future so I can tell her about all the new perks on the 670G. 
• It's LGPE week in Cairo, so Cole has been shipped off to CC's house.  If I was home, I would be doing a LOT of single parenting of TWO boys this week.  One of Cairo HS's bands performed tonight and the other will perform tomorrow night.  LGPE is hosted at Cairo High School, for those who don't know.  So, John will be stressed and busy.  He's bringing Cole up on Saturday night and they will stay until after Cody's diagnostic interview for autism on Monday.  I can't wait to see Coley-Cole! 
• It's time to watch Gossip Girl (I started Season 1 sometime last week) and do a word search book that a friend sent me.  

Thank you everyone for the cards, packages, and gifts!! Shout out to a special class of PreK students at Southside for sending Cody and I hand-drawn "thinking of you" cards! Most of them don't even know me yet, but they will next year!